Eggcubism

Example of a 3D self-portrait painting lesson

Though Enno would say: it's really more like two-and-a-half dimensions!

This sample lesson is intended for students in grades 5-8, but it can be modified to suit various age groups and developmental stages, including primary and secondary education. 

Duration:

• The time allocated to each component can be adjusted according to the duration of the lesson. This lesson can also be divided into a series of sub-lessons.

Lesson Objective: Orientation on self and the world. Artistic orientation. Creative development of self-image. Awareness of perception and reception. Building self-confidence and self-awareness through observation. Learning to observe critically. Naming what you see helps; painting helps with what you cannot yet name. Awareness that others often see you differently than you see yourself.

Materials Needed:

• Smartboard/digiboard or projector with a laptop.

• Pencils and paper, basic painting materials (paint, brushes, etc.).

• A set of small mirror tiles for the students.

• 1 egg tray per student. 

Green tip: use recycled egg cartons from your local market. They are mostly freely available there!

Content:

• Introduction through Q&A about looking and seeing.

  Can you determine if something is 'true' just by looking at it? Some things are visible directly, but there's a connection between our eyes (seeing) and our brain (knowing or not knowing). You can always ask someone for clarification, but how do you know if their answer is reliable? Sometimes, two different answers can both be 'true'. You need to make choices, trust your own senses, and consult trusted individuals. This process takes time and attention, turning it into a 'story'.

  The teacher recounts the story of The Chinese Nightingale (feel free to tell your own version!). Explain how a story can be 'dressed up' to make it reliable and engaging. For this, language is essential, but so are your emotions and intuition. The same principles that apply to storytelling are also crucial when creating visual art, such as painting. Painting is enjoyable because it allows you to form and adjust your opinions constantly—that's the fun part! Through painting, you can express things that words cannot convey.

• Introduction to 'the self-portrait'. 

  Do you see 'everything' in the mirror? Having too little information isn't good, but seeing 'everything at once' can be overwhelming too. Let's test this: describe 3-5 things you see in the mirror and 3-5 things that are not easily visible (unique traits of yourself). Do the same for your neighbor. Compare how you see yourself with how others see you.

  Next, we'll look at special portraits by painters. Identify what the painters want to convey and how they combine different stories in their work. Now, we observe and create our own story. We'll explore how this process works and what happens during it.

  We'll then view Enno de Kroon's Eggcubism slide show and identify the characteristics of the portraits. Finally, we'll investigate this by making our own self-portrait on an egg carton.

 Picture of an egg

Concepts: 

Difference between looking and seeing. What is light? What is a shadow? Focus: what do you pay attention to? Properties, visual aspects, recognition, comparison, portrait, self-portrait. Presenting yourself as someone: positioning. Contemporary visual culture. Mirroring. Reflection. Truth and appearance: recognizing real and fake. Advertising. Connecting 'senses' with 'brain'. What is 'trust' (promise, believe, reliable) – feeling safe? Language and feelings are due to change. You can improve your opinions. How can you make your opinions visible? What is and how does 'influence' and 'persuasion' work? What are perception and reception? What is ‘your own perspective’? Sources: personal experience, senses and brain, and listening to what others name. Try: Art history: critically observing and naming portraits.  For more backgrounds: see ‘phenomenology’.

Lesson Plan:

• Introduction. Experiments with mirrors. Hands over eyes. Look at hand with two different eyes. Double mirrors: reflection. Moving while looking. Write down (or draw) 3-5 traits of yourself and your neighbor. View and discuss slide show on portraits and Eggcubism.
• Instruction: Board instruction on drawing a head on an egg tray (measure using the bumps). Positioning eyes, ears, nose, and mouth: talk about making form choices - what do you want to show? Then first paint the background: 1 or 2 colors that suit you (mixing paint = making choices!).

Activity:

• Guided self-portrait painting. For this, the pupils use the words that they wrote down about themselves. The teacher asks them about their individual choices and involves the neighboring kid.

Cleanup: 

• Clean up and wash hands.

Formative evaluation:

• Lay out the works together and view them interactively (from different angles). Discuss what stands out. Also consider and discuss how the individual works brought together form a ‘group portrait’.

External links to the story of the Chinese Nightingale

Short animated version (5 minutes)

The original story by Hans Christian Andersen (24 minutes)

Please don't forget to send me the pictures of your results!