I first did this art project in 5th grade. My 5th grade class and a third grade class came together to do a whole unit on Andy Warhol. We wrote recipes, took crazy portraits, painted soup cans, and had an art show one evening. It truly was a blast.
Looking back on it now, the soup can painting was my favorite part, and really, the coolest looking part when hung on a wall. It so cool in fact, that my class's pictures hung in the airport for a month for everyone to see.
I've modified this project a lot since I did it in 5th grade. There was nothing wrong with my fifth grade lesson but due to time and money constraints I've changed it to fit current teacher needs. I've done this with second graders and fourth graders and learned a lot each time.
With my second graders, it was about meeting my goal of completing an art project. It wasn't about the students succeeding. As you can guess, there was a huge learning curb there. My students made camouflage cans and went through almost all of my brand new bottle of paint.
Take two, fourth grade. I did more planning this time. I knew where I fell short last time and I knew how to fix it. With my second graders, I played a short 2-5 minute video on youtube introducing Andy Warhol. I don't think it's up anymore, I looked. With my fourth graders I went out and bought a used copy of Getting to Know Andy Warhol on DVD.
You can find used copies on Amazon.
They also sell a book version but I like the DVD because it's only 15 minutes long and very informative. Plus find me a kid who doesn't like TV.
After watching the film I had the kids think of their favorite soup and write it down. This is where I learned from my second graders. Some one will say "I don't like soup." What do you do? I had a list of Campbell's soups for those students to just pick one.
Next, time to start the art lesson.
First, draw an oval on the top third of the paper, then draw two parallel lines moving downwards.
Next, draw a curved line on the bottom third connecting the two parallel lines. This would be like a smile on a happy face. Place a stripe above it by drawing two more curved lines. Draw a small circle (about the size of a half dollar) in the middle of the can. Split the can into two by drawing a linen either side of the little circle.
Draw ovals inside the large oval to create grooves on the can top. Draw a line behind the can on the top or bottom third of the page to represent the table.
Next, Write Campbell's in cursive on the top portion (Lower grades probably will/ can not use cursive so have them write in their handwriting.) and handwriting on the bottom of their favorite soup. Write Soup in all capital letters. My fourth graders started freaking out here. Many exclaimed that they never eat can soup, only mom's homemade soup. That's fine, tell them to write their favorite soup anyways. My favorites were the cans that said Campbell's Mom's SOUP. Have students draw a picture in the small circle to represent their soup. This is the logo. In mine I drew a mushroom because I had mushroom soup (which I actually hate).
Now, let's paint. I've said before that I love bright color and after the camo soup can fiasco I stress bright colors with my students. I limit the students to three colors at a time, they are welcome to come back for more colors though when they need it. They are not allowed to use brown, black, or white at all in their pictures. I even hung some samples of Andy Warhol's work up so they could see his bright colors. Pop art should POP! I have black and white paint out if they water to make their part a different shade though. If you're talking about cool and warm colors you can have students paint the can cool colors and the background warm colors or vise versa.
Time to outline. I give students three sharpies. One chisel, one fine tip, and one metallic. I got enough pens where each student has a pen in their hand at all times. I gave a fine tip and chisel pen to table partners and a metallic to each table group with the instruction to use the metallic when the student gets it then pass it on. The metallic pen is only used to write the word soup so students use it really quickly. Have students outline all words in the fine tip pen except for the word soup and their drawing on their label. Have students outline all other lines with the chisel pen except for the table line. It draws your eye more towards the can if you don't outline the table.
How does it feel? You're all done.
Here are some samples of other cans.
This is the one I made in 5th grade. My teacher bought every student a large canvas to paint on. She also bought acrylic paint and paint pens to outline. Again, this is why I modified it for cost. I certainly can't afford to do it this way with my students, I don't know how she did it.
This one has a picture that I was going to add to the drawing if I had time. I printed up a 4-up of a portrait and colored it all different colors. I like it but I don't think I'll ever add it to the art project. I used a co workers photo for my example, he was such a sport in helping me.
This is my favorite. This is my 4th graders' work hanging in the computer lab. It really brightened the place up and looks like a real Andy Warhol Campbell's soup exhibit lined up like that.
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