Jim Dine-Confetti Heart project

The artist Jim Dine uses hearts, bathrobes, and tools for subject matter for much of his artwork, which makes him a kid-friendly artist to introduce to your students. I have done many different projects related to this artist, and the kids always enjoy learning about him and seeing photos and prints of his art. His heart art is especially fun to introduce for a Valentine's day lesson. This particular lesson is an attempt at re-creating a painting of his called "Confetti Heart". I have used this book by Jean E.Feinberg when introducing Dine to my students.  It has a good collection of his artwork in colored photos. Unfortunately the heart used in this lesson is not in there. I made a color copy off the internet as a resource.

I have done this project on a wood board with a seperate heart piece attached, or just on a single board with the heart shape painted on, and also on cardboard or paper. The sample showing below is done on a cut out piece of cardboard 10 1/2"x 8".

Supplies

Cardboard

Acrylic paint:blue,orange, red, lime green ,yellow, magenta, white, and black

six different size and shapes of brushes, some round, some flat.

a piece of sponge

an old tootbrush

a stylis

First I have the students paint the heart white. Then  I have kids add the colored paint in an assembly line. All of the paints (except black and white) are squirted on a seperate paper plate with a different brush for each color. The kids go down the line and add different strokes for each color onto their heart, being careful not to overlap colors too much. When they have added all the colors, we use the sponge to dab on black paint around the edges.

I do the next splatter step outside or in a protected area. The kids use the toothbrush, some watered down black paint and the stylis to "splatter" black paint on their heart.

The results are amazingly similar to Jim Dine's piece!