Calendar is at bottom of post
Self-Portrait, 1863
Edgar Degas was born in France in
1834. He was fascinated by movement and
is famous for his pictures of dancers and racehorses. By the time he was 63, he was getting old and
suffering from eye problems, and rarely left his studio. But he still worked furiously on drawings and
sculptures of dancers, based on memory, imagination and earlier sketches.
The invention of photography inspired painters like Edgar Degas to create paintings that capture some of photography’s spontaneity. Notice how informal this painting is of Degas and his friend. What do you think makes this painting informal? His friend is leaning back and he is not looking directly at the viewer – casual pose. They are not sitting side by side in a pose. Degas has his hand up to his chin. What about the background? It does not appear to be like a typical studio portrait.
Degas was fascinated by dancers and created over 1,500 pictures and sculptures of them. Here it shows them in their restful, casual state listening to the dance instructor.
This picture is a glimpse of the dancers
during rehearsal where some are dancing while others are resting or having
costume adjustments. Degas once said he
wanted to “paint life through a keyhole”
meaning he wanted to capture people as they really looked, rather than
formal poses.
Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program
Edgar Degas Bio Presentation
Art vocabulary word: Impressionist
Edgar Degas (day-gah) was a French artist who lived from 1834 to 1917. This is one of his self-portraits.
Degas was a very talented and well trained artist, and he was particularly good at showing the movement of figures. Degas is thought of as a member of the Impressionists. Impressionist artists did things very differently than the painters who came before them. Impressionists liked to paint outdoors, and in cafes, and in the places where they could draw and paint from life, instead of inside a studio. Impressionists often used bold brushstrokes and dabs of color that you could see, instead of blending everything perfectly. Impressionists liked to show the light, and catch moments of time in their work, and to paint regular people doing everyday things, instead of only painting rich people and religious scenes.
Degas himself did not think he was an impressionist. He made fun of them, and he called himself a Realist. He thought his art had more in common with traditional art, because it was very carefully planned, and he spent a lot of time studying the works of the Old Masters. Art historians still say Degas was an impressionist. His pictures are mostly of everyday people - working, doing laundry, at the theatre, at the racetrack. He composed his pictures in modern ways, showing the figures from unusual angles or cutting them off with the edge of the frame. His pictures captured little moments in time, which is very much what impressionism is all about.
Edgar Degas was known for being a very grumpy man, who said mean things to lots of people, but he did make some lovely artwork. And he said a few lovely things as well, like this quote from him:
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
Templeton Elementary
School Art Literacy Program
Degas Oil Pastel Figure Project
Getting
ready
Presenters, first
thing, please sign onto the Art Lit cart sign-out sheet on the wall. That way we know where the art carts are at
any time. Next, please check the Art Lit
cart for the supplies you will need. The
presentation folders and the tools should all be kept on the carts. You will need to take a stack of black paper
from the box on the counter. These are
the supplies you will need:
On the cart:
Presentation folder
Desk protector sheets (30)
Black paper (30 sheets)
Bag of pencils (30)
Pencil sharpener (1)
6 large plastic boxes of pastels
2 small pastel sets (just in case)
1 box of Q-tips
Baby wipes
Sports pictures in plastic sleeves
(17)
Ballet dancer pictures in sleeves
(16)
In the
classroom, set up the kids’ places for them.
Each student starts out with a desk cover sheet, a sheet of black paper,
and a pencil. Each table group gets one
large plastic box of pastels to share.
It’s possible someone may need to switch seats to be close to
pastels. If a kid sits all alone, give
him or her a small single set to use.
Use your judgment on the Q-tips.
For older kids you might want to give each kid one to start. For younger kids, you might want to hold onto
them until the drawing is underway.
The
Project
(Things
you might want to say to the kids are in purple.) Try to think of questions to ask the kids as you go
along. Present the artist to the kids
and show his work. Then show them the
samples of our project. Put the Degas
pictures and the project samples where the kids can see them. Have the kids start by writing their names
AND their teacher’s name in pencil on the back of their paper. Tell them to write hard so it shows up on the
black paper.
Introduction
Today
we are going to do oil pastel drawings of figures, like Degas used to do. You can choose to draw a ballet dancer, or an
athlete. (Have the kids hold up their hands for who wants dancers
or athletes, and hand out the sleeves of pictures to work from. If by chance there are not enough of one
kind, kids will have to share with the kid next to them, or switch seats and do
that.)
We
are going to do the pictures on black paper, so the bright and light colors
will show up more than the dark ones. Think
about your picture before you start using the pastels. Think about how you will compose the picture. Composition means the way the
parts of a picture are arranged. For
this project it means where the figure will be on the page, how large it will
be, and how the colors you use balance with each other. If you want to draw more than one figure in
your picture you can. Also think about
what colors you want to use.
Start
by using your pencil to lightly draw the shape of the figure. You don’t have to erase, because the pastel
will cover up the pencil lines. If drawing a person seems hard to you, just
look at the picture you are going to use and think of it as a group of
shapes. If you can draw the simple
shapes you see with your pencil, then afterwards you can color them in pastel
and make them look like a person.
You
don’t have to use the colors that are in the picture you are working from. You can change the colors of the clothing or
the person any way you want to. You can
use many colors, or only a couple of them.
If you like, you can draw a background, or part of one, to show where
your figure is. You don’t have to color
in the whole page. You can leave as much
black as you like.
Technique
If
you want to blend your oil pastel lines, you can rub them with a finger, or
with a Q-tip. If you want to mix colors,
you can do that by drawing lightly with one color, then going over it lightly
with another color.
If
you want to show light shining on your figure, use a lighter color on the parts
of your figure that are being lit up.
Degas showed how the stage lights were lighting up his ballet figures
this way. It can work the same way with
athletes who are outside in the sun.
Afterwards
Please try
to make sure the pastels go back into the same containers, and get the lids
back on securely. Each container has a
certain selection of colors, and if they are moved around, some kids will not
have the colors they need. Please count the pictures in plastic sleeves and the
pencils before you leave the room, and ask kids to look for missing items. After
kids clean up the supplies, they will probably need to wash hands. PLEASE
SAVE ALL UNUSED PAPERS FOR RE-USE. Put them
into the box in the library. Save unused
Q-tips too. Take all projects back to
the Art Lit area, do not leave them in teachers’ rooms. The projects can go into the folder with your
teacher’s name on it. Folders will be on
the counter.
