Foil Embossing: tin foil & sharpies art project

A very popular lesson with both my students and parents which yield fantastic results for all kids. 

I've posted about this lesson previously: HERE and HERE.

I teach this to Grades 4 through 6. We use cereal boxes as a base but any cardstock would work as well. 

We also use just regular yarn (any colours, doesn't matter) and white glue.

Cut the yarn and glue down whatever design you like. I just tell kids that the design has to have all enclosed shapes (nothing open). This is a great lesson to teach line and shape. Let dry overnight. 

The cardboard will curl a bit but that's ok. 

Cover the whole image with a thick layer of glue stick and glue on a piece of BARBEQUE ALUMINUM FOIL or HEAVY DUTY FOIL that's about an inch larger on all sides. 

Regular aluminum foil is too thin and could rip. 

Rub it carefully with a piece of felt, starting from the center and working your way out. We use small pieces of felt to carefully emboss all the edges. Take your time with this step- it is the key to a nice crisp design. Then colour with sharpies, leaving the raised yarn part un-coloured (or silver)

Some finished pieces:

 

Dali's Moustache Portrait Drawing

This is a portrait drawing lesson I teach as part of my Salvador Dali unit to Grade 6 students. 

See my other Dali lesson HERE. This lesson was inspired by the one posted HERE on the Australian art blog "Use your Colored Pencils".

So we start of by looking at photos of all of Dali's crazy moustaches. Then I do a portrait drawing review and give them handouts with photos of Dali on it. 

They skecth out their Dali portrait in pencil then go over all the lines with a black marker.

For the background, students could do whatever crazy ideas they wanted. Some added ants, melting clocks or other typical Dali imagery. Hot glue on a pipe cleaner moustache as the last step. 

I love how fun and silly these are!

 

Sonia Delaunay Abstract Circle Art

Sonia Delaunay (1885 – 1979) was a Ukrainian-born French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She formally trained in Russia and Germany before moving to France and expanding her practice to include textile, fashion, and set design. She co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.

Sonia Delaunay, 1914, Prismes électriques

I taught this lesson the last week of school- I wanted a low stress project not involving any paint or 'mess' as the last week the kids are extra squirrelly and the teachers are all exhausted and stress out!

So this project, being marker based, fit the bill. I taught it to my Grade 4,5,6 mixed class. Most completed it within the 80 minute class.

I used large size photocopy paper. I laid out an assortment of circle tracers (bowls and lids) and the students traced a bunch of concentric circles and used rulers to draw diagonal dissenting lines breaking up their circle composition. 

Then they coloured these using markers. 

A fun and low-stress project!  Highly recommend!

 

 

Animals with Antlers Silhouette Watercolor Painting

This is a watercolor project inspired by a Social Studies teacher I used to work with. He wanted to teach about Canadian animals with antlers. See my more detailed post about this lesson HERE.

I liked this lesson so much, I added it to my yearly Grade 5 projects. 

We use liquid watercolours for the background sky. This is the brand I use (Handy Art) and I dilute them in sauce containers. 

Grade 5 students painted a sky background on heavy white paper. 

Wet the paper first to help the colours blend together.

Once dry, students choose a handout I made of different silhouettes of Canadian animals (bison, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose). None of my students ever choose the bison!! 

They sketch this out on the background sky, including some long natural grasses. They paint these with black tempera paint and some small detail brushes.