Art with Mrs Baker: Edvard Munch's The Scream-inspired artworks

By Tom N. (yr 3 student)
fear of black holes

By Kaya (Yr 3 student)
fear of time

Lesson Background:

At the end of the last school term our school held a "health week", where we discussed issues relating to physical, emotional and mental health. We also discussed child protection issues and how children can "listen to their bodies" when they are in uncomfortable situations (clammy hands, faster heartbeat, sweating, butterflies in tummy, etc). I thought this topic lent itself to studying the life and art of Edvard Munch and creating an artwork based on his most famous work "The Scream". My idea was to colour a template of "The Scream" using oil pastel and then where the 2 figures are in the background of Munch's original artwork, the children would paste a picture/photo of something that frightens them.

Lesson Steps:
1) We studied a child-friendly biography of Edvard Munch's life, discussing what sort of artworks we thought he might create, based on the events in his life.
2) I showed the students pictures of some of his artworks and we discussed his use of line, style, colour, shape etc.
3) I displayed "The Scream" for the students and asked them to identify what objects were in the painting, how the painting made them feel and what they thought it was called (some very interesting responses!).
4) We discussed the features and meanings of the artwork.
5) Students were then asked to brainstorm things we are afraid of, things that worry us or things that make us uncomfortable. I asked the students to choose 1 fear/worry that they would like to portray in the artwork and I made a list of these fears. Later that day I used the Internet to find photos of each child's chosen fear, printed them out in colour and stored them away for when the children had completed the colouring of their artworks.
6) I gave the students a stencil of "The Scream" (found on Google images) and demonstrated how they might like to use the oil pastel to colour each section (ie. water, sky, hand-rail, figure, etc). After I had demonstrated ideas for a section, they went back to their desks and completed that section on their own artwork.
7) The students were encouraged to use and blend in multiple colours and to use swirling lines (we had discussed how the movement of the lines and the use of colours added to the mood of fear and overwhelming).
8) When the artwork was completed, the students selected a photo or picture of their fear, cut it out (no background, just the main image) and stuck it behind their figure on the artwork. I suggested they make the eyes of the figure look back at the object of their fear.
9) Students cut out their artwork and backed them on black cardboard.

Year 3 Student Artworks: