Everybody loves a Parody!

 

Materials:

- 9" x 12" drawing paper

- pencil

- colored pencils

- light boxes or windows

- Mona Lisa and/or American Gothic Reference Sheets

I introduced Leonardo daVinci and Grant Wood to my students, specifically their work of the Mona Lisa and American Gothic. We also discussed what parodies are and several popular examples they may have seen and not noticed (For example, at our local bowling alley, there is a parody of The Peacaeble Kingdom in the style of Keith Haring).

 

My students were asked to choose one of the discussed paintings to be their inspiration. I found some coloring sheets online that had the simple contour lines of the Mona Lisa and American Gothic that my students could use as a guideline. They simply placed the coloring sheet underneath a "good" piece of paper and traced the important lines they would need for their final picture. 

They were asked to either change the character(s), the background, or both, but stick with a central theme so that the original idea of the artwork would still be recognizable. The ideas are endless! My students used subjects ranging from Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, Dogs, The Jersey Shore Cast, Taylor Swift, Family Guy, Harry Potter, Twilight and many more!

I know I didn't come up with this lesson and many have done it with students as young as fourth grade, so again, there is quite an age range for success. 

I love the thinking behind this one! It's about the BP Oil spill.... who thought kids listened to the news at that age?

**PS... Does anyone know how to easily arrange photos next to each other? I got the two images above to lay side by side, but I don't like how they are uneven.. I saw something online about changing the code in the HTML... but that sounds like too much work for me, hehe.