Art Lesson: Rectangle of Inspiration

 

Lesson for 9th-grade, 6 weeks, acrylics or gouache

This lesson is simple: I cut out a few dozen sections of famous paintings. They're so zoomed in that they're unrecognizable. The student has to generate an entire painting inspired by this little printed-out rectangle of inspiration. Ideally, the printed-out rectangle disappears and is indistinguishable from marks made by the student.

I target the following skills at various points during this unit: 

Positive/negative space, how to use references effectively, and creating a path for the viewer's eye.

Mostly, this unit is about imagining a scene inspired by the reference. Here are the top works from the last year I taught this unit.