Black Glue Line African Animal art

 

This was another last project of last school year, and many didn't manage to finish. I always underestimate how long projects will take in June! 

Anyway, I've posted about this lesson previously HERE. It fascinates me how different the skills and levels are each time I teach this project. 

Some Grade 7-9 finished pieces:

 

Black Glue Resist African Animal Watercolour

This is a popular lesson with students because it involves animals!  

I've posted the steps to this project previously HERE and HERE.

Mix up black glue, students draw a portrait of an African animal on watercolour paper. Go over all the lines with a skewer dipped in the black glue. Let dry overnight- I wait a week before painting.

Using watercolours, wet the paper loosely first, then just loosely dab on some colours, in the wet-on-wet technique. Don't overwork it or the black glue tends to dissolve, in my experience!

Some Grade 7-9 finished artworks:

 

 

Black Glue Line African Animals Watercolour

I posted about this lesson a few years ago (see original post HERE) and had my Grade 8's recently finish it again. It's one of my all time favourite lessons: I love the combination of the dramatic black line contrasted with the loose fluidity of the liquid watercolours. 

So students start by choosing the face of an African animal of their choice. They draw this on heavy white paper focusing on line (no shading). Then, they trace over all the lines using a bamboo stick and black glue (white glue mixed with India ink). This year some students- gasp- revolted- against the bamboo stick and begged me to let them use a Sharpie. Ugh- I gave in but normally I don't. I must have been tired that day, haha.

 

I store my black glue in a plastic container with a lid and then put it into smaller 

containers for the kids to use.

I store my liquid watercolours in little sauce/condiment ups with lids. It works pretty good but some of them get stiiiinky by the end of the year...

Once the black glue has dried, they wet the entire paper and they just randomly lay down a mixture of liquid watercolours. They know that analogous colours work well together. 

Some Grade 8 results:

Glue Resist African Animals Watercolour

This is a colourful watercolour lesson I found on the United Art & Education website

It's a good lesson on both line quality, wet-on-wet watercolour technique and drawing African animals. 

So I had my Grade 8 students start off by choosing an African animal to draw. They printed off reference photos from the computer lab. Quite a few of them surprisingly chose animals that, in fact, don't live in Africa (ie: tigers), so I made sure to double check with each students which animal they were planning on using.

They drew the animal in pencil on watercolour paper. They could draw either just the head or the whole body. They could also include a setting/habitat (trees, grasses, etc.) if they wished.

Then, using the leftover black glue (white glue and black ink or paint) from my previous "Hunderwasser Houses" project, students passed over the pencil lines using either a bamboo skewer (I buy packs from the Dollar) or a paintbrush. 

I encouraged them to be 'loose' with their line and to get a variety of thick and thin lines.

Many of them couldn't help but draw the lines very carefully and precisely, though. Perfectionist tendencies.

bamboo skewers- cool tools for loose drawings!

A detail of the line quality achieved with the black glue and bamboo skewer:

Let these dry overnight.

The next class, I demonstrated the wet-on-wet watercolour technique. I encouraged students to mix analagous colours together and to use between 2-3 related colours.

This step doesn't take long at all- about 10 minutes. WARNING: Don't brush over the drawing too much or the black glue can start dissolving and fading. Use soft watercolour brushes for this step.

Let dry flat. 

Expressive, colourful results!

Ta daaa!