Splatter Paint, Norman Rockwell and Green Screen!

When reading the title to this post, you are probably wondering what any of these things have in common! Last week, students examined Norman Rockwell and his illustrations using VTS. In a previous class, a Venn Diagram was used to compare Norman Rockwell's art and Modern Artist Jackson Pollock's art (born only a few years apart). Of course, students had a difficult time finding any similarities, but recognized many differences between the two artists. After examining both artists, first grade students then took a closer look at "The Connoisseur" by Norman Rockwell and noticed an amazing combination of both art forms.

"The Connoisseur" by Norman Rockwell 1962

This week, first grade students created their own splatter paint project on small 4.5" x 6" pieces of white or colored paper. Next week, students will be photographing their splatter paint project and using a green screen to put themselves in an image examining their own art. Do Ink offers a great app to create this kind of art idea. Students are very excited to use the iPads to embellish their handmade creations.

After photographing their art and asking a friend to photograph themselves facing the green screen with the camera app on the iPad, students will have the opportunity to choose from the following five backgrounds to add to the middle layer within the green screen app.

 

Once in the app, students will create a new project by selecting the plus sign in the top right corner and choosing "Create a New Project". This will open a new project. In the picture below, you can see students will be using all three layers within the app to create their image. By selecting the plus sign in the middle layer at the bottom of the screen, students can pick one of five frame images from above for their project.

The very bottom layer will be used for their splatter paint image. The image can be cropped and the size changed as long as students have selected that image at the bottom of the screen. We will know the image is selected when there is a red box around that layer's picture. The splatter painting should fit within the frame without any background showing.

The last image added is the photo of themselves facing the green screen. This image will be the very top of our final image. Students are most amazed with this step, because the green screen magically disappears and is replaced with the wall and frame backdrop. While the layer with the photo of themselves is selected (red box around layer), students can alter their size and location as well as reduce and increase the sensitivity of the green screen to prevent a green halo haze around their body.

To export their images, students will select "Image" next to "Save" and select "Save" to export image to the Camera Library on the iPad. These final images will be uploaded to Artsonia for their family to see. Click here to see the student created images.