When I left for maternity leave (3 weeks earlier than expected) one of the units I had loosely proposed was further planned and facilitated by my teaching partner, Augustine Tse and my maternity leave substitute, Kim Campbell. Combining the styling of Andy Warhol’s Pop Art Prints, printmaking vocabulary and processes, portraiture and pattern building, these Pop Art Patterned Puzzle Portrait Prints produced by our second graders are positively…phenomenal.

After discussing the life and art of Andy Warhol, students began by taking selfies using the iPad. Their photos were then printed out, in black and white, on A4 cartridge paper. With their picture on top of thicker weight paper, students traced over prominent lines of their face. The pencil marks push enough through and into the paper beneath to act as a guide for them to then trace over in black marker. Students then added other hatching lines to add value and details in their face, clothing, and hair. This traced portrait from a picture acted as their template to transfer to a foam printing plate.

Once engraved into the printing plate students cut around their head and torso then glued their portrait print plate to a cardstock weight paper backing to help make printing easier for them to align their edges (an ingenious move by Kim and Augustine).

Students used four different ink colors on four different pieces of colorful paper to pull their prints. The prints were them clipped together with a binder clip and students followed guiding instruction to cut around the outline of their head and torso, cutting the background pieces into two parts, then cutting out their hair, dividing their torso as well as their face. Students were left with puzzle pieces of their portraits which were then put back together varying the colors in the four different portraits glued to an A2 dark colored base paper.

Lastly, students drew from prior knowledge to add pattern using only line and two colors to the background and highlighted areas of their face and torso. The final product truly pops and students were pretty proud of their pasted portraits.

This unit is an example of three art educators working together on various parts and pieces of the lesson plan to provide a uniquely punchy piece of…GOLD, PURE GOLD!