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!
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| love the creativity in this one! |
8 comments:
Wow! These are amazing! What a great job the kids did on them! You must have been a fantastic guide along the way!
Thanks, Mrs. Skojec. I try to provide alot of visuals (handouts, posters, photos)to give the kids ideas and inspiration while they're working. I also like to preview their sketchbook practice drawing to give them any tips or suggestions before they start on their good copy.
MashaAllah, Absolutely beautiful!
I love them all, so very different results with the same technique.
I have that same stamp collection, and will have to try with my younger children. Maybe using a pre-drawn Mosque.
www.noorjanan.blogspot.com
Shukran Noor! The stamp set is great, isn't it? I use it for so many things. Thanks for your comment!
Absolutely love this project idea. In your explaination you stated that you give the students handouts with the main elements of the mosques. Would you be willing to share that sheet with me? I love the marker watercolour technique too
Hi Katie,
I tried to embed my handout by apparently my tech skills aren't that advanced! Anyway, it's an easy handout to create- I just inserted a bunch of clip art of typical mosque features such as the dome, minaret, and arches into a Word doc. Just do a Google image search and it should be easy to make. Good luck!
Hi can I please ask what age the children were who completed these? I love them and I am going to use them as inspiration for the children who are visiting the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi in a few weeks time. Many thanks from Dubai
Hi Miss Vicki,
Thanks for your comment. These were created by Grade 8 students, so they're between the ages of 13-14, but younger kids could make these as well, maybe perhaps a bit less complex. This will make a great project for your field trip- hope they have fun :)
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