Haring has an understanding of shape, line and color arrangement. Using tertiary color schemes and hard outlines we will make our own project using his principles of design.

Keith Haring spent his time using his art for charity. He created the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989. That means that proceeds from purchasing his art goes into funding for youth in America, education, children’s hospitals, community group organizations, public art funding and more.

Students will be studying how Keith Haring designs his pieces and what makes his artwork stand out. We will be identifying and dissecting his style (line, shape, form, color). What is form? what creates his human shapes? We’ve got a circle for a head, a rectangle from a body..etc. After this, we will be creating our own class portrait, using his style and influence.

Lotte Reiniger created the first ever animation in 1919 using shadow puppet cut paper technique.

Lotte Reiniger was a pioneer of shadow animation! She was brave and followed her interest in animation, Chinese shadow puppets and color capture. Her interests lead her to invent techniques such as the “multi-plane” desired by Walt Disney. The multi-plane is a table with multiple glass panels for her to create layering/collaging in her animations. The multi-plane allows her to manipulate foreground, mid-ground and background independently of each other.

Students will be studying how Lotte Reiniger stacked cut paper shapes to create her compositions. They’ll watch a couple of her shadow puppet films, “Cinderella” and “The Frog Prince”. Together we’ll dissect how she made these films possible using foreground, mid-ground and background. They will use her technique to understand how to create depth with their shapes. What happens if the wave cut outs are in front of my character? what if they are behind my character?

Leo Lionni is an author and illustrator of Children’s novels such as Swimmy, Frederick, Little Blue and Little Yellow, etc. He is well known for his crayon resist artwork, a method where you draw with crayon and paint watercolor over the drawing. The pigment sticks to everything but the wax. He is also known for his pattern making using stamps, sponges and paint.

Leo Lionni is an author who writes characters that show perserverance, the power of community and the value of friendships/relationships. Swimmy in particular stands out from the group of fish because they are red and he is black. One day everyone in his group is eaten but him, separating him once again. He becomes sad and lonely, but as he travels the world, he meets knew friends along his travel. Until one day when he reaches another school of red fish. They are afraid of swimming and playing for fear of being eaten. Swimmy is a brave individual who urges the group of fish to join him and using their bodies, they swim together to appear like a large fish. Working together they are able to swim the ocean freely and face their fears as one.

Students will be studying how Lionni works with texture, color and printmaking to create underwater landscapes. They will be working with sponges, watercolor, stamps, cut paper and linoleum cuts to drag and press color onto paper. The prompt would follow underwater or pertain to other subjects are current in their learning outside of my classroom.