Natalie's Classroom Art: April 2015

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Other Resources

These are blogs from my classmates at USU. They have some more awesome ideas and lesson plans for you to look at.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Non-objective Cardboard Construction

Supplies: Cardboard boxes, paper towel rolls, pencil, scissors, hot glue, spray paint.

I worked with a partner on this and it was a great experience. We cut out different shapes, and using a pencil we curled some cardboard and used the paper towel rolls and cut those which worked out awesome to use as well. We set up three pillars and then started to use our shapes and curls to attach them in an interesting non-objective composition. We used hot glue to attach the cardboard pieces together. We wanted the piece to look interesting and have intrigue from several different angles. When we were finished we decided to spray paint the cardboard with silver from one angle. This really emphasized the overlapping and angle of some of the cardboard shapes. Next time it would be interesting to try several different colors of spray paint from different angles.

Puffy Paint Mask

Supplies: net, puffy paint, sparkles, scissors, saran wrap, tape,

This mask is very fun and easy. I decided on a design and shape of the mask I wanted on paper. I then covered my paper with saran wrap, taping it to my paper. Then I took my square of net and taped it over the saran wrap. Using puffy paint I traced my design of my mask. When I was finished I took some sparkles and sprinkled over the still wet puffy paint. When it was all dry I took my net square off and cut out the eye wholes and around my mask. Mask is flexible and fairly sturdy. Use a thicker netting so it's less likely to rip especially for children. Mask is even more sturdy where there is lines rather than dots, but it still works great. Attach some string or ribbon to mask so you can wear it. You may use a needle and thread to attach it, hot glue, or a whole punch. I love the sparkles it adds a magical quality to it and they stay on.

Milk Jug Mask

Supplies: milk jug, scissors, acrylic paint, foam, hot glue, a whole punch, raffia, and masking tape.

I really wanted an African theme for my mask but to still make it my own. I drew out the basic shape I wanted my mask to be and used scissors to cut it out. (The seams of the milk jug are super hard to cut through. It's possible just hard.) I then covered the entire mask in masking tape. From there I painted my mask and added designs I felt were appropriate. I still felt like my mask needed more so I took some foam and using my scissors carved out some eye lids and lips to create some depth to my mask. I painted them with acrylic paint and then hot glued the foam onto my mask. Using a whole punch I made holes in my mask and then tied raffia to my mask to create some literal texture. This was super fun and turned out really nice. Fairly inexpensive project to do.

Foam Plate Printmaking

Supplies: dull pencil, a foam plate, and acrylic paint

On the base of the foam plate I indented my design into the foam plate with a dull pencil. Then with a paint brush I covered the foam plate evenly and did several prints. I really like this method, it was fun and fairly easy to do. I loved layering my prints and using ghost prints (a 2nd print made with paint still left on plate) and first prints overlapping each other. I like seeing the different colors pop through, and how the overlapping really adds to the design of the artwork.

Ziploc bag Printmaking

Supplies: Ziploc bag, acrylic paint, q-tip, and paint brushes.

I liked this method because it gave a lot more freedom to make designs and shapes, you could take a q-tip and pull off some paint so that was white instead. The plastic bag could be used over and over again to make more prints. Next time I would like to try this with tempera paint because I had to put down my prints quickly so the acrylic paint didn't dry.

Batik

Supplies: 100% cotton t-shirt square, paper, black marker, un-washable tempera paint, and washable Elmers glue (clear).

I drew out my design on a piece of paper with black marker and then using Elmers glue I traced my design onto my t-shirt. (It helps if you iron the fabric so its flat.) When the Elmers glue was dry I then painted on my fabric the colors I wanted. When the paint was dry I used warm water and washed out all the glue rubbing it off with my fingers. Some of the dye came out, so be sure to put a nice amount on. Where the glue had been was left white. The process was super fun, and I like how the design and color remind me of spring.

Zentangle

Supplies: oil pastels, watercolor paper, 1/4 c. of black tempera, 1/4 c. Liquid dish soap, something to scratch with (popsicle stick, fork, paperclip, etc.), and a paint brush

Using oil pastels on top of watercolor paper and then covering the entire paper with tempera paint and soap made a scratchboard. Really coat it thick and expect to do several layers. I thought this was very fun and interesting. Kids would enjoy the concept of zentangle and the fact that it was colored would get them excited as well. I feel that this could be pretty much done with any age level, but I see 2nd and 3rd graders enjoying it the most probably. With 1st graders I would give them a smaller square of paper to work with, and with older students go with a larger piece. It was very messy, so If your doing it with younger grades in particular expect to vacuum at the end of the day.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Light Painting

Supplies: Flashlight, camera with slow shutter speed capabilities, and tissue paper

Light Painting is using a camera and at least one flashlight. I found you could use colored tissue paper over the flashlight to create different colors in your light painting. The hardest part for me was figuring out my camera so that it took a long shutter speed and I had enough time to "paint" in the air with my flashlight or flashlights. I collaborated with others and it was really fun because it was much easier to have several colors or motions going on to create something unique.

100 Color Challenge

Supplies: Watercolor and Acrylic paint.

The top half is watercolor and the bottom half is acrylic. I collaborated with a partner to come up with at least 100 different colors. Watercolor was slightly trickier because to get different shades we had to water down our paint. After a few colors we really had to start thinking out of the box and try mixing new colors. This assignment is much more fun collaborating with a partner.

Create Your Own Alien

Supplies: Oil pastel, marker, cardstock, scissors, pencil.

To create this alien I first took a piece of paper and folded it. On the fold line I wrote my name in cursive letters. I then cut around my name and unfolded the shape to reveal a unique alien form. I colored the alien and her background. I then decided why she was beautiful and what on her planet is considered beautiful. My alien is beautiful because of her bright pink eyes, and her big blue lips which is considered beautiful on her planet.

Georgia O'Keeffe inspired watercolor

Supplies: Watercolor paper, watercolor paint, and a pencil

This is a Georgia O'Keeffe inspired watercolor. I used pencil to sketch it out, and then I painted using only one color at a time usually. Occasionally I had several brushes and had a brush for each specific color. Watercolor is very hard for me and I struggle, but after experimenting with this I feel much more comfortable doing watercolors. I love the contrast in this piece as well as the complimentary colors red and green. They really add a lot to the piece and I'm very pleased with how it all turned out.

Mandala

Supplies: colored pencil, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, thin black marker,

When I researched mandalas I began to piece together some ideas that I thought were pleasing to the eye but also represented me. I began to think of things that symbolize me and how I wanted to represent them in my mandala. I sketched out several designs and ideas to put in my mandala. I also experimented with a rough draft of my mandala to decide what colors and designs I liked best. My sketch was free handed, and I wanted it to be symmetrical, so I folded pieces of paper and cut out the shape I wanted. I then traced my paper shape so that I knew that the shape was symmetrical. I decided to have two sets of eyes, one green and one blue, because sometimes I have green eyes, while other times I have blue eyes. I am also a very visual person and learn best by watching someone else. On the outer edge of the eyes there are butterflies because butterflies fly from one thing to another and I am the same way, I like doing and learning a variety of different things and am open to trying new things. The pink tutu is because I am a ballet dancer. I chose peacock feathers because I love the colors, the look of them and the graceful shape. I chose the colors, blue, pink, purple, and teal because those are my favorite colors. The gold reminds me of things that are bright and happy, and I consider myself a positive person. I chose to use watercolor paint for the butterfly wings, the flowers and the tutu because I wanted to experiment with layering the colors. I used acrylic paint for the gold and white highlights because it is opaque, and I used colored pencil for the peacock feathers and eyes because I could make fine details. I used a black micron marker to outline some of the mandala details

Monday, April 13, 2015

Watercolor Emotions

Supplies: watercolor paint, saran wrap, rubbing alcohol, salt, paper towel, oil pastel, watercolor paper, masking tape

Techniques that I used was oil pastels, alcohol drops, blotting with a paper towel, dripping watercolor, plastic wrap, and salt. To get the clean lines I used masking tape on the watercolor paper. It helps if you put some line on the tape first (like from your pants) so the watercolor paper doesn't rip when you take it off. The bottom center is where I did the plastic wrap and that turned out great, but I had to wait for the watercolor to completely dry before removing the plastic wrap. My inspiration was emotions. I did confused, anger, tired, sad, excited, and happy. Watercolor is hard for me but experimenting with the different techniques helped me feel more comfortable with watercolor paints.

Notan

Supplies: Black construction paper, scissors, exacto knife, glue stick, white cardstock,

This is black paper on white. I had a black square of paper and cut out both geometric and organic shapes, saving each cut out piece. For shapes cut out in the center I used an exacto knife. Using a glue stick I glued down each individual piece so that they lined up and created an abstract image. This was very fun and turned out a lot better than I was originally expecting. I had cut so much stuff out that the main square felt like it was going to rip when I was trying to glue it down. Luckily it didn't.

Tin Foil Bas Relief

Supplies: cardboard, a variety of lace, hot glue, a glue stick, tin foil, q-tip, and shoe polish.

I wanted this to be a collage of textures, so using different lace I glued the lace onto the cardboard with hot glue. Then using the glue stick I covered the lace and cardboard with glue, and promptly put the tin foil on top with enough to fold over the edges. Using my finger and a q-tip I gently rubbed on the tin foil to get the finer details of the lace. Then I took shoe polish and rubbed that in so the different patterns of the lace was more prominent. The shoe polish made the tin foil less shiny, but definitely made the textures stand out.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Lesson Plans for Elementary students

Fruit Texture Lesson Plan

Foam Plate Printmaking Lesson Plan

Egyptian Cartouche Lesson Plan