Rouault-Inspired Tempera Batik Portraits

 

This is a lesson I've taught on and off throughout my career. I thought I'd post some recent results as it would make a great Halloween project as the end results are pretty spooky and/or 

melancholic and moody.

Some years tempera batik works great and I feel totally happy and inspired. Some years it doesn't work and I swear I'll never do tempera batik again (but I always do!)

A big part of this is having the kids put a really thick layer of tempera paint on- at least two layers.

It's a finicky process for sure and I really recommend trying this technique out with your own supplies to see how it works before teaching it to a class. Different types of India ink, paper and tempera paint brands really affect how the final product turns out.

HERE is my original post and all the steps involved. 

This time around I left the ink on for about 15-20 minutes and they worked pretty good, 

though the India ink did fade a lot in some spots.

The kids thought this was the creepiest project ever and asked me to never teach it again- haha! 

Results from my mixed class of Grades 4-6- enjoy some sad looking clowns and mimes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Printmaking Flowers

 This was a cool printmaking lesson my student teacher taught to my Grade 3 class in the Spring.
She collected lots of 1 and 2 litre pop bottles and used a variety of empty paint bottles and lids (yes, I save them all!) she found in my cupboards. Smooth running of this lesson involves setting up, before class starts, a 'station' in the middle of each table- each of my long tables sits 4 students. Each station had plastic lids full of tempera paint, different sized bottles and lids as well as scraps of cardboard (cereal boxes cut into rectangles) for the stems and leaves.

 

Here below they started off by stamping stems and leaves with pieces of cardboard. 

We use large pieces of construction paper to protect the tables- I read about this on the fantastic art website "Deep Space Sparkle" years ago, loved the idea and have used it ever since!

 

Then they dipped the bottles into the paint to create different types of flowers and petals.

 

 

 Here are some of the finished pieces- the kids did a wonderful job! 

I love the variety of results!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Plate Flowers

This was a project some of my Grade 5,6 students made during the last couple weeks of school this year. I found the lesson HERE on the website: "Pink Stripey Socks".  It's a cheap project that can yield some fantastic and complex results. My students really took their time in deciding how they wanted their petals to look!  I pulled out lots of the crafty supplies to use as decorations: glitter, glass blobs, sequins, gems, buttons, pom poms, etc. We also used liquid watercolours to paint these but regular watercoours or any type of paint, really, would work. The key, I found, is to use the really thin cheap-o white paper plates. I can usually find them at the Dollar Store but find they're getting harder and harder to locate- I had to hunt around at a few different stores to find them. 

Overall a really fun and colourful project!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustrated Literary Devices

 This was a lesson designed by one of the English teachers at my school. She often tries to incorporate some type of 'creative' project in her lessons, which is fantastic as many of the students (Grade 7,8) are super creative and talented. 

Each student chose a literary device which they had to define and illustrate. Literary devices are specific language techniques which writers use to create text that is clear, interesting, and memorable. These are all done on 8 x 11" copy paper and the media mainly used was markers and pencil crayons.

I love it when other subject teachers (especially at the junior high and high school level) incorporate art into their lessons as then I can see if the skills and techniques I teach them are transferable to other subjects; if they can actually remember and use the types of things I teach them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait Drawing

I teach a portrait drawing class once a week at my school. It's comprised of really dedicated art students from Grades 4-7. They choose this class so it's a lovely group of kids (all girls!)

The girls printed photo references off the internet. This was one of their finally projects once they had learned all about proportion, symmetry, practiced drawing all the different facial features, etc. 

Some of them used simply pencil, others watercolour pencils, coloured pencils and watercolours.

pencil plus watercolours, Grade 7

Grade 6

Grade 6, coloured pencils

Grade 5, watercolour pencils

 

The student below (Grade 7) did a series of three drawings of Frances Bean Cobain: