Bisa Butler Inspired Self Portrait Quilts

Grade Level

7-8, 9-10

Duration

8 periods, 43 minutes a period.

Materials

Photoshop

Media

Digital Art

Lesson Objectives

For the student to be able to…
• identify a Bisa Butler portrait as both a quilt and an art form.
• analyze colors, textures, and patterns by reflecting on their identity and experiences.
• create a grayscale self-portrait by posterizing my levels to 5 shades.
• emphasize color in an image by using clipping masks and layer styles.

Introductory Activity

Day 1: Students will learn about the artist Bisha Butler and her work by watching a video, as well as looking at her work to identify key themes expressed in her artwork. Students prepare for the project by thinking about their positive character traits and finding high-quality “digital fabrics” that express them through color, texture, and pattern.

Day 2/3: Students take self-portraits, create a new document, import the portrait of themself, edit the photos to increase contrast, posterize their skin to have 5 values, and repaint to smoothen out the edges.

Lesson Process

Day-by-day slide shows exist for this lesson and can be found linked in the resource section of this lesson.

On days 4-5 students paint details (hair, eyes, nose, outlines, etc.).
On days 6-7, students clip-masked fabrics selected for all parts of their digital quilt.
On days day 8 studio day to fine-tune their projects, any missing details and add backgrounds and sewing techniques, appliqués, stitching, etc.

Vocabulary

allegory, collage, reference photo, scale, textile, texture, pattern quilts, color scheme, posterization

Resources