Wayne Thiebaud

Most of the time when I'm thinking of project ideas, I usually gravitate toward the types of art that I like, or pieces that stick out in my mind, and then I try to adapt them so that they're kid-friendly and awesome. Thankfully, when it comes to the art of Wayne Thiebaud, very little adaptation is necessary.

When studying Thiebaud's art with children I make sure to stress the idea behind it. Why did he make these pictures? Pies and cakes seem silly, right? Well, they are! It's Thiebaud's intention to make us laugh and feel good. We can all do that, kids and adults alike. Everyone can connect to this project - which is what makes it so fun. (You can sneak in other concepts too - like value, form, space, shape, overlapping, color theory, the list goes on!)

Gum

My fourth graders focused on Thiebaud's Three Machines, 1963 for their assignment.

Their task was to recreate a Thiebaud gumball machine and give it its own personal flair. We talked about overlapping, shadows, and high lights as well. Students first drew their machines, outlined everything in permanent marker, painted with watercolor and sparkle paint, then added shadows, highlights, and accents with oil pastels. I loved seeing the personalities come out in each project!









Cakes

My fifth graders observed all of the beautiful painted cakes in Thiebaud's collection. We talked at length about how his cakes almost look real enough to eat (after which we all became very hungry and insistent upon making REAL cakes part of our art assignment)!

Students were given the task to create their own cake. They could add as many tiers as they wanted, but there had to be at least two. We talked about how to create an ellipse for the top of our cylinder and how to overlap cylinders to create the cake. Students were given free reign on how to decorate their cake and color choices. We colored these in with oil pastel to give the illusion of thick frosting - just like Wayne Thiebaud's paintings - plus they're awesome for blending.

We talked about value in the real world - how lights and darks help something look three dimensional. We added a cast shadow, shaded half of our cake and highlighted the opposite half.

This is definitely one of my favs!



Fun
There is a resources link for this assignment on the left. Please feel free to use/share/adapt in your classroom!