Woven Painting





This student chose to do a self portrait.

 

 It's no secret to my students that I love weaving projects.

There's something about the methodical over-and-under process that I find so relaxing and satisfying.

Here's a paper weaving project I did with a Grade 10/11 class. I've also done it with Grades 7 and 8.

They essentially did a drawing of the same image twice (they traced the first image onto the same sized paper) and then painted them slightly different colours. 

They could either go for opposite colours to create a high contrast checkerboard effect,

or go for similar colours to create a more subtle effect.

So here's a drawing of a falling over champagne glass- drawn exactly the same twice.

We used a tracing table- a window would work as well.

Then paint them both- we used acrylics and/or watercolours.

This student below chose a subtle colour change for her Egyptian piece.

Once both paintings are dry, you need to fold one in half and draw a line about one inch from the open end of the folded paper. This is the limit of cutting. Students could measure their cutting lines with a ruler or free hand cut them.  Most chose to measure.  The thinner the strips, the longer the weaving will take to finish. These strips are known as the 'warp'strips. The strips don't need to be straight but all my students made theirs straight.

For the second sheet of paper, cut the strips all the way through.  I suggest to students to measure and draw all the lines out first on the back, with a ruler, then number them, in case they fall down, or get mixed up.

You won't use the first couple of strips on both the top and bottom.

So here's the weaving at the beginning stages. The blue painting below has been folded vertically and cut into the 'warp' strips. Then the pink/purple painting is being cut across- the 'weft' strips (1 cm) and those strips are being woven into the blue painting.

So here's the back of the painting that's going to be cut into the 'weft' strips. Number them on the back just in case. You need to weave them in order so that the painted image lines up more or less. It won't be perfectly the same and that's ok.  Students stress over this part and try to get it all perfectly lined up and it just doesn't work. That's not the point of this project. So I found I had to continually emphasize that the drawings do not have to line up perfectly!!!



You can number the strips on the back to keep them in order.
Especially useful if a gust of wind enters the classroom and blows the strips onto the floor... yes, it's happened.



Over, under, over, under and so on.

Then start weaving- over, under, over, under- this takes time and patience. When you have a few strips in and it looks good, glue down the edges with dots of white glue to keep it all secure.  Students will find they don't need to use all the strips- the may take out some half-way through that don't line up and that's fine.

Here's a link to a very basic paper weaving lesson that may make more sense than mine did ;)

Here are some of the early finishers:

Ta da!



this student left a large, wide border which I quite like.

 

this student was going for a brocade look.



Cupcake Paper Flowers

This is a cute and easy Spring/Summer collage project that's great for reinforcing cutting, folding and pasting skills with younger students.  I've done this project with Grades K-2.

Simply take colored cupcake liners (2-3 per flower) and fold them as if you were cutting a snowflake: in half once, then again, then again if you wish.  Cut the edges in a decorative manner (fringes, wavy line, scalloped, etc), unfold and stack them together with a dab of glue. 

Glue decorative items in the middle (beads, buttons, pom-poms, glitter, etc).

Take a sheet of colored paper (I used blue for the sky) and paint on some green stems with leaves. 

Glue your cupcake flower on top.

For the grass, I had pre-cut wide strips of scrap green paper.  Have kids cut a grass edge (I demonstrate how to snip large triangles off the top); they could also cut a fringe, whatever you want.  Glue stick this grass on the bottom of the page and ruffle the grass a bit for a bit of a 3-D look.

These could easily be embellished further: have the kids paint/draw in a sun, rainbow, make bugs and glue them in the grass, etc. etc.

Dutch Tulip Fields

This is a lovely Spring project I found on the "Kids Artists" blog:

http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2009/11/dutch-flower-bulb-fields.html

It's a one-point perspective lesson using the famous Dutch tulip fields. 

I like any perspective lessons that aren't streets or city scenes.

So I had my Grade 6 students draw a horizon line and then put a dot or the vanishing point somewhere along the line. Using a ruler, they drew the fields. Then they drew in a traditional windmill and trees, bushes, etc. along the horizon line.

Instead of using only marker, I had the kids use the marker watercolour technique which I like so much. 

They outline each section with a marker...

Then use a wet brush and blend over the marker. 

It bleeds and spreads and creates a wash of transparent colour.

They painted the skies with tempera discs.

They could add details on top and those would dissolve to give the illusion of flower fields.

Before water:

After water:

Thanks to Jacquelien at Kids Artists for the pretty project idea!

Ta da!

My bulletin board display:

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!