Plasticine Mood "Paintings"

This is a gorgeous abstract art lesson inspired by a lesson found on the Studio Sprout website. 

It uses the artist Bernice Bing as a starting point for looking at abstract expressionistic art inspired by emotions. 

I keep my plasticine stored on zip lock bags by colour. 

I pre-cut small squares of cardboard for students to work on. They were asked to think of an emotion relevant to them and try to choose colours that they felt matched that feeling. Then, in a loose and expressive way, they smeared and played with the plasticine and applied it to the cardboard however they pleased. 

Grade 4-6 artworks! I love how expressive they all turned out. 

 

Plasticine Pictures: Seasons

My mixed Grade 4-6 class recently completed these plasticine/modelling clay pictures. They are based on the work of Canadian artist/illustrator Barbara Reid. She uses plasticine to illustrate children's books. Her website is wonderful and has video tutorials of how she uses plasticine to create her pictures. I showed these to my students before we began the project.

I previously posted this lesson HERE that I did with younger grades- their theme was farm animals. 

I wanted to try these again with my older grades and many of them remembered doing 

them in Grade 2. The theme I gave this class was: Seasons.

This time they used the inside cuts of mat board. I get them for free from my local Michaels. It worked really well as it's really thick and sturdy. I also gave the option of using the paper plates they used before. They started off with a basic sketch of their landscape. 

Then they work from the background to the foreground, mixing colours if they need to.

I buy my plasticine in big blocks then chop it up with a knife 

and store the lumps in zip lock bags. 

Some Grade 4 - 6 results:

Plasticine Pictures

This art project was inspired by one of my favourite Canadian illustrators, Barbara Reid. 

I own quite a few of her books and love her charming illustrations made entirely out of plasticine (aka: modelling clay).

This project requires minimal materials:

small paper plates 

 (I bought thin cheapo ones from the Dollar store and they worked great.)

plasticine 

(I tried a few different brands and found I liked Prang brand the best as it was the softest).

You want a variety of colours including lots of greens and blues.

Before class, I cut the blocks of plasticine down into small chunks/slices which are more easily distributed to students. 

placemats to protect tables/desks 

(I just used sheets of construction paper)

My Grade 1 students used the theme "farm animals" as they studied that with their class teachers as part of their regular curriculum. So we made farm animal landscapes.

They create a simple background first- smear blue and green plasticine in a thin layer onto the paper plate to create the sky and grass. It might take some time for the students to soften the plasticine in their hands first. They can mix colours to get any shade they want.

  

Using balls of plasticine pressed onto the background, create clouds and a sun and whatever 

else they want in the sky.

Then they can start adding their animals and plants/accessories.

They really enjoyed this project!!

Grade 1 results- too cute

this horse has a cowboy on it!!!