Animals in art - is a popular theme with kids and many
historical examples can be found - from all cultures.
I did the theme of animals with my sixth graders and
tied it in with science (and various cultures around
the world). I used copyright free sources for the most
part (I know I had photocopied some pages from books-
shame on me). The goal was never to copy the picture
exactly though - but only use it for reference (often
we abstracted/simplified - and on occasion X-rayed).
Some of these are copyright free. Check the copyright
statements on the sites.
Another source is Diversity Web - they WILL give you
permission to use photographs for this purpose if you
contact them. I did not get an answer from National
Zoo. Both Diversity Web and National Zoo allow
students to use images in reports and such - making a
"derived" art is another matter (Diversity Web will
give you images you can use). Both of these sources
are on my Art/Math/Science page:
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/mathsci.htm
Of course, it is best to work from imagination/memory,
from life, or your own photographs...but sometimes you
just might need that "illusive panda" (long story).
When I started researching copyright, I intended to
put a page on Incredible Art Department... Now I have
a mountain of material to wade through. I think using
copyrighted photographs is an issue that individual
teachers have to decide on their own (In talking with
some AP teachers, colleges are not allowing it). In
time, I will be adding copyright notes to all lessons
that used published images. All new lessons coming in
using copyrighted images will be edited before I put
them on Incredible Art Department. I'm curious if I
will get an answer from N.G. (magazine) - allowing us
to use their images for collage...will let you know
(copyright statement on their web site does NOT allow
it).
