Best known for its comparison of uncommon things, Surrealism consisted of uncomfortable, illogical scenes and creatures made from everyday objects, painted in photo-like detail, with the main idea being the merging of the awake and the dream world, creating something that exists in between both.
Using the handout, you can create your own trippy surreal art!
Learn new vocabulary: Illogical, Innerving, Photorealism
Tool Kit: Stretching Your Imagination Handout and pencils or crayons.
Directions:
Step 1 Look online for different surreal paintings and Surrealist artists. (Several will be shown in the included video). Salvador Dali is the most famous example (and a personal favorite of mine.)
Step 2 Analyze the paintings by asking yourself the following questions: What makes the paintings so surreal? What do Salvador Dali and other artists do to make the art so unsettling? How do they make everyday objects look like faces and people? Figure out what makes these art pieces so different from the rest.
Step 3 Using the handout, write down three different objects and three different animals that you can think of. After writing your answers, draw or color a picture where an animal is made from the objects you wrote.
Group Activity: Show off your artwork to your friends and family. Can they see the animal made out of your objects? What animals do they think would be cool to make out of objects?
Extend Your Journey: Use a journal to write down what happened in your dreams, and try to draw or paint your dream in the surrealistic style. Dreams can be hard to remember and are often strange, which will help your drawing look extra interesting.
