In lieu of the first day of school.....sigh.
I have had great success with mixed media projects with kids. I find that because there are several steps in creating this type of artwork, it keeps children engaged for exceptionally long periods of time. They seem to throughly enjoy watching their artwork change and evolve with each new addition.
This time we started with newspaper and the students were so particular about what they wanted to cut out and place on the paper. So much so I had to keep reminding them that most of it would be covered by paint, oil pastels, chalk pastel and charcoal in the end.
I told them to pick one or two of their favorite things they found in the paper that they could leave uncovered but they needed to start considering where to place it on the paper so it did not get covered by their final owl drawing, basically getting those gears turning in their head to start thinking about their composition!
4 year old
The students used glue sticks to stick down all their newsprint and then it became a process of learning how to make sure ALL the edges were securely glued down before moving onto the next step.
This is quite a learning process for many children. Loose edges are a child's worse enemy!
7 year old
8 year old
9 year old
(sorry about the lighting on some of these, user error....) Then once they were done with the acrylic, they went over some of the seams with black oil pastel.
6 year old
I kept harping on covering the newsprint and then to wipe away the wet paint from anything they wanted to show through...but not have it glaringly stand out but as you can see, this student listened to my instructions and then made the artistic choice to ignore them. And this is a great lesson for me because my instinct was that this artwork would not work due to the refusal to "blend" in the monkey found in the newspaper at all. Yet in the end, it came out great! As if this owl has a monkey on his mind. Lesson learned for me to trust in each and every student choice, even when it is the choice to ignore my advice and instruction.
8 year old
8 year old
6 year old
And finally after all the paint, oil and chalk pastel, it was time to draw the owls. I did do a teacher instructed follow-along "how to" with this project and we all drew our owls together. I find it fascinating that although all the students followed along when drawing the owl with me, they all came out completely different! It is always interesting to me to see how each child uniquely interprets the same instruction.
I had a bunch of different sizes of vine charcoal for them to pick from when drawing the owl, thick to thin, and they each made a choice as to which they would prefer. When finished they all had the opportunity to pick from any of the media we had used to make final touches on their artwork.
And what great artwork it turned out to be! But most important, the kids had a hoot. (sorry, couldn't resist.)
5 year old
5 year old
7 year old
And for those of you who are local, I will be holding all day art camps until the school closure ends from 9am-4pm at my studio in Lynn Valley. I will be sharing all sorts of different things with the kids - clay, wet felting, printmaking, drawing, painting, and we will even hit the trail at Lynn Valley Canyon (two block walk) to sketch and collect things to inspire our artwork in the studio. Each week will run $250.00 but siblings get a 20% discount and the fee includes all materials and taxes. Of course if school opens during the middle of the week, refunds for days not used will be reimbursed. I keep my studio classes small in order to give lots of one on one attention, so space is limited. You can find more information about the studio at Kudzustudio.com This camp is appropriate for all ages.
No comments:
Post a Comment