Marissa's+Sumo+Paint+lesson+Winter+2010

Marissa’s Lesson Plan

Sumo Paint

Unit: Characterization

Objective: Students will learn how to create characters and give them real personality through using Sumo Paint to create a 6-word memoir.

Materials Needed: Computers with internet access to get to http://www.sumopaint.com/home/ and a camera/picture they already took

Lesson:

Questions: From what we’ve been learning this past week, what is characterization? (write list on blackboard). What aspects of a character are important to know in your mind when you are creating a character? (Trick question – everything is important – the more things you have fleshed out in your mind about your character the more real it will be to you and your audience!) That being said, what are some aspects that you __could__ discover/create about your character? What are some outward appearances that could trigger some characteristics that you would give to the character? Or what are some outward appearances that you would want others to gather traits and characteristics about your character from?

Introduce our 6-word memoir project: We will be working on creating a character. I want you all to have the following characteristics written out in a paper about your character: · Name · Age · Place of birth · Job · Information about family relations · Likes/dislikes · Habits · Description of outward appearance · Mini biography of their past life

With this paper, students will turn in what I call a 6-word memoir. It is a picture with 6 words, no more, no less, on it that describe a person’s personality. The picture doesn’t have to be of the student dressed as their character per se, but it can be of anything that represents their character and personality. This is a chance for the students to really think outside the box when it comes to their character and to help them think of these characters as real tangible human beings as opposed to just ideas. These 6-word memoirs will be created by using Sumo Paint online.

Instructions on how to use Sumo Paint:

· Go to the website: http://www.sumopaint.com/home/ and click on the blue square that says “Open Sumo and start fooling around!” · To upload a photo to it, click “File” go to “Import to Layer” and you can either download a photo you have on your computer or a photo from online such as your facebook or your photobucket. · Different tools to use: o Magicwand tool – highlights areas within the picture simply by clicking on the area, and by thus doing so, your work will stay only on that area. o Brush tool – choose from different colors and sizes of brushes to put new color and life into your photo o Paint tool – same as the brush tool, but at a single click puts color on mass areas of the picture o Erase tool – erase any mistakes with this tool o Text tool – very important for this project – allows you to put any size and font text anywhere onto your picture. o Eyedrop tool – click anywhere on your picture and it will pick up the exact shade of the color on your color wheel o Crop tool – make the picture the exact size you want o Smudge tool – for blending colors together · Other tools of note: o Under “Adjustments” you can play with the different effects such as brightness and color that you can use on your picture. o Under “Filters” they’re more of special effects and strange effects you can use and apply to your picture.

Be creative with your memoir and really try to embody your character through your picture and your 6 words!