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Grade: 5-8

Age: 9-12

Activity Summary:

Using the technique of cutting paper, participants will be making positive and negative shapes that will be used to create a composition. The picture planes for this project are large sheets of paper, cut into different lengths and widths which, when finished, can be displayed as paper banners that can either hang from the ceilings or be posted on walls. Some banners will be cool compositions, the others, warm compositions.

Each artist cuts both positive and negative shapes out of paper; then each artist takes a turn at placing his or her cut shapes onto the paper banners. Because each shape must touch or overlap another, it invites each artist to respond to what has been done by another artist, thus providing both challenges and opportunities that he or she may not have had by working alone. This project is all about: line, shape, color, positive and negative spaces, and responding!

Materials and Preparation:

• Glue

• Scissors

• An ample supply of 8 1/2” x 11” card stock paper, enough for the size group you will have (i.e., 3-4 sheets per person):
  - Warm colors: red, orange, yellow, red-violet; nice to have a couple of values of orange, yellow, maybe a pink, etc.
  - Cool colors: blue, green, violet, again, a couple values of each is nice
  - Black (for contrast)
  -White (for contrast)

• Two work tables, one for the warm colors and one for the cool colors. Place the card stock paper, the scissors and the glue at each table.

• Paper “banners” that will serve as surfaces for your compositions; vary the sizes (i.e., 24” x 34,” 40” x 20”, 36” x 36,” etc.) and perhaps choose some white paper and some black paper. You can cut the paper from paper on a roll or use poster board or other paper that is already cut. (If you use paper on a roll, you might want to fold over the cut edges to give a finished look). Mount the paper banners on the wall, varying the direction (in addition to the sizes) to add interest (some vertical, some horizontal.) Label half the banners as “cool compositions” and the other half as “warm compositions.”

• Some smaller black and white card stock paper for the individual creations, 5” x 8” is a good size.

• Cut out one or two positive/negative shapes and glue them to each of your prepared banners; these will be the starting points for each of the compositions; each participating artist adds his or her positive or negative shape to the composition, touching or overlapping a shape already there.

• Encourage participants to use the “leftovers” or scraps/negative shapes left by another artist to create new shapes! (You can periodically demonstrate.) This challenges them to stretch their creativity and it also uses up leftover paper.

• DO NOT have markers, pencils or pens in your work area; children have a natural instinct for drawing and will do so if these are available. Mixing the paper cut outs with drawings decreases the simplicity and harmony that is the extraordinary beauty of this project. If the desire to draw does occur, encourage participant to use that for his or her individual composition (see “Individual Art Project”).

What You Do:

1. Participants decide which composition they would like to participate in first, either the warm composition or the cool composition.

2. Participants select paper from either the warm or cool color paper piles and cut out some shapes using any or all of the cutting methods described following paragraph heading: “Paper Cutting Ideas.”

3. Participants select one shape and mount it/affix it onto the white paper banner with glue. There is only one criteria for positioning each shape: the shape you are adding must touch or overlap another that is already on the paper. What this does is to insure design unity, and it challenges imagination and creativity! Participants continue adding more shapes to the composition, or perhaps work on the other one (either cool or warm).

4. Creative hint for participants: “Be on the lookout for interesting scraps and negative shapes left behind on the work tables that can be reused for new creative shapes!”

5. As participants are working, you can discuss the following learning components:

   Color temperature (warm, cool), color theory (compliments, etc.), negative and positive space, picture plane, composition, focal point.

6. Ask participants to stand back and look at how the addition of their shapes has changed the paper banner composition. Ask: How does it feel to have made a difference in this picture? How does it feel to respond to what another artist has done? How does it feel when another artist responds to your shapes?

   You could perhaps post three flip chart papers with each of the questions at the top and ask participants to write in their ideas and answers.

7. Optional: Post an enlarged copy of the “Mini Art Quiz” (see end of this instruction piece) and encourage participants to discuss. Or you can pass out copies of the quiz for them to discuss or do at home.

8. Optional: Post an enlarged copy of the article about Matisse (see end of this instruction piece) and invite participants to discuss. Include some reproductions of Matisse’s paper cut out works, and of him cutting them. Participants enjoy seeing the artist at work, while they are re-creating a similar piece of art!

INDIVIDUAL ART PROJECT

OTHER IDEAS

PAPER CUTTING IDEAS

Method 1. Fold a piece of paper. Make random cuts. Open the paper. Use both the positive shape and the negative shape.

Method 2. Select a piece of paper (unfolded). Make a series of cuts, going from left to right or right to left. Cuts can be random, or some can be mirror cuts of the cut made before it. Arrange the positive shapes; how you arrange them activates the negative spaces. Experiment with changing the placement and direction of the positive shapes; notice how the negative space is also changed in doing so.

Method 3. Fold a piece of paper 2 or more times. Make random cuts. Unfold and arrange positive shapes. Again, how you arrange them activates the negative spaces.

Recommended Books:

Matisse for Kids
by: Margaret Hyde

Henri Matisse (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
by: Mike Venezia

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