Henri Rousseau Emphasis

 

5^th graders learned about the artist Henri Rousseau through a Power Point Presentation. They also viewed several of his paintings. Henri Rousseau was a French painter, who worked for the French government for most of his adult life. He retired early to pursue his love of painting. He is one of the most famous “naïve” painters, or untrained painters. Rousseau is most known for painting exquisite jungle animal scenes. The most interesting thing about the jungle paintings, is that Rousseau had never seen a jungle in his life. All his ideas came from books, magazines, and his imagination.

 

5^th graders also learned about the art element EMPHASIS. Emphasis is how an artist creates a main focus in their painting- an area in the artwork where the artist wants you to look first. The 5^th graders looked at several examples of artwork and had to find where the artist was creating emphasis.

 

For their project, 5^th graders looked at lots of images of animal eyes, all different kinds. We discussed how by drawing just the eye of the animal we are creating EMPHASIS on that part of the animal. After their eye was drawn in pencil, students used chalk pastels to color and blend in. They turned out awesome!

*Lesson Idea inspired from Green Bay Art Room*