Van Gogh Inspired Collages

In this project, we created Van Gogh style pictures based off of his piece "Starry Night." This is the procedure:

• select a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper
• cut or rip out small and/or medium sized pieces of colored tissue paper
• use minimal glue to lightly tack down the tissue paper all over the construction paper
• paint over the tissue paper with a gel medium making sure each piece is coated
• let it dry
• cut out any landscape you choose such as buildings or underwater from construction paper
• use sharpie to add details to the landscape
• use oil pastels or sharpie to add movement lines in the Van Gogh style

I ripped large pieces of tissue paper mainly staying with the colors of purple, green, and yellow. Since I choose a lighter colored piece of construction paper with darker colored pieces of tissue paper, I found that when I applied the gel medium, the color of the tissue paper started to smear onto the construction paper. I choose an underwater landscape and drew on fish, seaweed, shells, seahorses, and a jellyfish. I used the oil pastel and the sharpies to create swirling lines to represent movement in the Van Gogh style. I found it harder to work with the oil pastels as opposed to the sharpies.

An extension activity could be in a social studies class where students are introduced to an artist that was influential during the historical time frame that they are studying. They would learn about his/her life, artistic style, and artistic influence.

After reading Chapters 20-22 in our text, I would implement art history into my classroom through educational art games such as Art Bingo, Concentration style games, art word search puzzles, or postcard puzzles. I would try to find themed games such as Egyptian art, Impressionism, or a specific artist's work.