For fun I had each girl begin to sketch their sculptures and then we worked on the importance of adding value while they finessed the drawing.
As their parents arrived for pick up, they had some really interesting and funky little unfinished sketches.
So interesting that it seemed a shame not to create something with them. I decided to create a collage project so they could see how they didn't always have to start from scratch to create an artwork. I also wanted to challenge them with an intuitive painting project, where they let the work lead the way instead of having a definitive vision of what the finished work would look like in the end. And finally I wanted the girls to explore creating their own unique style for the painting that was not really based on what things actually looked like in real life.
Each girl started with black paint and a bit of their favorite color. With that paint, I had them cover the paper to create a background.
Then they cut out their sketches and glued them down to the paper. Here is where the first "argh" moment happened. The background paint was not completely dry so when they started putting the matte medium on to flu down the sketches, then added the medium to the top of the sketch to make sure the sides of the drawing were adhered well to the paper, some of the black paint began to get on the sketch.
I assured them this was a great thing, even though they did not think it was great.
Then they began to add acrylic paint on top of their drawings.
Now I knew that would cause the graphite to smear and begin to make some great darks and lights for their painting, but again this caused a bit of panic in the girls.
More assurance on my part and they continued to march forward on their "weird" paintings.
Now just so you don't think everything was doom and gloom in the studio, they giggled their way through this process. Mostly giggles directed at me, that I could think any of these things were "great", but they pulled together and supported each other as they dealt with their nutty art teacher.
So as they added the paint, I told them they did not have to maintain the original drawing. They should change and add things as they saw fit to the painting- basically using the sketch as a guideline. I encouraged them to paint "outside" of the sketch.
While the paint was wet, I handed them water-soluble pencils to add in line work. I encouraged them to add arms to the dolls if needed and then a funny thing happened.
11 year old
This student, who more than once declared how much she hated her work, followed by exclamations that it was awful, suddenly announced, "I like this". Although by chance, I pulled out some art by Modigliani for her to look at as I felt her artwork had a lot of similarities to his pieces. In the end, she did a full 360 on how she felt about this project, which as a teacher is what I dream about when creating these ideas!
To introduce something "weird", that makes the students a bit uncomfortable and unsure at first, so they can discover something new and exciting that they didn't know they would like just makes my day!
11 year old
I handed this artist a white gel pen as she got close to finish so she could add some marks into the work. I love the halo she added so we gain a perspective of the personality of her subject. I would agree that her original doll did look quite angelic and the sweetness of this picture warrants a halo too! I also encouraged her to had loose sketch lines back into her work and am quite pleased with the way she incorporated this suggestion. I think she was too in the end.
12 year old
As this painting was nearing completion, the lack of arms looked a bit strange. So I encouraged the artist to add them but she didn't want to disturb the dress since she was really, really happy with how it looked. So I told her to put her arms behind her back. We all laughed as we decided it looked like she was hiding something with a "who me?" expression. Giggles ensued as we decided this particularly little girl was quite naughty.
And something marvelous happened in the creative process, the portrait took on a true personality. The artist named her "Naughty Nona" and I told her it might be fun to anchor the artwork with the words. I showed her some examples in my own artwork that I have been playing with recently where I incorporate words and then I gave her a water-soluble crayon and let her write. Once she had the word in place, she painted around it so that some of the color bled into the paint, incorporating it into the painting.
We all decided she might be hiding the crayon behind her back.
I'm quite pleased with the journey these three artist travelled in this project. They went from unsure, to I don't like this style of work, to being quite surprised and happy with the final pieces. I like that they now know they can take a sketch, cut it out and begin a painting with it. I like that they realize they can create their own style in a portrait and like it! Things don't have to look just like real life.
But most of all, I like that this work was inspired by one of their other original artworks. What a lovely little display they will have at home when they put the painted portrait with their beautiful sculptures!
Well done girls.
No comments:
Post a Comment