Colour Theory March 14, 2008

 

A color wheel or color circle is an organization of color hues around a circle, showing relationships between colors considered to be primary colors, secondary colors, complementary colors, etc

Primary Colours:the three basic colours (red, yellow and blue) that cannot be mixed from other colours but can be used to mix all the other hues
Secondary Colours: are a mixture of two primary colours

Complementary Colours:Two colours on opposite sides of the color wheel, which when placed next to each other make both appear brighter.

Analogous Colours: are a palette of compatible colour combinations that blend well together. They are neighbours on the colour wheel

Hue:is the name of a distinct color of the spectrum—red, green, yellow, orange, blue, and so on. It is the particular wavelength frequency

Tint: is the mixture of a colour with white

Shade: is a mixture of a colour and black

Colour theory Resource: http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

Class Activity:

1.)Students used primary colours to create a colour wheel that represented primary and secondary colours. Through this students tried mixing a varying hues of green, orange, purple, and brown.

2.)students explored the theme of nature by working with cool and warm colours

3.)Students used complimentary colours to create a dramatic painting, as well as created a monochromatic colour scheme using tints of colour

4.)students tried paint experiments: oil pastel picture + black paint; dab a picture with a sponge; dab wet paint off with a paper towel; scratch form through the wet paint

5.) Students used colour to create an illusion of distance painting.

These painting activities were a great introduction to any unit on painting, and could be used from late primary- high school.

Resources:

http://www.kinderart.com/painting/

Printmaking March 14, 2008

 Printmaking-the process of reproducing images on a flat surface; three types are relief block (linoleum, wood), intaglio (etching, engraving), and stencil (silkscreen).

 

Woodblock Print- John Cole

Relief:The basic principle of relief printing is to create an image on paper from the raised surface of the matrix. The artist draws onto a surface (the block or matrix) and then cuts away the areas that are not to form part of the image. These areas are the negative parts of the image, or the spaces around what we see generally consider to be the image. Thus the ink only reaches the areas the artist does not touch. The block is inked and a piece of paper laid over it. The artist then either rubs the paper using their hand or a hard, smooth object or runs it through a printing press. The image produced on the paper mirrors that on the block. Woodcuts and linocut are the most common examples of relief prints

William H. Dryden Jr.

Intaglio:Intaglio is the precise opposite of relief printmaking. In this process the artist carves the image onto the matrix and then rubs ink into these carved lines, making sure that the untouched areas are cleaned of ink. In the intaglio process the paper is previously soaked in water. When it is laid over the matrix and the squashed through the printing press, the soft paper is pushed into the grooves of the inked lines, thus transferring the image onto the paper. Many intaglio processes involve creating the grooves with acids that eat into a metal plate. Variations of the Intaglio technique include Engraving, Etching, Aquatint, Mezzotint and Aquatint.

 

NuongVan-Dinh Tran

Serigraphy: All serigraphic prints are based on the concept of stencil. The stencil technique uses a thin sheet of impenetrable, durable material with a design cut into it. This is placed over a receiving surface (paper, canvas, etc.). Thus the paint or dye applied over the surface of the stencil only reaches the receiving surface where the design has been cut away.

Drypoint Lithography- Bill Hosterman

Lithography:The concept of lithography is based on the mutual incompatibility of oil and water; the capacity of limestone to absorb and retain water and the disposition of oily substances to adhere to limestone. The highly polished nature of the surface is receptive to the oil that is spread over it. Senefelder discovered that by chemically treating the surface of limestone, and drawing onto it with a grease crayon, only the areas touched by the grease crayon would take the printing ink. Therefore, by drawing onto the treated stone in this way, inking it, covering it with a damp paper and running it through a printing press, the image is transferred exactly onto the paper

http://the-artists.org/search/prints-t.cfm

Class Activity:

Students were given  some etching tools, including burnishers and scrapers, as well as soft block tiles, cardboard, string, styrofoam, paint, rollers, and fabric. Students etched designs into blocks using the relief process as described above, and used a form of the intaglio process with the styrofoam pieces. Students also created prints by gluing string onto a piece of cardboard to form a design, then covering with paint and created prints this way.

Resources:

http://www.artshow.com/resources/printmaking.html

http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/graphics/corr.html

Children’s Resources:

http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/print101.shtml

http://fun.familyeducation.com/painting/childrens-art-activities/32822.html

Arpilleras- Social Political Quilt Making March 14, 2008

Arpilleras

Arpilleras are three-dimensional appliqué textiles of Latin America. A contemporary craft, the first ones were made by the Mothers of the Disappeared in Chile to tell their stories and support their families.

In 1973, General Augusto Pinochet led a dramatic military coup against Chile’s democratically elected Marxist government. Many citizens were publically executed and   at least 3,000 Chilean citizens were murdered or disappeared and thousands more were imprisoned and tortured. Chilean woman brought international awareness to this torture through visual representation.

Textiles

A textile is a flexible material comprised of a network of natural or artificial fibers often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibers, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers together

Class Activity

Students were given a large amount of scrap fabric, white sheet cut out, thread, needles, and glue. Each group of five students was encouraged to pick a theme, and to create Arpilleras representing that theme in some way. Some of the themes represented were climates, as shown by the desert climate in the picture above, Spring, and Ocean. This activity would not be suitable for younger grades due to the fine motor skills required to use the needle and thread, and would be more appropriate for upper intermediate students. This project can be adapted to any theme, from making political statements to representing a story, and it is this flexibility that makes this such a great project. My only apprehension about this project would be that students would require basic sewing skills to complete the project, so these skills would need to be taught before the project could commence.

Resources

textile crafts

Wool Works – information about knitting, spinning, dyeing

The tatting and lacemaking page – links to related sites

Phiala’s string pages – tablet weaving, medieval braids and other historical techniques

The Costume Page – over a thousand links to fascinating range of pages on costume and much else besides. Don’t miss this one.

Accents – a wearable arts page – techniques, projects, books

Shisha mirror embroidery

The Last Invasion Tapestry in English and Welsh – description and images of the beautiful, 30.4 metre (100 foot) long tapestry embroidered for the 200th aniversary of the 1797 invasion near Fishguard

Needlepoint from About.com – needlepoint news, projects, resources – building a ‘community of stitchers’

Embroidery – images and text from the current issue, both contemporary and historical embroidery.

How To – techniques for embroidery, sewing and crochet from the Coats Crafts UK web site

Quilting with Children – many projects, techniques and resources

children’s sites

Quilts, quilters, quilting and patchwork in fiction – quilts in fiction for children and young adults

EAC Youth Embroiderers – colourful, exciting site from the Canadian youth embroidery organisation

Young Yarn User – creative, fun things to do with yarn and fibre

Plaster March 7, 2008

 

 Plaster

Plaster of Paris, or simply plaster, is a type of building material based on calcium sulphate hemihydrate. Plaster is similar to motar or cement. Like those materials plaster starts as a dry powder that is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike motar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after drying, and can be easily manipulated with metal tools or even sandpaper.

 

Class Activity- Students began by cutting sheets of plaster into strips. Next students dipped the pieces of plaster in water and wrapped them around their fingers to make a mold. Students were then able to add extra features onto the mold, to make an animals, puppet, etc. This plaster finger mold activity would be especially suitable for primary grades as it is easy to follow.

Resources:

http://www.fresnofamily.com/activities/hands.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/plaster/

http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson36.html

Drawing practice with the use of line February 13, 2008

The following activities are excellent for practicing the use of the line in drawing, and would work well as starter activities to a drawing lesson.

 Drawing Blind- for this drawing we looked at an object a drew with a continuous line without looking at our pencils and paper

Drawing from Memory -for this drawing we looked at an object, memorized what is looked like, then put it away and drew it from memory.

Blind Continuous Line Drawing -for this drawing we drew our hands using a continuous line, without looking at our papers and pencils.

Drawing with Volume- for this drawing we were able to look directly at our objects, and our papers, but had to incorporate volume.

Clay February 13, 2008

 Clay-is a naturally occurring material, composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plascity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried or fired.

Activity- we were each given a chunk of clay, tools to create texture, and slip. With these materials we were encouraged to try different shapes, and integrate texture into our pieces.

Art - I made a ‘puzzle box’ out of clay. The lid of the box fits like a puzzle on top of the box itself, and contains the world Inspire on the top, and the year inside the box. The outside of the box contains integrates texture into the piece with textural designs of vines and leaves. I chose to write the word inspire on the top of my box because that is the basis on my teaching philosophy, and my philosophy on teaching students art.

Clay for Kids:

 

Create easy to make christmas ornaments from clay.

 Create a seasonal theme. This particular project uses jumping clay. http://litelink.4t.com/custom.html 

 

Clay patterning projects. http://www.theworkshopaustin.com/gallery/Class-Projects/claypuzz

Resources:

http://www.kinderart.com/sculpture/

http://www.essortment.com/all/claykidseasy_rhwh.htm

http://www.amaco.com/amaco-lessonplans.html

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_clay/

Collage February 5, 2008

Collage- An artwork comprising of portions of various existing images such as from photographs or prints and arranged so that they join, overlap or blend to create a new image

Activity

-the materials we began with were 2 pieces of double sided paper, and boxes of felts

-we listened to music and drew to the feeling/flow of the music using a line as our basis

 -once the music stopped we were given a black piece of construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick

-the music was put back on and we both cut and ripped our drawings and used the pieces to create a shape on the construction paper

Art

the pieces that resulted from the 3 step process were very expressive, and the line remained as a prominent yet subtle feature of the final pieces. As well, the combination of the cut-edge, and the torn-edge pieces to form the collage, gave the collage an abstract feel.

 

Group Colour Collage

 Activity

-within our groups we went through stacks of magazines to find splotches of group colour while listening the same music from the individual collage

-once again we both ripped and cut the colour splotches from the magazine

-we then used these pieces to make a collage of a shape that was inspired by the music

-our final product was a very vibrant red heart, that displayed various different shades of our base colour

Art

-our final piece was a broken heart, that displayed various different shades, and patterns of red. The combination of different shades gave the piece depth and texture.

Student Activities:

Students can create a collage of cultures.

Students can create a collage of words in accordance with a specific theme.

Students can create of face collage out of magazines.

Resources:

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Linda-Carle.htm

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectlist?categoryid=71360

Earthworks February 4, 2008

Earthworks- is a form of art created in nature that uses natural materials such as stones, leaves, or soil     

Activity-we went on a scavenger hunt to find materials in our surrounding environment that matched our group colour, and made a piece or art using only these materials

Art-the piece that we developed incorporated natural and man-made materials, that collaborated to make a piece that had an Autumn undertone and looked as though it were trying to display/sell something

Andy Goldsworthy Art:

Resources:

http://www.jayarava.org/writing/andygoldsworthy.html

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Larry-natural.htm