Monday, August 3, 2015

abstracts created with hiking trail maps

A few years ago, I picked up old hiking maps from the 1960's and 70's at a garage sale. They are for trails across British Columbia. 

I thought they would make a great project for the "Drawing from Nature" camp.

I pulled these maps out one by one and unrolled them on the table and read the name of the area out loud. I told the kids when a map's name resonated with them to raise their hand. It was a first come, first serve deal. If they wanted to negotiate trades between them, that was up to them.

Luckily there were no issues whatsoever and everyone was happy with the map they received.

I then pointed out all the different interesting lines they could focus on for their artwork and asked them to pick one area within the map they found interesting. They could chose rivers and streams, boundary lines, roads, etc.

Then with a piece of tracing paper placed over the map, they traced the lines of their choice.

Once done, they transferred this design onto a piece of black pastel paper and went over the lines with glue. We then set it aside to let it dry.

9 year old

10 year old

I'm going to stop here and mention how shocked I was that not only the kids, but also my 18 year old daughter, struggled squeezing the glue bottle. Evidently glue sticks have taken a toll and left their fingers a little weak. 

"This is too hard" filled the studio and so I did something I never do, I finished the glue lines in less than three minutes for them. I appeased my guilt at working on their papers by telling myself they had all tried their best and they still had all the pastel work waiting in the wings. In the end, I wanted the project to be fun and since I was not changing their composition at all, just tracing over the marks they had already made on the paper, the work maintained integrity.

Like I said, I was making deals with the devil for my actions as I finished all the glue lines.

I found it amusing how awestruck the kids all were that I could use a glue bottle that quickly.

Then I told them they needed to go home at eat their spinach, referring to Popeye, which again left them looking at me like I'd just landed from Mars.

Once again leaving me feeling very old.  Thank you glue bottles and Popeye, both who seem to have gone extinct when I was young living with the dinosaurs.

So when I do this project next time, I will forgo the glue and just have them mark their lines with a black oil pastel.

I won't be reminded of my age and they won't have to cry "too hard, too hard". 

9 year old

8 year old

7 year old

I then went over some of the ways artist use color for emotion and temperature. They had fun assigning colors to different moods and weather conditions. I asked them to keep this in mind as they began to put color on their "map".

6 year old

11 year old

 7 year old
First using an oil pastel, they outlined the glue lines and blended it into the paper. They love smearing. And were thrilled I finally was singing the praises of smearing because I'm usually telling them not to smear and to layer the oil pastel colors in order to blend the lines.

10 year old

8 year old

6 year old

Once they finished with the oil pastel of their choice, I asked them to cover the paper with a chalk pastel color design that was pleasing to them. And then when they were happy, they had the opportunity to go over with some oil pastel one last time.

6 year old

This child hates chalk pastel, the sound they make rubbing on the paper bugs him, so he did his work with only oil pastel.  Different look, but great result. 

7 year old

I loved this project because everyone was focused solely on the process. There was no end vision on what it had to look like completed. It was even longer than normal before I heard the nightmarish cry of "I'm done". If nothing else, that makes this project a win in my book. I thought they all got beautiful results.


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