Bubble Printing Collage

Here's another post on a 'classic craft'- the humble bubble print. 

Kids love to do this, because, well, it involves bubbles of course. 

I've done this with all ages and you can get some really creative and

sophisticated artwork from it.

Here's the basic steps:

Mix up some paint (tempera or acrylic) with some water and dish soap- I just make a big batch of watery paint then experiment with adding soap until I get a good 'bubbly' consistency. 

But the general ratio is: 25% Dish Soap, 25% Paint, 50% Water

I mix a large batch and then pour it into individual cups for the students and throw in a straw.

Blow some bubbles so it comes above the container.  With young kids (Kindergarten) you have to show them how to do this properly because some inevitably always suck up the paint- not good.

Warning: this is a really messy project... just so you know.

Very drippy, but the soap makes for an easy clean-up.

Place your paper over the bubbles and gently pat down.  

I use regular printer paper.

Lift and pop any bubbles that might remain on the paper. 

Then repeat the process until the entire paper is covered with bubbles.

I've used a tiny yoghurt container, but you could use larger, wider plastic bowls and get the paper covered faster, probably.

So here's my lovely paper: this would be nice collage paper for Valentine hearts.

 Try different colours and try mixing colours as well.

 Once the paper is dry, draw on the reverse blank side- shapes, designs, anything, then cut them out and glue it to a contrasting sheet of paper for a simple collage.

Ta da!

Contour Hands with Text

This is a lesson I've done a couple of times and been pretty happy with the results.  There are alot of steps, though, to get these results, so you need some pretty focussed students. 

I did this project with a Grade 10 class recently.

I found the lesson plan here on the Incredible Art Department site. It gives pretty comprehensive directions which is great.

Here's how we did it:

Students practiced drawing contour hands in a variety of interesting gestures/poses on regular loose sheets of white paper-- then chose their best 3-5.

Here's some good samples...cut around them.

Now we need to graphite transfer them onto colored paper, so coat the back of each hand with a dark pencil (we used a 4B graphite stick)

Coat the whole back of the hand....

Then choose a piece of colored paper, cut it to the appropriate size and measure out a wide border.

Place the hands on the colored paper, having the wrists come out from the border.  Move them around until you're happy with the composition.

Tape them down. Then, using a ball point pen, press hard and transfer them to the colored paper.

Here the hands have been transferred- now you paint around them with tempera.  This was, by far, the most difficult step for students.  It has to be clean and precise.

Painting the background with bronze tempera.

This student taped off the border to keep it clean.

Once the painting is done, outline the hands with a fine Sharpie.

Hands done.

Then, they need to print off some fonts- they should somehow relate to the hand composition.  Transfer them the same way as the hands then paint or colour in with markers.

Ta da!

(Note: I had to crop the borders off some of them...)

Watercolour Mosque Paintings

I absolutely adore Islamic architecture- the domes, the arches, the dramatic minarets, the tiles and Arabic calligraphy. I was inspired for this lesson after taking a tour throughout all of Tunisia a couple of years ago. I visited many beautiful mosques including the Great Mosque of Kairouan.

I developed a handout which shows the main elements of a mosques and lots of clip art of mosques for the students to be inspired by. I also showed a slide show displaying all the famous mosques from around the world. Then my Grade 8 students got started:

Practice sketches in their sketchbook first- they had to include minarets, a dome, arches and the composition had to look somewhat balanced and symmetrical.

Then start their good copy on large white heavy paper:

Once the drawing is complete, pass over all the lines with a permanent black marker.

Some used a regular Sharpie, and others used the fine tips ones.

We used the bleeding' marker watercolour technique:

outline within/inside each shape with waterbased markers, then use a wet paintbrush to blend and bleed the colours together.

It's a more controlled type of watercolour technique, I guess you could say.

Here's a detail:

You can also add patterns with your markers and it still shows up a bit after the water is used.

I have a set (thanks to a lovely birthday gift) of Islamic rubber stamps. 

Students used these around their border.

Students painted the background with metallic tempera paint. I like the Italian brand "Primo" as you only need one coat for decent coverage. I find other brands of metallic tempera you have to put on 2-3 layers to get it opaque.

Ta da!

love the creativity in this one!