Abstract Tape Paintings

This was a project I had such high hopes for. However, by skipping one crucial step, the project (well, the end result at least) was a bit of a fail for most of my poor students. It was inspired by one of those abstract tape canvas paintings that are all over Pinterest. One of my students made one at school as a birthday present to a friend. She was storing it behind my desk as she worked on it after school in the Art Room. It came out really nice. One of my Grade 8 girls asked me if we could do that as our next project. I thought it would be a great lesson in abstract/non-representational art. 

Normally, I always make a sample of the project beforehand (to iron out all the kinks) but figured this one was pretty fool-proof. My biggest mistake was using paper instead of canvas. I figured using heavyweight paper and taking the stickiness off masking tape with lint from our clothes (like I do with my birch tree project) would work well. WRONG! It didn't work at all- once the paint dried and we tried peeling off the tape, it was so difficult. There were lots of paper tears and such. The acrylic paint really basically glued the tape down so it was really hard to get off. Watercolour doesn't seem to have the same effect because I've used masking tape with watercolours without major issues.

Anyhoo, some students worked really hard to touch up their paintings and they ended up looking really nice in the end. So if you try this project, don't be cheap like me and use canvas :)

Here are some of the 'rescued' paintings: