Rhythm people

Want to talk about the ideas of rhythm, movement, unity, variety, geometric shape and color choice in a one or two class project?

Rhythm Dancers
This is not my original idea, but don't worry it is not your orginall idea either. Nor do I think it was MY 7th grade art teachers original idea (Shout out to Mr. Buddy). My guess is this one has existed in one form or another for many years. I think you could easily do the same project with animals pictures from a magazine. Especially if you get a horse magazine...although the thin legs may be hard to cut, but I digress.

Step 1: Go through magazines and tear out people in interesting positions. For the sake of time I pre-tore out a big stack of people for the kids to choose from. Fitness magazines like SHAPE! are great for this lesson. So are ski and snowboard mags. If you are working with younger students beware of enclosed shapes that they would need to cut out (like the triangle create by a hand resting on a hip). My older students tackled these enclosed shapes with exact-o knives.

Step 2: take the whole magazine page and have each student choose three colors. You could let them choose whatever they want or have to stick to a color family (warm, cool, primary, secondary....)

Step 3: Stack all three papers. Put the magizine picture on top. Paper clip on all four sides. Cut the magazine person out like he or she is a paper doll. You will cut three exact copies of that magazine photo at the same time. Set aside

Step 4: Get out the scrap box. Have the kids get three colors for the background shapes. I'm not sure if it is best to stick with the same colors used for the people or to choose something with contrast. You decided. Let me know what you think.

Step 5: From the background colors cut: 3 large squares, 3 small squares, 3 triangles and 3 rectangles (or other shapes of your choice...just make sure there are 3 of each)

Step 6: Arrange and glue the 12 shapes in an interesting way on a piece of black paper. Overlapping is our friend. Use the word composition a gazillion times till your kids know the meaning of the word.

Step 7: Glue the three people shapes onto the compositon. Make sure to use overlap and I tell my kids I want to see either diagonal or curved movement from the arrangement of the people.

Ta da! One thing to avoid, people shapes that feature only the waist up and are too big. They will block your interesting background arrangement.
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