By the middle of October the art students have been hard at work doing Basic Training; serious projects to start their year off in the art room. They are usually hard core art concepts focusing on strong techniques...In other words, it's not a whole heck of a lot of fun.
To switch things up, I time this activity to fall in the middle of October after a long drawn out (no pun intended) project. The kids tend to get a little mentally and creatively tired. They love this project.
We start under the pretense of looking at the proportions of the face and quickly move into the heart of the project, the acrylic painting. I have the students each bring in a pumpkin. If they are unable to, I look for donations or find an alternative way of providing the pumpkin.
We usually take a Thursday to talk about the proportions and work on some sketches in our sketchbooks. We'll look at drawings, paintings, and photographs to see the proportionality of the features. We try to examine how the proportions change with different expressions.
The next day, preferably a Friday, I have the students paint their faces on their pumpkin. They are to show through changes in proportions, an emotion.
Now, this seems like a cute activity, but it can lead into a serious portrait painting, starting the next week.
The students really enjoy doing the project and it injects new air into the classroom. Students come back on Monday refreshed and ready to tackle the next serious endeavor.
