The Unconscious Mind – Watercolour
SCHOOL PROGRAM LESSON PLAN – 7 to 9
The Unconscious Mind – Watercolour
Final Project Description:
Students will create a collaborative painting using a Surrealist drawing game, the “Exquisite Corpse.”
Description:
Students will learn about Surrealist automatic processes and games, and apply their learning through the creation of Exquisite Corpse drawings. Working collaboratively, they will create strange and disjointed drawings, and then work independently to complete the drawings with watercolour and rootbeer wash.
Theory (taken from the BC Curriculum PLOs)
Students will:
- Create images using a variety of materials
- Learn and apply new image-development strategies
- Interact and collaborate as a group to create art works
Creation & Analysis:
The Surrealists invented several kinds of “chain games”–games meant to be played collectively, producing strange and humourous conjunctions. All of these games involve some level of automatism, the primary method of Surrealism, intended to stimulate and encourage spontaneity and free-flowing ideas. The most popular of these games is the Exquisite Corpse.
Students will each have a ¼ sheet of Stonehenge, folded into three sections. Instruct them to begin with the uppermost section, and to draw the “top” of the image: can be a person, animal, monster, inanimate object, building, anything. They will extend the bottom lines of this drawing about a centimeter into the second section, then re-fold the paper so that only the center section is visible. Students will then pass their papers to the left. They will now draw the “middle” of their image, using the lines extended from the top section as their starting point. They will again extended the bottom lines of their drawing into the third section, refold the paper so that only the bottom is visible, and pass to their left. Students will complete the image by drawing the “bottom” of the image, incorporating the lines extended from the middle.
Once completed, students will unfold the paper and the completed image will be revealed! Have students finish by adding colour, texture and depth to the image through the addition of watercolour and rootbeer wash–a non-traditional medium used by Canadian artist Marcel Dzama in his paintings.
Detail the full process to students before they begin, and let them know that they will have FIVE MINUTES to complete each section of the drawing. At the five minute mark, announce that they must extend their lines, refold the paper, and pass to the left.
Emphasize the importance of working collaboratively and respecting each other’s work.
Duration:
60 minutes in the studio: 10 mins on approach, 45 mins on project, 5 mins for wrap up and possible discussion or look at other’s work to end class.
Materials:
Stonehenge ¼ sheets, pre-folded into thirds
Rootbeer powder
Watercolour paint
Palettes
Water cups
Brushes – fine and flat
Fine liner markers
Look & Discuss:
How did the students find this process? Do they enjoy creating collaborative art work? Have they ever thought of painting with soda pop? What other unusual materials might be used as paint?
Prep:
Lay out folded Stonehenge, one per student, and fine liner markers.
Lay out watercolour paint, cups of rootbeer wash, water in cups and brushes, distribute after drawings are completed.
Take it further:
Have students gained a greater understanding of the Surrealist movement through this process? Can they come up with their own varieties of chain games?
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL – IMAGES
Exquisite corpse intaglio prints by students at Red Deer College, led by Marnie Blair.
Jake and Dinos Chapman, Exquisite Corpse, 2000. Collection of the Tate Britain.
Marcel Dzama, Untitled, 2003. Ink, watercolour, rootbeer wash on paper. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.