Princeton Online
         Art about Sports
 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: This page was originally done in 2000 for my students. If these links are broken, find replacement links and report them to me.

Lesson Ideas below - Life Size Action Figure Cut-outs from Judy Nash  Olympics Links

Many artists throughout time have been inspired by the activities of man - "men at play" (or in professional sports - "men at work"). Below are some artists who have portrayed those activities. See the colorful art of LeRoy Neiman.

Activity: Compare two artists who have chosen a similar theme. How are the works different? How are the similar?

Edgar Degas [French Impressionist Painter and Sculptor, 1834-1917] 
Edgar Degas biography  
Degas- Jockeys Before the Race
   Jockey (pastel)   Jockeys (pastel on paper)
Degas- Race Horses 
  Before the Race   Race Horses
Degas- Gentleman Jockeys Before the Start
Degas- Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey 

Raoul Dufy [French Fauvist Painter, 1877-1953]
(images are no longer available - search for more - I found several boating scenes)

George Bellows [American Painter, 1882-1925] - George Bellows biography
Bellows- Polo at Lakewood  
Bellows- The Fisherman (larger view
Fisherman )
Bellows-
Stag Night at Sharkey's  Club Night
Bellows-
Dempsey and Firpo  

Pablo Picasso [Spanish Cubist Painter and Sculptor, 1881-1973] (Picasso biography)
Pablo Picasso Bull Fight   Picasso's Bull Fight theme in drawing  Picasso's Bullfight -- and others   Fransico de Goya Bullfight (Spanish 1746-1828)

Richard Lindner [American Painter, 1901-1978]   The Cyclist (poster images can be found online)

Jacob Lawrence [African-American Harlem Renaissance Painter, 1917-2000] Lawrence - Munich Olympic Games Poster  More Olympic Posters  Summer Olympic Games Posters  Winter Olympic Games Posters   
More on the Olympics
 Ed-Select Links - by Pat Elliot
The Real Story of the Olympic Games from University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Norman Rockwell -Sports Prints  

Jim McNeill [American, 1967 - ] Escher Bowl Football tessellation

LeRoy Neiman Contemporary Artist

Activity: Select three Neiman favorites. Tell why you selected those particular works. Describe in terms of art elements and principles of design.

LeRoy Neiman - American Artist  brief biography

Official Web site – LeRoy Neiman  LeRoy Neiman – biography  

Sport artist of the year - photograph of Neimman and a few images

Sports Originals

LeRoy Neiman – Ro Gallery See the work of Neiman and other artists represented by the Ro Gallery (images are not all high quality). More Sports Artist from RoGallery

More Contemporary Sports Art

Andy Warhol - Pete Rose - Cincinnati Museum of Art (scroll down) Note: Site was down last I checked - A Google search for Andy Warhol Pete Rose will bring up more examples. Andy Warhol Sports Figures

Etched in Time - George Vlosich George Vlosich's incredible art work of great athletes, dignitaries, VIPs and sports legends and much MORE... Is it art? How would you preserve one of these works. Have you ever tried to do a detailed drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch? Activity: Get an idea how difficult it is by trying the online Etch-a-Sketch (use arrows to draw)

Gerald Bartosch http://www.bartoschunlimitedart.com

Edgar J. Brown  http://www.edgarbrown.com/

Pascal Jean Delorme http://boardsports.online.fr/

Susan Miller Havens http://www.millerhavens.com/

Dick Perez http://www.dickperez.com/ag_main.asp

Debbie Rosenthal-Sampson http://www.artsports.com/port.htm

Gary Thomas Sports Art  http://www.garyt.com/

Gary Thomas - Polo http://www.garyt.com/work/polo.html  

Mark Trubisky - Custom Sports Art - athletes in action. From Dallas, Texas.  http://customsportsart.com/

Activity: Find a photograph of your favorite sports "hero". Go to Google Images. Enter the name of your athlete -- then select an image that has a fairly large file size. Look for image files over 20k for best results. Right click on largest image available- copy - paste into Word. Drag the CORNER of the image to fill the page. Print off your image in black and white (use economy setting). You will use this image for your drawing. Want to try an Olympic sport? 2002 Olympics Education Web Site

LESSON IDEAS -  ART ABOUT SPORTS

Sports Figure Cut-outs from Judy Nash: Judy worked with the social studies teacher during summer school. Present students with a number of images on Greek pottery - show attic black and attic red figures. Students first learned a quick history of the Olympics and then picked an event from the summer games to pair up with a student they felt comfortable with.  (A few had an adult trace them). The were instructed to either lie on the floor or stand up against a wall (whichever fit the sport better) and to trace each other. Then painted them with black acrylic paint - leaving some of the outlining cross contours white for definition (stronger than tempera) .  Figures were cut out and hung with other events that were similar. Some as the equestrian and kayaking were hung alone.  The next part of the lesson was to go to the library and do book and internet research on the sport they chose and to find an athlete who competed in it and learn about him or her.  The whole lesson worked out great. The students loved it and it allowed some to help other if they chose not to be traced. All of the events in our summer Olympics are scored by points.  Each member of each group earned 1 point for cooperation and 1 for participation. Points are tallied at the end of each week. Those with all points allowed got to display a gold medal for each day and silver for those who earned all but one point....etc.  with bronze, aluminum and plastic being awarded in that order so that all teams will earn something. The last day of the summer program (the opening day of the real Olympics) the students will be competing in events such as egg toss, 3-legged races etc.  Other events such as a jeopardy game , scavenger hunt, and cleaning duties could earn even the non athletic members points. You might want to consider making some permanent cut-out figures to hang in your gymnasium. Figures could be cut from sign board and painted -- then hung high up on the walls. 

From Breanne Soviero: Breanne does life sized athletes with my fifth graders (paintings on craft roll paper).  We have a Physical Education Show in April where the 5th graders demonstrate the skills they have learned in Phys. Ed.  The kids pick out a sport from a hat, and they work in groups of four to make the figures.  I hang them up for the Phys. Ed. show and the Art show.

Olympics Reduction Linoleum Prints 
from Woody Duncan

From Woody: I've used Olympics as a theme several times. It is a great motivator. It also allows a myriad of topics to be brought into the lesson. In the lesson linked below we used the winter
games as a topic. I ran videos of the games each day in class. We researched magazines and newspapers for photos to work from. It always worked out well. Reduction Lino Sports Print
http://www.taospaint.com/ColorPrinting.html

Balsa Wood Relief Carving
from Andy DiConti, La Canada HS 7/8 Art 

I did a relief sculpture with my 8th graders at the end of this year (2003-2004)...It was pretty fun project but it was difficult getting them to sculpt a "rounded edge" instead of sculpting a flat picture with thickness.  


click to see larger images.
Negative Space Paintings - Action Figures
from Andy DiConti, La Canada HS 7/8 Art 

Monochromatic paintings. This began with some studies in figure drawing. Students did some contour drawings of sports figures then simplified them to a silhouette. One option would be to transfer drawings to black paper - break up the negative space (with landscape of sports equipment) - then paint only the negative spaces, leaving the figure and lines black. Another option would be to transfer to tag board or poster board - paint the negative shapes then paint the figure and lines of the background black. (See larger images)

From Jeryl Hollingsworth (images to come) I do a unit with figure drawing with my 4th graders that I change and adapt each year depending on our school's theme. During the year we had the sports theme, we did gesture drawings during one class period (having a model stand on a table and the kids get 30 seconds to draw the pose.) They used a 12 x 18 sheet of paper and a different color marker for each model. Those papers turned out cool but were really just a practice for lessons that follow. When the theme was sports,  the next lesson involved doing a torn paper
mosaic of a figure doing a sport. I used it also as a complementary color lesson. The figure was in one color of construction paper and the background or any  prop (javelin, tennis racket, etc...) was in the complementary color. Also see Jeryl's Foil Sports Figures.

From Judy Decker - Sports Pictograms This lesson was done with 4th grade - Olympic pictograms. The objective was to do a figure in correct proportion then pose cutouts in their choice sports/Olympic event. We first looked at correct proportion with a student as model. Measuring the figure in head heights - looking at where the second head height landed.... then the third and so forth. How long were the arms in head heights?... the legs?....how wide was the body?...After we measured the model, the students folded a 6" x 9" paper into eighths to mark 8 head heights tall. We found the model was between 7 and 8 head heights tall. The students drew their template figure on the newsprint. This became the pattern for their cut paper pictogram on 12" square
paper. They added other cut paper to finish the composition. If anyone did not like their template - if they drew it way out of proportion - they could use a template that I made. They only lost
points on that first step. I graded all of the first step on the first day of the lesson. Grades were just S+, S, S-, U. The only ones who would have received a U are ones who wouldn't try. I don't think there were any Us.

Everyone was given a chance for success on the finished project regardless of their efforts on drawing the figure in proportion. The year this was done was an Olympic year. Project was very successful.

Design - Action Figure Collage - from Judy Decker

Sports - Watercolor - Showing Movement - from Judy Decker

Sport Foil Figures - Elementary - Jeryl Hollingsworth (scroll down)

Try Art Olympics - Element-ary Events - from Heidi McElroy

Lesson Plans - Olympics links - Figure Drawing: 

Olympics   Links to 2004 Athens Olympics, past Olympic games and Ancient Olympics. Resources compiled by Pat Elliot and Alison James.

Olympics Lesson Plans - for grades 4 through 8. Lessons focus on character/heroes and peace building. (this link is for 2002 Winter Olympics - lessons are adaptable). 

The Real Story of the Olympic Games from University of Pennsylvania Museum

Olympics Lesson Ideas and Resources - from Reach Every Child

Sanford-ArtEdventures - Creating an action figures

Art prints to enhance your units

"Art of Sport" from Take 5 (which does include Lawrence's Olympic Games Poster)- there are others in Take 5 sets. Jim McNeill's Escher Bowl in the math set, Homer's Croquet and Phillips Night Baseball in People at Play set. While not "sport" - Degas' Ballet Scene is in People at Work.

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