Polaroid Style Watercolor Travel Paintings

This is a cool retro style watercolour project using Polaroid compositional format.

There are tons of inspiration on Instagram, where I saw this idea. If you are the originator of the lesson, please comment so I can give credit!!

Grade 10-12 students had to brainstorm ideas of places they've visited that made them feel safe, comfortable, happy, or has good memories of. Of course we always have lots of Rocky Mountains in ours! 

I gave them a planning worksheet on which to sketch their ideas. I encourage them to use their own original photos as well. 

Once planned, they measured out the correct dimensions on a sheet of watercolour paper. Some love to tape off their paper. For watercolour media, they could use either pan watercolour or watercolour pencils. 

I always love how these turn out!

Grade 10-12 artworks

 

Floral Foam Sculptures

This is a great lesson using inexpensive materials to teach reductive sculpture.

It uses 'wet' floral foam which I buy at Dollarama. 1 block per student.

See my previous posts on this project HERE and HERE.

Grade 10-12 students start off my sketching a plan for their sculpture. I encourage abstract works but there's always a few who want to carve something realistic. This is always a super popular project!

Once they have a plan, they start carving. Each student gets a box lid to work in (from the boxes of photocopy paper in the office- I hoard these ahead of time). The box lids really contain the mess effectively. They dump them out at the end of each class.

We use simple carving tools like plastics knives, chopsticks and bamboo sticks. I also have some plastic clay tools. Fingers are great for smoothing as the floral foam is incredible soft. Do not drop these- they will break!

Keep carving and then start smoothing with fingers. 

Once you're happy with the carving, prime with a couple layers of acrylic paint. 

The foam really sucks up the paint, so you do need two coats.

Then students paint their sculptures using acrylic paint. They are encouraged to mix colours. 

Once dry, varnish them for gloss and protection. Students then hot glue them to a wooden base.

Some finished sculptures- Grade 10-12