using photos in art

I have seen a few projects where children take a photograph and continue the drawing out from the border.

I wanted to extend this project idea with the Monday class and created a mixed media project using old family photos I have from the early 1900's.

I made copies of them on my home printer as I did not use the original photos.

I copied a variety of photos for the kids to pick from and found it interesting that one in particular seemed to grab most of the student's attention.

This waterfall.

8 year old

8 year old

7 year old

First I had the students paint the background in a variety of whites with a brayer.  I offered some different materials for stamping into the whites, but every single child declined. 

Once we had covered the acrylic paper in white, I gave a quick talk on the rules of thirds in composition and asked them to find their "sweet spot" to place the photo.  

They then used an image transfer method to add the photo to the paper.  In hindsight, I would skip this step and just have them glue down the photograph.  

Once the photos were complete, each child took a piece of sandpaper and sanded at the edges of the photos so they melded into the paper smoothly. 

From there the kids used pencil, charcoal, water-soluble graphite and black acrylic to extend the photographs.

9 year old, "war"

The above painting took on a life of it's own. He was completely lost in creating this work and it is just amazing to me to see what a very small, torn photograph of cannons on a war field inspired. The back of the photograph says, "Wow. Bora", so I'm guessing this is a battleground from WW2

From that simple torn picture, the artist created quite a story.

10 year old

The lone girl in the class gravitated to the horse monument picture. I love the way she manipulated the photograph so that it looks like a horse and rider are on a trail walk.

Once they completed their work, they had the opportunity to put an acrylic glaze on top to give it a dreamlike quality.

I am quite thrilled with the abstract quality of these works.  I think they are beautiful and am amazed at how a small photograph inspired each child to create a unique work and inspired their imaginations.