Chinese Blue & White Porcelain Scratch Art Vases

This is a fantastic lesson I've incorporated into my "Art of China" unit. 

It's found HERE on one of my all time favorite art blogs: http://arteascuola.com/. She gives all the instructions on her blog.

The only thing we did differently was use white acrylic paint instead of gesso. We also homemade scratching tools and x-acto blades for the scratching part. My kids enjoy this lesson. See my previous post on this lesson HERE. 

I started by showing videos of Chinese porcelain being made and a history of Ming Vases. 

Students start by researching Ming vases and sketching out some shape ideas.

They draw their final design large on heavy white paper. 

Colour it in completely using cobalt blue oil pastels. 

Paint it with one thin coat of white acrylic paint. 

Once dry, students can sketch their designs on top, then scratch it away using a bamboo stick or x-acto blade. My students made their own scratch tools by taping a thumb tack to a pencil. lol.

They loved the precise line this gave!

Some Grade 10-12 results:

Rainbow Words: Exploring Integrity Through Colour

 

Our school is focusing on the character trait integrity this year, so I thought it would be the perfect theme for one of my favourite beginning-of-the-year art projects: Rainbow Words.

Before starting, students in Grades 4–9 brainstormed words related to the idea of integrity. They then chose one word that was meaningful to them and used it as the focus of their artwork. I love this project for the beginning of the school year because it is fairly straightforward, but produces wonderfully colourful and eye-catching results. It also gives me a great opportunity to get a sense of each student's skill level, especially when I have new students in my classes.

Students began with a sheet of 8.5 x 11" copy paper, folded horizontally in half. They printed or wrote their chosen word large across the paper and then outlined the letters boldly using a black marker. This step is important—the thicker, darker outlines really help the word stand out.

Students chose a colour scheme and began tracing around each letter with their first colour. Then they moved on to the next colour, continuing to outline around the word again and again until there was no white space left on the page.

Although we used integrity as our theme this year, the possibilities for this lesson are endless. The words could relate to almost any topic, goal, value, or theme you are exploring in your classroom. It could also easily become a colour theory lesson by challenging students to use warm or cool colours, analogous colours, complementary colours, or another specific colour scheme.

I also think integrity is an especially important topic for students to think about right now. It sometimes feels as though integrity is in short supply in the world around us when we watch the news, particularly among *some* world leaders. Teaching students to think about values such as honesty, responsibility, respect, and doing the right thing—even when no one is watching—feels more important than ever.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt that the finished artwork makes for a pretty spectacular display!

Letter Perfect Watercolours

This is an abstract watercolour project based on symmetry. Students also learn how to use watercolours in a controlled method. I found the lesson years ago in a April 2001 issue of Arts & Activities magazine (yes, I've been teaching a long time!). The author was Art teacher Steve King.

This is a fairly simple watercolour project which I consider "structured creative". That is, it gives some guidelines for success, but students can make their own design and colour decisions.

Find all the steps in my original post HERE.

This time around we only used letters, not shapes.

 

Finish Half a Drawing

This is a classic art project- my Grade 7-9 students found a detailed photo (shouldn't be too simple, like a daisy) online. It could be of any subject matter but most chose an animal. I printed them all out in black and white. Students then cut them in half any way they liked. They glued one half to a matching size sheet of drawing paper. Then, using the other half as reference, they tried to copy it as closely as possible. I think they did a great job and turtles were popular, lol.