Three Machines

First Grade Art Lesson
2 Class Periods

Three Machines, First Grade Art Lesson

About the Artist:
Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920, in Mesa Arizona.  He began his art career as a cartoonist working for Walt Disney.  He later, became an art teacher and taught students for nearly 20 years.



Artist Wayne Thiebaud

Thiebaud is a POP ARTIST.  He is best known for his delicious pastry paintings of cakes and pies.

Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud.

Thiebaud's paintings are often described as being "frosted" due to his use of thick paint.  His paintings also tend to use exaggerated colors and well defined shadows that use complementary color schemes to make them vibrate within the composition.

The piece that we used for our inspiration is called the Three Machines.

Three Machines by Wayne Thiebaud.

Thiebaud is still alive today and is living in Sacramento, CA.


Day 1:

• Students learned about the life and artwork of Wayne Thiebaud.
• As a class we discussed complementary color schemes (red and green, blue and orange, yellow and violet). Each student had to choose the complementary color scheme they wanted to use for this assignment.
• Together we constructed the machine parts through follow along demonstration.
• Pieces were glued onto the paper.  The placement of the machines and the use of space within the composition was discussed.

Day 2:

• The three characteristics of Wayne Thiebaud's artwork were reviewed.
• Students were asked to incorporate shadows within the composition by using color crayons in the complementary color scheme they selected the class period before.
• Students were given the remainder of the hour to incorporate, cut, and glue "gumball" pieces out of construction paper for each machine.

Examples of Student Work: