Friday, November 6, 2015

mixed media birds- acrylic and printmaking

After starting an Instagram account called Kudzu Art Studio, https://instagram.com/kudzuartstudio/,
to share all the amazing works of art being created by the students, I came across an amazing studio in Sidney Australia called, "the kid creative".

If you are on Instagram, have a look here.https://instagram.com/thekidcreative/

There were these amazing mixed media artworks that were so impressive I sent a note asking how they had been created. The instructor graciously wrote back to me and generously shared the techniques she had used to create the works of art.

I could not wait to give this project a try with the students in the Monday class.

Although the original project had used magazine pictures of landscapes, I had the students in my class paint a landscape (or flower) using acrylic paints.

Again, I they were given only primary colors, black, white, and burnt umber. They worked out their composition on the acrylic paper using charcoal.

This was an interesting process for them since the paper was an unusual size at 3.5x12. When they finished their paintings, I handed each student a styrofoam square.

On a piece of copy paper, I asked them to draw a bird using only interesting lines. Then they taped the drawing on top of the styrofoam that I had already taped to the table and traced over their marks.

After making sure they had traced all the lines, the students took off their drawings, retraced over their lines on the styrofoam to make sure they were well indented and then made some prints using white ink on black paper.

11 year old

9 year old

7 year old

After making sure they were all happy with the results of the prints on the black paper, we took another sheet of black paper and glued the acrylic painting they had created to the right side.

They then printed on top of the work, again using the white ink.

The results are stunning!

9 year old

During this project, I learned that the above artist really enjoys landscape painting. He got completely lost in the work and got a beautiful result. He was quite deliberate in the placement of his print as he did not want it to cover up the water that he was so proud of painting.

11 year old

This student started with painting flowers. When it came time to create her bird, she asked if it was OK to do her bird flying. As always, the decisions are always theirs and so I told her to go for it if that is what she wanted to do. I was not sure what the end result would look like since it varied from my vision of the project, but that makes it all the more interesting. In the end, the result was beyond marvelous! Without it being her intention, the bird looks like it is collecting nectar from the flowers. Such a wonderful example of trusting your gut and being courageous enough to just "see what happens". I'm so proud of her and her art.

7 year old

And then there is this little guy. Oh my word, those are a lot of eggs surrounding the bird. She is going to have her hands full when they all hatch! (The first one on the far right has just hatched by the way.)

This artist spent a long time on his painting, paying particular attention to a stair pathway in the forest. However unlike the first artist, he wasn't too concerned about how much of it showed when placing his print on the paper. And so great that he didn't because it actually looks like the branch from his print is connected to the painted tree thanks to his decision on placement.

The students finished these works in a 90 minute class, however left them in the studio to dry. When Tuesday's class came, they were quite taken with them and also wanted to do the project. 

Interestingly though, they only finished the acrylic painting in a 90 minute class. So it goes with the personality make up of different groups of children. I can't wait to share with you their work once it is complete.

I love these works. I'm so excited for the kids as they loved them too. What is even more exciting is that I sent a thank you to the instructor in Australia when I posted these on Instagram. She responded and we are now looking to collaborate together with our students in the future on a work. 

Won't that be a great experience for the kids? Getting to know new friends from the other side of the world through art?  I could not be more excited about the opportunity for myself and my students.

All started by some sweet mixed media works starring birds.




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