Students will create fruit and vegetable portraits inspired by the work of artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
By Lacramioara Matei [Lacramioara is a teacher at the Cambridge International school of Bucharest in Romania.]
Objectives:
Students will learn that complex forms can be created using simple items.
Teachers can tie this lesson into one that introduces students to artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
What You Need:
- Paper
- Crayons or markers (pastels or paint could also be used)
- Images of fruits and vegetables (find a book, or www.flickr.com is a good source of images online)
- Optional: real fruits and vegetables
What You Do:
- Introduce your students to the artwork of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. (Wikipedia is a good source of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo) or see the book list below.
- Tell students that they will be drawing portraits, only instead of drawing eyes, lips and noses, they will be drawing vegetables and fruits as the features on the faces.
- Encourage students to study images of fruits and vegetables, or if possible, bring real fruits and vegetables to class and have students study those. Tak about shape and color.
- Students will then will choose what fruits and vegetables to use in their drawings.
- Students begin to compose their portraits, first with an outline of the head (using pencil).
- Students then add features to the face by drawing fruits and vegetables in place of eyes, nose, mouth, ears and even hair.
- Pencil crayons, markers, crayons, pastels or paint can be used to complete the portraits.
- When complete, the drawings should be displayed in front of the class for everybody to admire.
About Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Written by Andrea Mulder-Slater, KinderArt®
Type of Work: Painting, Sculpture, Poetry
Born: 1530
Died: 1593
Nationality: Italian
Style/Movement: Mannerism
Best Known For: Portraits of heads made up of a variety of objects, from fruit and leaves to flowers and vegetables.
Important Works: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring (each painted in 1573; each located in the Louvre, Paris)
WINTER
SUMMER
SPRING
AUTUMN
