This post originally appeared on the blog Art with Jenny K.
I love taking ideas that I’ve used in my art room and figuring out how I can make them easy to do in any classroom and for all teachers so they can infuse their lessons with art! That was my inspiration for my line of agamograph resources that I’ve designed and created for teachers (see them all here) and that I first introduced to the Teachers Pay Teachers community. Recently I was thinking of how cool it would be to create an agamograph using emoji expressions. But, before I get ahead of myself, I’ll answer the question ‘what is an agamograph?’
WHAT IS AN AGAMOGRAPH?
An agamograph is a series of images that change at different angles. This work is named after the Israeli sculptor, Yaacov Agam who was born in 1928 and still living today (2017). This artist is known for his optical and kinetic art. To create his agamographs he used “lenticular printing.”
Although the process of lenticular printing is technical and very complicated, I have created kid-friendly (and teacher-friendly) agamograph designs that will result in a piece of artwork that won’t soon be forgotten. There is a lot of “wow!” factor in my made-for-the-classroom agamograph projects. I have interspersed and spliced together the two designs for you and I have pre-assigned a color to be added to each space. All the kids have to do is color the image, fold it correctly and hang it up. Then they can walk from one side to the other and watch their creation change from image to another. A perfect agamograph! And a lot of fun!
TAKE A QUICK LOOK WITH THIS VIDEO:
DO IT YOURSELF!
For those of you who have a bit more time on your hand and who want a more involved project, I wanted to show you how you can make your own emoji agamograph with your students starting from scratch. I’ve written the steps in a kid friendly way so that you could even use this post as the teaching guide and go step-by-step along with your students. You can also find a full how-to video of this lesson in my Teachers Pay Teachers store – it’s free! Check it out HERE or on the image below.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN EMOJI AGAMOGRAPH: STEP-BY-STEP
You’ll need 3 sheets of paper. I used 1 – 12″ x 18″ and 2 pieces of 9″ x 12″. (The sizes don’t matter a lot but you do need to be sure that the 2 smaller pieces combine to equal to the length of your larger piece. Another way to think of it is to take the longer end of your large page and divide it in 2 and you’ll have the size you need for the smaller pages.)
Start by drawing expression emojis on each of the two smaller pages. First draw in pencil and then outline in black permanent marker.
If you are going to paint like I have done it’s very important that the black outline is permanent marker or else it will smear. If you are going to color these with crayons or colored pencils then it doesn’t really matter what you outline with. Feel free to use whatever materials you have to color with – you don’t have to paint them.
Always start with your lightest color and work toward your darkest color. I started with yellow (pictured above) and then painted the backgrounds (pictured below).
Finish with the black for the eyes and mouth. If you start with the black your painting will get messy very fast, not to mention your water – always paint lightest color to darkest if possible.
While your paintings dry pull out your large 12″ x 18″ piece of paper. Use a ruler and mark off your page in 1″ strips along the longest side (18″). Remember to line the ruler up at the zero (not the edge of the ruler). Start by making small marks across the page at every one inch, then do the same thing toward the bottom of the page. Turn you ruler vertically and then connect those small marks to get straight, accurate lines and columns that are 1″ wide.
Now that you have your paper divided into column that are 1 inch wide, fold your paper in an accordion style – fan fold. Start with the first fold going back and then continue until the end.
Now you can revisit your paintings – they should be dry by now. You want your two paintings cut up into 1″ strips. You can do this by creating the 1″ lines on the painting like you did with the large blank page or you can use a paper cutter (adults only).
You will end up with two piles of 1″ strips.
It’s really easy for those pieces to get mixed up so on the back of them create a key. I used A1 to A9 on one image and B1 to B9 on the other image. You’ll want to also repeat this on the accordion folded paper. Like I have pictured below.
Now take your pile of strips that you have labeled A1, A2, etc. and start gluing them down skipping sections like this…
Depending on the materials you’ve used your ends might curl off the page before they dry. If that happens simply put paper clips on the ends until the individual pieces are dry. Like I have done here.
Repeat this process with your second pile of strips. This will be the ones labeled B1, B2, etc.
Your final emoji agamograph will look like this from the front…
And this from the sides. As you hold it up in front of you and look from side to side you will see the image change.
Pretty cool eh?!?
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Jenny Knappenberger (Art with Jenny K) is an award-winning educator who has taught art to middle school, elementary school and gifted children in Virginia and in Arizona. Jenny is dedicated to helping teachers infuse their classrooms with as much art as possible – always striving to make life just a little bit easier for teachers and school a little bit more fun for kids!
