1. WAYNE THIEBAUD CUPCAKE PAINTING

2. What do you see?

3. What do you see?

4. How are they alike?

5. How are they different?

6. Wayne Thiebaud • American Painter
• Pop Artist (paints everyday, mass-produced objects)
• Exaggerates shadows like an advertisement
What do you think he is trying to say by exaggerating shadows like an advertisement?

7. Where do you think the light is coming from?

8. How do you know?

9. Do you see any rectangles?

10. Do you see any ovals?

11. The bottom of a cupcake is a circle.

12. As the cupcake tilts away from you, the circle becomes flattened.

13. The more the cupcake tilts away from you, the flatter the circle becomes.

14. This is called FORESHORTENING

15. Sometimes you can only see the front part of the flattened circle

16. How do you think Thiebaud drew this cupcake?

17. Can you draw and paint a cupcake like Thiebaud?

18. How to Draw and Paint a Cupcake

19. Look carefully at your cupcake.
• Do you see any ovals?
• Where is the light coming from?
• Where does the shadow fall?
• How tall is your cupcake compared to how wide it is?

20. Remember, circles flatten when they tip away from us.

21. Paint the background.
• Use a big brush to paint big areas, and a small brush to paint small areas.
• Is the background in your painting a big area or a small area?
• What size brush should you use?

22. Paint carefully and neatly
Paint carefully and neatly. Notice that there are no white spots in the area that has been painted.

23. Paint big shapes first.

24. When you want to change colors, wash your brush, then dry it on a paper towel to help keep your colors clean.

25. Cover the entire paper with paint.
(If you want an area to be white, paint it white)

26. Once all the big shapes are painted, layer details on top of the first layer of paint.

27. Student Examples

29. Don’t have paint? Use colored pencils!

30. Remember your goals:
• Use flattened circles to show the cupcake is tilting away from you
• Show the light source by making a shadow
• Paint neatly and cover the entire paper

31. Class Critique Walk around the room and look at everybody’s artwork.
• Do you see something that you really like?
• If you could do your project again, what would you do differently?

32. Rubric 3 pts 4 pts 5 pts Ovals
There are no ovals present in the cupcake painting.
Some of the ovals indicate that the cupcake is tilted away from the viewer.
Ovals indicate that the cupcake is tilted away from the viewer.
Shadow
There are no shadows to help indicate the light source.
Some shadows help show the direction of the light source.
The shadows are consistent and show the direction of the light source.
Craftsmanship
Painting has many unintentional marks and the paper is not covered.
Painting is mostly done neatly, and most of the paper is covered.
Painting is done neatly and carefully. All of the paper is covered.

33. Teacher Guide Wayne Thiebaud Cupcake Painting Lesson
Time: Either one 60 minute lesson, or two 30 minute lessons. If painting is not a regular part of your classroom practice, add 15 minutes for clean-up.
National Arts Standards: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 3a, 4a, 4b, 5c
Materials:
• Brushes (If possible, have one large brush and one small brush for each student)
• Paint (Acrylic, tempera, watercolor, or gouache. I recommend having 4 different colors for every group of 5 students to share. If using watercolor, one tray for every two students is adequate)
• Palettes (If you are a classroom teacher without a set of palettes, I strongly recommend using disposable palettes as it makes clean-up much easier. You can buy a bad of disposable palettes from you local art store and cut them in half.)
• Water containers filled 1/3 of the way up with water
• Paper towels to wipe brushes on
• Pencils
• Thick Paper (preferably watercolor paper, but drawing paper will do in a pinch)
• Cupcakes or pictures of cupcakes
• A place to let wet paintings dry – windowsills, a drying rack, desktops that don’t need to be used for the next hour, etc.

34. OR
• Pencils
• Construction Paper
• Colored Pencils
• Cupcakes or pictures of cupcakes
Procedure:
Introduce the art of Wayne Thiebaud with the “Wayne Thiebaud Cupcake Painting” PowerPoint presentation.
Hand out pencils, paper, and cupcakes. Specify that the cupcakes are for observation and are not to be eaten until the end of the lesson.
Start the “How to Draw and Paint a Cupcake” PowerPoint presentation. Go through slides 1-4.
Have students make a pencil drawing of their cupcakes.
While students are drawing, hand out palettes. brushes, and water cups filled 1/3 of the way with water. Place paint in middle of table.
When students have finished drawing, continue the “How to Draw and Paint a Cupcake” PowerPoint presentation. Stop on slide #8.
WARNING: BEFORE ALLOWING STUDENTS TO USE PAINT, INSTRUCT THEM TO PUT ONLY SMALL BITS OF PAINT ON THEIR PALETTES AT A TIME. THEY CAN ALWAYS ADD MORE PAINT. DO NOT LET THEM PUT HUGE PILES OF PAINT ON THEIR PALETTES OR YOU WILL HAVE A BIG MESS.

35. 8. Instruct students to start painting their backgrounds, and then their big shapes. They should be using bigger brushes for these bigger
areas.
9. Demonstrate how to wash and dry a brush on a paper towel when switching colors of paint.
10. Continue the PowerPoint presentation and stop on slide #13.
11. Once students have covered their entire paper with paint, they can begin painting details. They should use smaller brushes for these smaller details.
12. If students are rushing and claim to be finished early, ask them to add details to their paintings, fill in any white spots on their paper, adjust the shapes in their drawings, etc. If using rubrics, ask them to grade themselves on the rubric.
13. Once you agree that a student is done, ask that student to help with the clean up by collecting dirty brushes, clean or throw away finished palettes, etc. By this time, most students should be using the smaller brushes and most of the big brushes can be washed.
14. Give a ten minute warning before full clean-up commences.
15. Give a five minute warning before full clean-up commences.
16. Start clean-up activities. Divide students into groups. Have one group hold up artwork while another group washes the tables. A third group should wash brushes, a fourth group should wash palettes. Washers get three counts of Mississippi to clean their painting tools. You must limit the time each student gets at the sink or clean-up will take a very long time. Have plenty of paper towels around for students to dry hands and wash tables.
17. When clean-up is done, have students walk around the room and look at their classmates’ art. Using the last slide of the PowerPoint presentation, lead a group critique of the artwork.
18. Have students move wet paintings to designated drying place.
19. Eat cupcakes.

36. Differentiation: For students who have difficulties grasping the full concept of the lesson, ask them to focus on one aspect of painting, such as covering the entire white area of the paper with paint. For more advanced students, ask them to develop the background of their cupcake painting. Is there cupcake in outer space? Is it on your grandmother’s table? Is a groundhog about to eat it? Etc.
Teacher Notes:
This is a great way to turn school birthday celebrations into a meaningful teaching moment. Before handing out cupcakes, I make it clear that the cupcakes will only be eaten after students try their hardest on their paintings. Additionally, I use the phrase “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” when handing out cupcakes to eliminate any quibbling by students. This phrase works for all sorts of art supplies, since rarely do teachers have a set of brushes that are exactly the same, or sets of paint that are all the same, etc.
Cleanup is the most chaotic part of any painting lesson because there is usually only one sink available to wash brushes and palettes. I find that telling my students that they only get to the count of three-Mississippi to wash their brushes that they get pretty fast at cleaning up. For the first few students I do the counting myself, and then a group mentality usually takes over the students and they monitor the sink time pretty well themselves. In order to get the brushes truly clean in just three seconds, I teach my students a technique of rubbing the bristles in the palm of their hand. This washes both their hands and the brushes at the same time.