"A journey of a thousand
miles begins with one good pair of boots (shoes)" ~ Michael Gerrish
Submitted by Robin Singer
Shoes bridge all cultures - this is a
way to teach about cultures - a way to teach the stories. Each day while
the students are working, you could begin with a shoe of a culture and a
short story with a message or a proverb (Michael's quote above is actually
a variation of a Chinese Proverb). This is a way to teach about themes in
art - "Beauty"....a way to teach "Change" - and
change is good (I have some tiny women's Chinese shoes -about three inches
long) This is a way to teach identity - create a new kind of self
portrait. This is a way to teach values - character development - What
kind of person wore those shoes? Teach work ethic
First to share are from Robin Singer's 4th grade students.
Materials:
12 x 18 (30.5 x 46 cm) white Drawing Paper
, Pencils
, Erasers
, Sharpies, Sharpie Ultra-Fine Markers, Watercolor Markers
, Brushes, water dishes
Complete lesson plan for this to
come.... with links for shoes through time. My recommendation would be to
include textile design. Place the shoes on colorful patterned fabric for
the drawing. I imagine Robin had the students fill the negative space with
various lines.
Once shoes are drawn, outline with fine
point and ultra fine point Sharpie. Color next to the lines with Crayola
marker. Right away brush over the lines with water to blend toward the center
of the shapes. Experiment with your watercolor markers to see if they will
bleed like Crayola brand.
Self
Portrait Shoes - Tracy Albert May Whitney Elementary, Illinois
Materials:
12 x 18 (30.5 x 46 cm) white Drawing Paper,
Sharpies, Brushes, Watercolors.
Students draw shoes, add legs
and clothing. Add details to the negative space that enhance the drawing
and tell something about themselves.
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Drawing Shoes Goes Hi-Tech
in Photoshop
Shoe Photo Drawing
Submitted by Cynthia Gaub -The
Virtual Classroom
Cynthia has done a
lesson on the computer with photo shop where you do a photo drawing
of the shoes. More tips and tricks for this one to come. |
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Painted Shoes
"In the Style Of"....
Sarah Wegenast - Aurora
Middle School
From
Sarah: This
unit was a great hit with the students. Each student picked an
artist or style of art to compose a painting using acrylic paints.
Shoes turned into the canvas we painted on, creating a three
dimensional surface. Check out our Shoe
Gallery (Near middle of page). Can you guess the art style? |
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"Art Shoes" Assemblages
From Pam Wellington
I do a project every year where the students
decorate a shoe on a theme of their choosing. I show them a film on
"car art" and visionary art. The results are amazing. I
get everything from simply beautiful shoes covered in sequins,
buttons, ribbons, etc, to more elaborate shoes turned into animals,
theme parks, planes, you name it! You just need paint, an old shoe, hot glue and lots of craft materials.
Maybe try "visual puns"....a Shoe
fly....a House slipper....Shoe horn.....Horse shoe....use your imagination to
picture these shoe sculptures. |
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Shoes "In the style of..."
from Linda Hoffelt
Students research an artist of their choice
(supply a list of suitable artists from which to choose). Larger
than life shoes are created using the artists works as inspiration.
Students make sketches - then plan their armature. Cut out armature
- tape together - pad with newspapers. Apply layers of paper maché.
Paint when dry. Add embellishments. Alternate idea: Design a shoe
for an entertainer.
See
more examples
Click on images below for full size |
Shoes with a Theme - Here
are States
Cathy Gaul went to the Philadelphia
Flower Show a few weeks ago and took photos of a few of the pressed and
dried flower entries. Every year they have themes for the entry
categories. People have to use live and dried plant material to conform to
the theme. These shoes were from a States of the US theme. Of course you
can tell the big apple is NY, the sunglass one is Florida, and the boot
must be Texas! You can interpret this idea into ceramics or a sculpture
lesson...OR how about collage on old shoes? Altered shoes? If anyone does
an altered shoes (or boots) lesson, please send examples - especially if
they express a theme.
Shoes Metamorphosis -
Catharine Ho - Hong Kong
Materials:
Long paper (6" x
24" / 15 x 61 cm), Colored Pencils (or any drawing medium), white pencils
, Ebony Pencils, Erasers.
From Catharine for sixth
graders
This one begins with a story that gets
the imagination going. I do a shoe drawing around Halloween and the kids
get very excited. With my new grade 6 students, I always start the year
quite serious so they still don't know what to think of me. For this
assignment, I rush them into the room and turn off the lights and tell
them I have to tell them something before the principal walks by. I am very serious and speak in a hushed earnest way as I start the class
with a story about a grade six class that went on a field trip to a middle
school teachers house. This teacher lives on one of the outlying islands
and had all the kids to her place for afternoon tea. What they didn't know
was that she only acted like a teacher but actually she was a practicing
witch.
She gave these kids a cup of tea and witnesses say that only a
bunch of disgusting bugs were seen leaving her house. The students were
never seen again. All of the teachers in the school have been told not to
talk about this but I must warn you that the police were never able
to convict the teacher because there was no evidence. (by now they are on
the edges of their seats and their mouths are open). I am warning you in
case you are ever invited to go to this teachers house. Don't drink the
tea! Wait till she's not looking and pour it into your shoe. (They all
want to know who the teacher is at this point so I start giving hints - I
describe myself).
Now I let the cat out of the bag and tell them that the
story was their inspiration. imagine you have just left the witch's house
and your shoe feels so weird and scratchy and it starts to sprout parts
and move and you kick it off your foot. What is it? They are then handed a
long piece of paper to be divided into four and they must draw the shoe
starting with their regular shoe they are wearing and then slowly
transform it (a metamorphosis) Emphasis is value and creating form using
value and of course creativity. The results are great. (Note, Catherine
has two resource books of shoes she share with her students.
Giant's Shoes Larger than Life - or
in a Giant's World (smaller than life) - Getty TeacherArtExchange list member.
After doing line drawings of their
shoes, my fifth graders did a drawing where they placed the shoe in an
environment that changed the scale of the shoe. The idea was to make
the shoe appear much larger or much smaller than it is in real life.
Contour Shoes with Shoe Print Border
- Jan Hillmer
After my 5th grade students did contour
drawings of their shoes on 9" x 12" paper, I gave them 12"
x 18" brown paper. Using the bottom of their shoes and tempera
paint, they printed around the edge of the paper. Some used their
tread print in a random manner, some used a patterned approach.
After the prints were dry, the drawings were mounted in the middle of the
printed paper.
"Who let the shoes out?"
by Marcia Gibson - Arts & Activities
January 2004
Contemporary artists who
draw shoes.
Nicholas Albonico
Robert Dvorak
Kimberly - college student
Submitted by Sara
Gant- Shoes Sculpture - High School
There are many artists online who have shoes - these were just some I
found doing a Google image search.
I thought I would be safe in putting these on the lesson. These artists
would probably like that students may be inspired by their work.
From Teresa Sheffey:
Another fun shoe assignment is to have the
students bring in an old pair of shoes. Use these to make a paper maché
sculpture. They can turn them into any kind of fantasy shoes adding paper
maché and then painting them. Or... you can divert from this,
have them place the two together in an interesting fashion, and paper
maché over to make an abstract sculpture. I did this in summer school and
the students really liked it. Basically you are using the shoes as an armature
if you do them the second way. They are a lot of fun to do. One fun idea
is to turn them into creatures - give them a personality. Use plaster
addition (plaster gauze) and build up facial features - what kind of
character would that shoe be? What expression?
Greg
Percy added that a middle school teacher had her student make all sorts of
wacky shoes sculptures - then the display was "Imelda's Closet"
(and she tied in a bit of history/geography/social studies - with Imelda
Marcos)
Submitted
by Justin Kramer - Ceramic and Sculptural Shoes
Submitted
by Marsha - Ceramic shoes
Submitted
by MaryAnn Kohl - "Shoes all about Me" Mixed media sculpture
Here's
a fun art project I just saw at an early childhood conference in Olympia, Washington - easy to do:
The idea is to make little flags on sticks to stick into the shoe like
a flower arrangement, and the flags represent the child in some
way ... each flag is an artwork or an object.
Kids bring in an old shoe (boots are fun) of their own, or find one at
a garage sale or value village type place. Fill with rice to
support stick flags. Make "flags"... stapled, glued or taped (attach in
any way) around 1/4" thick sticks from the woods. (Note: The shoes and
boots I saw had about three or four flags per boot/shoe.)
Flags I saw:
small baby sock
leaf pressed between wax paper pieces
melted crayon
self-portrait drawing
objects of child's...small toy, award, photo,
etc.
Stick flags into rice in shoe and arrange somewhat like a flower arrangement. Use as a centerpiece or to enjoy in any way.
Objects can be returned to their original use ... shoes are not damaged or
ruined.
From Judy Decker: Here is my twist to make it permanent.... Use
plaster to secure flags inside boot/shoe (thick mix so it will set up
quickly). Plaster gauze the shoe - maybe even make a little face on the
shoe shaping the gauze (on toe or on tongue of shoe/boot) -- or using
celluclay/paper pulp (optional: sculpt your hair style, too) Paint the
shoe/boot to show mood/emotions with acrylics - or do your favorite
"in the style of" artist/art style "ism" if you
want.... OR Spray paint "bronze like" for a real treasure. Layer
brown/black paint - then gold for a rich patina -- then put the items on the
flags (spray paint shoe/boot before things are put on flags). If anyone tries this
project idea - as MaryAnn wrote it - or with my twist - I would like an
image for IAD ....Super self esteem booster and fun to do.
Fantasy Shoes - in Polymer clay -
submitted by Jan Hillmer
Jan
Hillmer found this site from Lucy
Arnold. See her polymer
clay fantasy shoes. Jan thought it would spark a lesson. Teachers
without a kiln might want to experiment with polymer clay (Sculpey) or air
dry clay.
Shoes Internet Resources:
Shoes paintings by
Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol Shoes.
Book: The Art of the Shoe
- Marie-Joséphe Bossan is a curator at the International Shoe Museum in Romans, the French capital of the shoe industry. This museum holds the greatest shoe collection in the world with 12,000 specimens.
Here is one of my favorite
Warhol shoes Gee,
Merrie Shoes, circa 1956 (Archive)
For mature students
(connections to mental illness)... See
Philip Guston | Images
in Mark Harden's Artchive | Work
at Albright Knox Gallery | Van Gogh's Shoes | Andy Warhol Diamond Dust Shoes.
Expressionistic. Many works contain piles of
shoes - particularly soles of shoes. Guston went through a period of
mental illness. Younger students will enjoy seeing that shoes do not have
to be drawn realistically all the time. What connections can you make to
Guston's pile of shoes to
in
his paintings and the room of shoes in Holocaust Museum in DC?
(recommended by Michael Gerrish).
Fun
Shoes Quote:
"These are my new shoes. They're
good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound
like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only
make you have shoes like me. That's it." ~ Charles Barkley
Suggestion from Michael Gerrish -
Paint your Shoes - make a "lasting impression"
"...I am an erratic shoe painter.
In my role as Art/Digital Media teacher I kept a pair of shoes which I
wore on special occasions. I would paint the shoes differently to feature
an upcoming lesson or activity and wear them unannounced. The buzz it
caused around school helped promote the lesson concepts. And, when I run into ex-students they often recall a shoe
encounter that made a "last"-ing impression...." ~ Michael
Gerrish WhyArt.com Great
ideas for middle school.
