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:

Scratch Art

This was an open project I gave to my Grade 10-12 class. They have done scratch art before so I didn't need to review much, other than telling them lots of details, pattern and line work. Fur and feathers work very well with scratchboard techniques.

They sketched a drawing first on regular copy paper. Then they tape it onto their chosen scratchboard and trace over the lines firmly with a ball point pen. This transfers a faint grey line onto the scratchboard. 

The gold ones were very difficult to photograph as they are metallic and highly reflective! Hence why I had to photograph these n an angle. 

 

Scratch Art

Good old classic Scratch Art!  Mess free, fun to do, pretty results!

I ordered a pack of both rainbow and solid coloured scratch art paper. They come with sticks to scratch with but my perfectionist students said they were "too dull" so made their own by taping a thumbtack onto the end of a pencil. We also used bamboo sticks which have a really fine wood tip. 

                                                          

Students draw their design first on copy paper, tape it onto the scratch paper and trace over all the lines with a ballpoint pen. This will transfer grey lines onto the scratch paper. Then they scratch away with their chosen tool. For this project I left the subject matter completely up to students- I like this lesson for the end of the year or right before a holiday as it's simple yet fun and keeps the kids engaged. 

Some Grade 7 - 9 finished works:

 

Underwater Scratch Art using Oil Pastels

Here's a classic art lesson that's been taught by art teachers for decades: diy scratch art.

Grade 4 students drew an underwater scene on cardstock. \they outlined the pencil lines with a thick sharpie. Then they coloured in everything using light coloured oil pastels. The colours need to be light!!

Then cover it with a coat of black tempera and let dry. Use a wooden stylus to scratch out designs all over the picture. These look so cool when finished!!