Thiebaud Pop Art Desserts

Submitted by: Melissa Corry, Gifted art teacher, Marshall County Schools, MS

Title of Lesson: Wayne Thiebaud Pop Art

Age Level: Ages 10 - 14

Objective:
The students will learn about the artist Wayne Thiebaud, and create a Thiebaud inspired picture. The students will learn what an ellipse is and how to use an ellipse when drawing.

Lesson:

1. I show students a brief PowerPoint about the artist Wayne Thiebaud.

2. I give each student a cup and instruct them to view the ellipse shape at the top of the cup as they move it further and further from their eye level.

3. We discuss how an ellipse is a circle which has been flattened and elongated.

Submitted by Clare Burgess Levine

4. I demonstrate how students can create a simple round layer cake, cupcake, and glass.

5. We discuss how to draw the back of the table behind the objects and how to place objects so that they make sense visually based on the viewers eye level. I also briefly discuss Pop art and Andy Warhol.

6. I show them a picture of Warhol, tell them about pop art, and the story of his being shot. I show them the picture Eight Elvises and ask them to guess how much it sold for in 2008.

7. I then tell them it sold for 100 million dollars. We compare and contrast Warhol and Thiebaud because they are both categorized as Pop Artists, but were very different. Students are encouraged to look through magazines for pictures of cakes, ice creams, pies etc., and then practice drawing and create a balanced pleasing composition.

8. We discuss symmetry, the rule of thirds, and how to balance their pictures. Students use a black sharpie to outline everything, and colored in their shadows with a black sharpie. Students used a combination of colored pencils, crayons, and washable markers on heavy white drawing paper to complete their work.

Materials Needed:

PowerPoint , Sharpie Fine Point Markers, Paint Markers, etc. You could also use Oil Pastels to outline all details and then watercolor resist.

Student Samples: (Click on the images for full size)

Assessment:

Their finished work product, teacher observation and class discussion. I am re-attaching some examples of students work and the power point about Wayne Thiebaud and Pop art. We compared and contrasted Thiebaud and Warhol. I used the internet to show them images of both artists works.

Submitted by Clare Burgess Levine

Resources

Books

Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective - Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective is published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same title, the first major survey in fifteen years of work by this famous American figurative artist. Steven A. Nash, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, has organized the exhibition and provides a biographical essay on Thiebaud.

Counting with Wayne Thiebaud - Wayne Thiebaud's delectable paintings, etchings, and drawings make Counting with Wayne Thiebaud as much an introduction to contemporary art as it is a delicious first book of numbers.

Prints

Wayne Thiebaud - Cakes And Pies 1995 - Framed Canvas Art Print

Wayne Thiebaud Three Machines 1963 Art Print

Wayne Thiebaud - 2014 Calendar