Art Lesson Plan: Photoshop Flowers

Submitted by: Marjory Hahn, New York City High School
UNIT: Photoshop - Color manipulation & filters - Georgia O'Keeffe
Lesson: Georgia O'Keeffe Inspired Flowers
Grade Level: High School (adaptable to middle school)

Click images for larger views

Objectives: Students will Materials:

gain appreciation for art of Georgia O'Keeffe
create an abstracted flower - focus down and crop image
explore color manipulation and filtering using Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements)

Computers - Internet access
Collection of digital photographs of flowers
Photo editing software
Printer and quality print paper

Resources:

Books about the art and life of Georgia O'Keeffe

Video: Georgia O'Keeffe

Preparation:

You and your students can take a number of digital photographs of close-ups of flowers for this lesson. Optional: Prepare a PowerPoint of selected Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers showing a photograph of the actual flower after each slide for comparison.

Motivation: Did you ever look at something up close for the first time and notice details that you missed further away? Look closely at flowers - examine details.

Procedures:

Students will find web sites from Google or any web engine - search the artist (Georgia O'Keeffe) by name and find her philosophy behind the flower paintings. Students answer questions on teacher made handout.
Students will give the sites as they search to the class - create an annotated "webliography". Encourage students to use authoritative sites (not student sites)
Look at O'Keeffe's flowers in photographic reproductions - compare to photographs of actual flowers - note how flower is abstracted.
Examine real flowers.
Select an image of a flower from the Internet (be sure to choose flowers in public domain) OR select from a collection of student and teacher photographs. Image should be jpeg at least 600 pixels in size. Gif images will not work.
Open image - change to grayscale and crop pictures. Pictures can be cropped both before and after re-coloring and altering.
Change back to CYMK or RGB (color)
Re-color and filter to get the essence of the flower.
Critique finished work.

Assessment: (rubric adapted from Marianne Galyk)

Assessment could include a grade for photograph if you have students take their own photographs of flowers.

Assessment Rubric
Student Name:						Class Period:
Assignment: Georgia O'Keeffe Flower - Color Manipulation						Date Completed:
Circle the number in pencil that best shows how well you feel that you completed that criterion for the assignment.		Excellent	Good	Average	Needs Improvement	Rate Yourself	Teacher’s Rating
Criteria 1 – Webliography - student research on Georgia O'Keeffe - handout		10	9 – 8	7	6 or less
Criteria 2 – Abstraction of flower photograph - use of color - color tools		10	9 – 8	7	6 or less
Criteria 3 – Abstraction of flower - use of filters and cropping		10	9 – 8	7	6 or less
Criteria 4 – Effort: took time to develop idea & complete project? (Didn’t rush.) Good use of class time?		10	9 – 8	7	6 or less
Criteria 5 – Craftsmanship – Neat, clean & complete? Skillful use of the art tools & media?		10	9 – 8	7	6 or less
Total: 50 (possible points)	Grade:					Your Total	Teacher Total

Student Comments:

Teacher Comments:

National Standards: Standards covered depends on how much discussion and research your students do.

1. Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes	2. Using knowledge of structures and functions	3. Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas	4. Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures	5. Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks	Students demonstrate the ability to form and defend judgments about the characteristics and structures to accomplish commercial, personal, communal, or other purposes of art	Students reflect on how artworks differ visually, spatially, temporally, and functionally, and describe how these are related to history and culture	Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of art	Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various purposes, and justify their analyses of purposes in particular works
Students conceive and create works of visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the communication of their ideas relates to the media, techniques, and processes they use	Students evaluate the effectiveness of artworks in terms of organizational structures and functions	Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life	Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times, and places	Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural contexts

National Visual Arts Standards Courtesy of Kennedy ArtsEdge