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"A Faithful Attempt" is designed to showcase a variety of K-12 art lessons, the work of my art students, as well as other art-related topics. Projects shown are my take on other art teacher's lessons, lessons found in books or else designed by myself.
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I acknowledge, with deep respect, that I am gathered on Treaty 7 territory. I acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations. I recognize the land as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on or are visiting.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Glue Pictures- faux embossed metal


This is a project I found in an Usborne activity book. It's very simple and needs only a few supplies: white glue in a bottle, a piece of card, and gold and black acrylic paint. 
I've seen this lesson done with glue and then you put aluminium foil on top, but this skips that step and it still looks good- like faux embossed antique metal.

So each student needs a piece of heavy card (we used cut up cereal boxes)and a bottle of white glue 
(FYI: we used Elmers brand glue for this- it is fairly thick and that's good. I think some no-name generic school glues might be too runny and therefore not work. So test your particular brand of glue out before teaching this to a class. Tacky glue would also work brilliantly as it's thicker than regular white glue.)


You can choose a subject matter for the project for more focus, or leave it open-ended. I chose birds.
Draw your design onto the card lightly in pencil. 
Practice in a sketchbook or scrap paper first. Try to fill the page.



 Then, using a glue bottle, slowly and carefully pass over all the pencil lines.


You may have to touch up areas. Just take your time. 
If you make a mistake, just wipe it off and start again.


Let dry flat overnight. 
By the next class, the card will have curved/warped a bit, but that's ok. 
The glue will have also flattened out a bit.



Now it's time to create a faux antique metal effect. Paint the whole picture with gold or bronze or silver metallic acrylic paint. Let dry. 



Once it's dry, get some black acrylic paint ready and a damp paper towel or cloth.
Paint the entire picture with black paint and then, using the damp paper towel, gently rub away the black paint, revealing the gold underneath. This gives sort of an antiquing effect.



   

You can use this technique with lots of age groups, from elementary to Grade 8 as you can see from the results below.














15 comments:

Chesterbrook Academy Elementary said...

What a fantastic project.
And your tutorial always very helpful.

Thanks for sharing

J.ham said...

This is so great. I was just looking at my stack of cereal boxes the other day wondering what I should do with them....brilliant!

C Chapman said...

I do a very similar project with my high school students. Instead of painting the dried glue/cardboard, we varnish over it to make it waterproof, then roll out ink and make prints, essentially turning the cardboard into a relief surface. Easy, cheap, and a great introduction to printmaking.

Miss said...

Thanks Chesterbrook and Jen!

C Chapman: great printmaking idea- I'll definitely try it!

luisa leccisotti said...

Bellissima idea!!! Fantastico effetto...
Brava!!!

ArtMuse said...

This a a great technique, it's something a little different and I happen to have TONS of old cereal boxes in my back-room. Thanks for sharing!

Rina k6art.com said...

Hi Miss

Great project. Just ordered metallic acrylics so this project will be perfect. Thanks for posting.

Rina

Anonymous said...

thanks for this lesson. Your instructions are very clear. I have pinned your image to pinterest for quick reference

Miss said...

Luisa: grazie!

ArtMuse- Yes, I also have tons of cereal boxes- I save them all- the cardboard is a perfect thickness for SO many different projects.

Rina- thanks and good luck with the project- I hope you like it!

Gretchen- thanks!

thefisherlady said...

I am so glad to have found your blog... my daughter teaches art in SA and will love these ideas !
Really lovely!

Elizabeth said...

Really effective, and so easy - this will be a great lesson for my multi-age classes! Thanks for sharing :)

Unknown said...

Like most ecologically minded art teachers, I too have stacks of cardboard food boxes. Thank you for saving me the cost of foil as I was going to do this oft seen project WITH foil. Glad to know I already have everything in the cupboards that I will need. Your student's work is really good.

:)Pat

Andrea said...

Such an inventive way to imitate embossed metal. I might have to snag this from you for Art History next semester. Hope you don't mind. It's just so clever!

J.ham said...

Just finished 4th grade projects based off of this. I did a post about it and credited you. Thanks again!

Miss said...

thefisherlady- thanks very much for your comment!

Elizabeth- thanks and yes, it really is a simple technique which works for a wide range of ages and abilities.

Pat- thank you! Yes, I know- us Art Teachers tend to hoard things like cereal boxes! lol

Andrea- snag away!

Jen- I'm glad you tried the project out and thanks for linking back to me!

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