Wayne Thiebaud

In this unit, students will get to use a range of materials and techniques including clay sculpture, collage, painting, and drawing to create donuts, lollipops, ice-cream, cakes and cupcakes inspired by Wayne Thiebaud. This is a unit that is sure to sweeten up any classroom.

Kinder to year 2

Within the K-2 category, students will have the opportunity to make an adorable clay donut and a series of delicious lollipops, learning clay handling, smoothing, and joining techniques, and experimenting with liquid clay and coloured PVA as a sculptural medium. In the following project, students will create a brightly coloured gumball machine artwork using collage and drawing techniques. Students will draw on the elements of colour, shape, space, and form in the creation of realistic three dimensional objects and will draw on these skills in order to create the illusion of depth on a 2D plane with their gum ball machine collage artworks.

Year 3 and 4

Within the year 3-4 category, students will create a representational drawing of a donut using drawing and collage techniques with coloured pencil. Students will design their donut, sketch the design and colour the artwork keeping in mind highlights and shadows to create depth, and finish the artwork with a fun tablecloth background. Next, students will expand on their knowledge of lights and darks in artwork to draw an ice-cream sundae using coloured pencils on paper, using the elements of colour, form, shape and line to approximate the colours and shapes of the reference images. The final project includes a sculptural artwork of an icecream sundae, using paper magi-clay to create a realistic representation of an icecream sundae complete with icing, sprinkles, and a waffle cone. These lessons will expand on students knowledge of depth, allowing them to experiment with visual effects in representations, including foreshortening and curvature.

Year 5 and 6

Within the 5-6 year category, students will complete two highly detailed and realistic images of cakes. In the cake drawing lesson, students will expand on their knowledge of depth and composition by completing an oil pastel drawing of a tiered cake complete with decorations, icing, and a plate underneath.  The unit includes a realistic painting of a cupcake piled high with icing, further advancing students comprehension of paint application techniques in representational artworks. In each artwork students will have the opportunity to experiment with colour choices, colour mixing and blending, composition and depth. Students will improve their sketching, drawing and painting abilities, and gain a better grasp of the skills and techniques required when creating realistic representational artworks.

Bonus Lesson Plan: Wayne Thiebaud Cake Sculpture

Download this additional lesson plan separately as part of the Wayne Thiebaud unit. The cake sculpture lesson plan adds a 3D project for students to create with inexpensive materials and it is also part of the ACE curriculum.