Painted, embellished, and expressive baseball hats!
In THIS post I talk about how I scaffold media. Students show me what they can handle, and are “rewarded” with more sophisticated media. Though I always start with drawing, I like to end my courses (semester) with a particularly fun (and challenging) exploration as a kind of reward. This year I was lucky enough to get some white baseball caps from the nonprofit supplier NAEIR. Caps are also available for less than $1.50 each on Amazon in bulk:
Child Size Lots HERE, and HERE.
Young Adult Sizes HERE and HERE.
We begin by listing “what’s on our minds”:
Activism, Hobbies, Sports, Clubs, Talents, Beliefs, Carrer Interests, Politics, Games, Vacation Locations…
Alternatively, with the holidays approaching, I offered the option of students creating their hat as a gift for someone and using a theme that would be appreciated as a gift, but it needed to meet our exploration guidelines.
I identified 3 things I wanted students to include to meet expectations:
To exceed expectations, they could:
Each student had to create two design submissions that would be displayed along with their final artwork. We would pair-and-share our designs with a small group or peer partners to select the design we felt would best meet project requirements or perhaps even exceed them as part of our critique process. I used the following hand-out based on THIS image I found on Google.
In THIS post I talk about how I scaffold media. Students show me what they can handle, and are “rewarded” with more sophisticated media. Though I always start with drawing, I like to end my courses (semester) with a particularly fun (and challenging) exploration as a kind of reward. This year I was lucky enough to get some white baseball caps from the nonprofit supplier NAEIR. Caps are also available for less than $1.50 each on Amazon in bulk:
Child Size Lots HERE, and HERE.
Young Adult Sizes HERE and HERE.
We begin by listing “what’s on our minds”:
Activism, Hobbies, Sports, Clubs, Talents, Beliefs, Carrer Interests, Politics, Games, Vacation Locations…
Alternatively, with the holidays approaching, I offered the option of students creating their hat as a gift for someone and using a theme that would be appreciated as a gift, but it needed to meet our exploration guidelines.
I identified 3 things I wanted students to include to meet expectations:
- A clear personal theme
- Incorporate all sides of the hat
- It had to be artful and not “merchandise.”*
To exceed expectations, they could:
- Include 3D embellishments
- Include sewing or embroidery
- Incorporate detailed patters or gradients of color
Each student had to create two design submissions that would be displayed along with their final artwork. We would pair-and-share our designs with a small group or peer partners to select the design we felt would best meet project requirements or perhaps even exceed them as part of our critique process. I used the following hand-out based on THIS image I found on Google.
| Hat Sketch & Planning Sheet |
I also made 2 hats as exemplars to show students how they could meet and exceed expectations.
I shared with students what supplies we would be using.
We discussed 2 major approaches to starting.
- Masking tape for clean lines
- Pencils
- Acrylic paints
- Acrylic dyes (watered down acrylics)
- Paint Pens
- Sharpie Markers
- Yarn/string and needles
- Felt
- Hot glue
- An assortment of craft supplies
- They could bring in items as well.
We discussed 2 major approaches to starting.
  | If the cap was essentially 1 or 2 main colors with a fairly simple design on top, then painting the cap with those base colors might be the best way to start. I used this SpongeBob hat as an example. You could see it would make sense to paint the top of it yellow and add the cartoon face on top. In this second example, which is more complicated, it would make more sense to sketch everything first, and then take the time to paint in the elements. If students were not sure of how to start, they would share their sketch with me and I would offer advice. |
Working on a curved surface can be challenging. I had enough foam mannequin heads for a class to use, but you could also stuff the hats with newspaper to firm up the surface. This will make drawing on the hat easier.
Engagement was very high with this project. As media challenges came up, I made some special liner brushes available, and some epoxy clay for one student to make cookies for their Cookie Monster hat. I check daily that they were independently setting up their workspaces appropriately and taking the time to clean up well. I even spot-checked brushes to be certain they were getting thoroughly cleaned. I asses a daily “studio habits” grade which you can read about HERE.
Engagement was very high with this project. As media challenges came up, I made some special liner brushes available, and some epoxy clay for one student to make cookies for their Cookie Monster hat. I check daily that they were independently setting up their workspaces appropriately and taking the time to clean up well. I even spot-checked brushes to be certain they were getting thoroughly cleaned. I asses a daily “studio habits” grade which you can read about HERE.
I would feel comfortable doing this lesson for grades 4 and up. If fabric markers were available, that might even be better for younger artists.
If you liked this lesson, come back to my blog for new ones about every month. If you need some help with your pedagogy, I have written THIS book that includes 30+ years of my teaching experience. If you need choice-based lesson ideas THIS book includes both 2D and 3D lessons and hand-outs you can copy for your students.
If you liked this lesson, come back to my blog for new ones about every month. If you need some help with your pedagogy, I have written THIS book that includes 30+ years of my teaching experience. If you need choice-based lesson ideas THIS book includes both 2D and 3D lessons and hand-outs you can copy for your students.
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