Heritage Middle School Scholars Create Animal Portraits

Scholars in Ms. McCarthy's art class at Heritage Middle School created pet portraits on Chrome Canvas. In this project, students watched the movie Coco and created their own portraits of family pets rendered in the Oaxacan style. Students analyzed the use of color and pattern in the movie and in traditional Mexican Folk Art. They determined that the vivid colors and patterns convey the power of the animals as they assisted the main characters in the movie through their difficult journey.  Students discussed family pets and brought photographs from home into the classroom to share stories. Working in Chrome Canvas, each student downloaded their photo and applied layers of color using warm colors over light values and cool colors over dark values. Patterns were drawn in the last layer as our artists attempted to render the “spirit” of the animal, using the movie as inspiration. "I was very impressed with the work that came out of this project and with the level of student engagement under such unusual circumstances," remarked Ms. McCarthy. 

Scholars whose work is displayed in this story are:

Wolf - Ayanna Gorham

Cat - Malayziah Spearman

Dog (green) - Charles Robinson

Dog (multi-colored) - Logan Conn

Ferret - Ava Pegg

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!