Poppy Patterns

This year's Remembrance Day art project is the result of 2 main inspirations,  Project Runway's red palette challenge this week and last week's"Make it Artsy" segment on Rebekah Meier's circle mandalas.

If you haven't checked out "Make it Artsy" it is well worth your time.  I just watch the episode online as it's not carried by KSPS. I watch with my design journal right next to me as the ideas just start to pour out.






MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- basket coffee filters
- liquid tempera or acrylic paint in red, black and white
- glue
- circle shapes for tracing
- scissors
- printmaking materials like cardboard, pencils, skewers, little cups
- white and black pencil crayons
- buttons, beads, and/or poppy seeds, optional
- paper for background

PROCEDURE:

The first step is to paint your coffee filters. I started out using disk tempera but the colour was very dull.  Liquid tempera and acrylic produced nice bright colour.

You need 1 bright red, 1 dark red, and 1 black painted coffee filter for each poppy.  From there you can mix and match.  Mix a tiny bit of black into your red to make the dark red.

If you want a background pattern on your poppy add it before we start cutting.

Here I am using a cup and making circle shapes.  Stay in our limited colour palette of red (light and dark), black, and white.

When the coffee filters are dry you want to cut different ring shapes from them to construct your poppy.

Use circle shapes from around the classroom as templates.

I folded mine for easier cutting.

You can also cut your rings to have a more natural petal shape.

Now you can add more patterns to the parts of your poppy.

Here I use a piece of cardboard to make lines.

Here I added dots using the end of a pencil and a skewer.

I had not cut this one in rings but later I needed to.  It was a lot harder to cut the ring after I put the pattern on.  Note to self : have students cut rings first.

You can use pencil crayon to add details.

Mix and match your ring shapes.

Use the black coffee filter as the base.  Glue your rings on top letting some of the black filter exposed.

You can embellish them with some buttons, poppy seeds, beads, whatever you have on hand.

You can add extra details if needed.

For the background I painted the paper grey with black and white disk tempera.

Glue poppies on background.

That's it.

Hope you give this one a try.

Gail

Fall Forest Landscape

This is a project that was inspired by my recent homework assignment on complimentary colour relationships.

The orange/blue combination always gives me a strong feeling of fall.

In my assignment I worked a landscape thru different complimentary colours varying values to create different moods.

This was my orange/blue series.

and this was the painting that inspired this project.

I quite liked the way the colours blended and how it looks like I have figures in the foreground. 
Can't wait to continue working this series.














MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- paper for painting, I used a heavier piece for the background and some regular drawing paper for the hills
- disk tempera paint in orange and blue
- liquid tempera or acrylic in orange, blue, white, and black
- masking tape
- scraps of corrugated cardboard
- scissors and glue
- china markers, pencil crayons, or chalk pastels, optional

PROCEDURE:

This piece is more dramatic with a vertical presentation so cut/use your paper to this advantage.

My paper was 12"x8"

Tape off your edges.

Using a ruler mark off your horizon line in bottom third of your paper.  The horizon in this piece is a lake so we want that nice straight line.

Using disk tempera or watercolour paint in your sky. 


Set aside to dry.

Take a piece of drawing paper and paint with liquid tempera or acrylic.  I used blue and white mixing a bit to also get a light blue.

I want variation of colour and to see the brush marks so don't over work this.

Set aside to dry.

Now paint an orange piece of drawing paper.  I had some leftover from the last project so I just used that.  Let dry.

I wanted a bit of texture on this piece so I used some bumpy craft foam to print on some blue and white dots.

By now my background paper is dry so I add some blue disk tempera or watercolour in the lake area.




Let dry....this is where those hair dryers come in handy!

Now it's time to cut my blue and orange papers for my hills/mountains.

I like to measure the width I need and cut the paper to fit.  I'm making my marks on the back.

I then turn the paper over and draw on my hill. I like to pick what part of the paper I want to use.


Cut and glue into place.

I have my hills on the same side of the paper but you could also have one on other side for a different composition.

To print on my trees I'm using a few pieces of corrugated cardboard.  I just use the edge and I will tape several pieces together to get a thicker line if I want.


The trees need to be fairly dark so it's black with a touch of blue....a little white got in there as well :)

A practice page is always a good idea.  Here I'm using up some extra blue paint.

Now those trees will have some highlights, they will be picking up light from that orange sky so I add just a few touches of orange.

At this point I realize we needed a little dark on the other side to balance it a bit so using watery paint (black with a little white) I added a few tree lines on the distant shoreline.

I watered it down because I want them to be hazy...they are in the distance.

Finally I added some china marker but you could use pencil crayon or chalk pastel.

I outline my hills/mountain by following the paper and add some strands of grass in front of the trees.

That's it.

Using different complimentary colours gives your paintings a whole different feel.




Gail

Valentine Printmaking Project

Valentine #1

This is a Valentine printmaking project I have planned with grade 5.

The main focus is teaching them how to create their own stamps with craft foam.

Valentine #2

Here is a second version.














MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolour or disk tempera paint
- heavy paper or wc paper
- sticky backed craft foam
- scraps of corrugated cardboard
- black acrylic or tempera paint
- coloured pencils, china markers, sharpies
- alphabet stamps, glitter gems, optional

PROCEDURE:

Using watercolour or disk tempera paint your background.

Here I'm using disk tempera and this resulted in Valentine #2.

I used watercolour paint and a little kosher salt to create the background for Valentine#1.

Set aside to dry.

Now we can work on our stamps.

Gather your materials, we need some scraps of cardboard for the base of the stamp and some craft foam.  I like the sticky back.

There are 2 ways to make a stamp with craft foam:

1st Way:
Cut the cardboard into the shape of the stamp. I then cut strips of craft foam and apply to cardboard to outline the shape. You can also cut shapes to be added like the inner heart for this stamp.

2nd Way:
Cut your cardboard shape, then trace around it on the craft foam.  Cut the shape out of craft foam.

You then use a blunt pencil and draw designs into the craft foam shape.  Push hard enough that you can feel the design marks with your fingertip when you touch the foam.

Here is a good tip I got from Traci Bautista.  Use small pieces of craft foam on the back of the cardboard to make a handle.  I use the parts where the product sticker is, I normally just throw those ones away.  You can also use the leftover little pieces from cutting out a stamp.
Use 2 layers and you'll have a good handle.

Using a paintbrush brush some acrylic or tempera paint onto the stamp.  This gives you more control than stamping into a plate of paint to load.


I always have practice paper nearby when doing a printmaking or stamping project.

Here you can see then difference between the 2 types of stamps. 


Have the kids practice working with the stamps.  Sometimes the ghost print or the 2nd ghost print turns out to be the best.

Ghost Print = the second print from a stamp without applying more paint.

When they are confident apply the stamp to your dry background.

Now you might want to just stop there but I like to take it further.

Ensure your print/stamp is dry.  I use a hair dryer to speed things up a bit.

I added some coloured pencil, some china markers, and some sharpie.

I also used a little white and silver paint that I dipped the end of a pencil into and stamped on some accents. (see finished photo)

I painted some scrap paper.

I then stamped on some letters and added these to the Valentine.


You can also add a few sticky gems.

You could also print off some text from the computer to add.

Pair it with a Valentine poem and you have a great Valentine the kids can make for Mom and Dad.


Gail