Collage Figure Study

This project makes learning figure proportions fun, while still allowing room for creativity. Many poses are possible when your figure can bend in so many ways.
1. Background collage: Each student needs a background piece of 9" x 12" construction paper, and then 2 other panels that were roughly 5" x 12" (I used green and blue in my sample). To get some random sizes going, I asked the students to cut off the end of one panel to make a large square about 5" x 5". They were to cut and rounded off the corners, and glued it somewhere on the background paper. Next they were to cut two medium squares about 3" x 3", round off the corners, and glue those somewhere on the paper. Lastly, they cut some small rectangles to fill the remaining spaces, rounded out the corners, and glued to them down too. A small amount of space was left between the all the shapes, so that they looked somewhat like tiles that fit together.
2. I explained just a few rules about body proportions, namely the ratio of head to body size being 8 to 1, and that the waist generally falls right in the middle. To help them start their bodies, I gave each student a black construction rectangle about 3" x 12". I had them fold the body in half and cut to the find waist. The top section was cut up to make a head and top torso. The bottom half of the paper was cut to make a bottom torso and two sectioned legs. Another strip of black paper was needed to cut out the arms. All the pieces may start out as rectangles, but need to have their edges rounded before gluing down. The body is posed on the background collage and glued down.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Fourth Grade
2.5 Use accurate proportions to create an expressive portrait or a figure drawing or painting.

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