Pop Art Lesson with 3rd Grade

I love using Pinterest for many reasons.  It satisfies a need for stimulation without having to really think about anything.  Almost calming in it's chaos.  Pinterest is where I got my AMAZING recipe for St. Patty's Guiness and Bailey's infused cupcakes (almost time to bust that one out again!).  I love it.  If you're a teacher or an art teacher and on Pinterest, you know the abundance of lesson plan ideas on there.  You've probably come across those Kandinsky circle projects about 1000 times.  Usually, I like to tweak the lesson plan ideas I get from there, combining with other lessons, adding or subtracting certain materials, etc.  But this lesson is straight-up Pinterest, with a bit of added art school/art history flair from me. The original link can be found here.  

Pop Art Mugs

Supplies:

• Big white construction paper (12 x 18")

• Oil Pastels 

• Watercolors

Lesson:

1.) Discuss "Pop Art" (short for "Popular Art") movement.  It was the late 1950's, early 60's response to the early 50's Abstract movement.  Pop artists did not care for abstract art; they wanted to produce art that actually looked like something.  Pop Artists starting producing art that contained consumer products, comics, mass media and advertising - things that everyone would recognize.

2.) Show some pictures of Pop Art: Andy Warhol, Wayne Theibaud, Roy Lichtenstein, etc. Ask kids for their observations.  Note that Warhol often repeated images over and over, though slightly tweaked each time. 

3.) DEMO and work time!: Show how to draw an ellipse correctly - no pointed sides, only rounded! Show how to draw a cup with the sides angling inwards and the bottom also ROUNDED and not flat. Explain how the oil pastels will resist the watercolor, so they should not be filling in areas with their oil pastels, rather drawing patterns.  They should leave their cups blank with no designs.  Lead students through folding their paper to get 6 even sections, then outlining fold lines with black pastel. Draw a cup in each section, with a table underneath it. Make patterns in each area, except cups. Fill in areas with watercolor. Voila! Pop Art cups. These turned out really beautiful and we only had a 45 minute class to complete the entire lesson and project!