Collaborative Copying of the Masters

Each spring, when the 8th graders have finished their painting units, I choose an artwork to enlarge to 32 by 40 inches to be displayed in the classroom or art hallway.  Students choose a piece of the artwork to paint and the pieces are then assembled and glued to a large background paper for a mat.  I usually choose an artwork that is a drawing of the original.  I have found most of them from free samples from Dover publications.

I use the copy machine to enlarge the portion of the artwork that I want to recreate to 8 by 10 inches and draw a 2 inch grid over the artwork.  I make 2 copies of this, one to enlarge square by square, and one to number as a master to use when putting the pieces back together.  I then cut the copy into 2 inch strips and fold those into 2 inch squares.  I then enlarge each 2 inch square to 400% and print them onto heavy drawing paper.  As I copy these, I number them on the back and add an up arrow to keep the orientation correct. This creates an 8 inch square that is cut out for students to paint.  This seems like a lot of steps, but it really isn't once you have done a few and so worth the effort!  As you can see from the samples, they can either be painted similarly to the original or as students choose, creating an awesome patchwork effect!