After doing the project a couple of times on my own to make sure it didn't have any kinks, I decided to introduce it to the group of girls who come to the studio on Tuesday.
Well, there were kinks.
And we got off to a confusing start.
Thankfully they are an easy going group of girls who stuck with me and in the end, everyone got the hang of it and we got ourselves "out of the woods" so to speak.
Doesn't mean I didn't need a grown up drink once class ended, but phew, it was touch and go for a bit! There was a steep learning curve to say the least.
Would I do this project again? Absolutely.
Would the girls want to embark on this project again? Debatable.
But everyone learned a lot and I think the project would go quite differently the second time around.
In the end each student was a different level of pleased with their work, but I know they all learned a lot about line and the important role it can play in their artwork.
Personally, I love the final project results....even with the rocky start.
13 year old
First, the girls created a sketch on a piece of palette paper. (on the matte side)
Then I taped down a piece of Bristol and on top of that paper, taped down the top and bottom of the palette paper WAX side up.
This is where we ran into the first bit of trouble as I forgot to mention the drawing would reverse.
10 year old
Then using a dull pencil (the project instructions suggested a ballpoint pen), they started with the line work.
They put down the first line, then lifting only the bottom of the palette paper up, rubbed over the Bristol with the lightest of their colored art sticks.
What remains then is all the line work in white.
Problem number two as the girls did not really see the first of their line work coming up so they didn't think it was working. In hindsight, I need to show them this step by example first with a dark color rubbing and explain the first couple of layers will not show well with the light colors and to trust in the end it will look like my example.
All their new line work will be the FIRST color they put down.
Even trying to explain this in the post is confusing! You can see why we got off to a rocky start.
11 year old
The students continued these two steps until they felt the work was complete. I will say I had to encourage them in the end with a very dark color as they were afraid it would cover up all their hard work to date, but they were thrilled when they realized the darkest colors actually brought out all the amazing lighter colors and line work.
8 year old
I'm guessing you could do this project by rubbing a colored pencil over the engraving rather than the art sticks. I had one box that was shared between four students and it worked just fine. Do not use chalk pastel as it will rub into the line work and create a hot mess.
I did not try it with an oil pastel but am guessing it too would be too would go into the line work.
It could be quite interesting to try it using only graphite with older students, building up the rubbing from light to dark.
And with that, looks like I just found my next project to try with the teen class!
Hopefully this time, I really do have all the kinks worked out.
No comments:
Post a Comment