Sunshine Collages

Tomorrow I'm headed to Binghamton NY for my state art teacher's convention where I'll be teaching a couple of workshops. I'll be be blogging about it in the coming week, but here's something else in the meantime. 

Last April I blogged here about how my DragonWing Arts students had made painted paper in warm and cool colors, to use in some sunshine collages we were making.  I never posted the finished products.  As it was, we ran out of time and had to take some short cuts in putting together the final pieces, but I still liked them a lot. I almost forgot to take pics, so I shot these in a hurry in very poor lighting. 

The kids had designed patterns on tracing paper for their suns, and were using them with their painted paper to cut and put together like puzzles.  But their ideas were WAY too complicated, so in the end, with no time left, we ditched the patterns, threw caution to the wind, and just started cutting and assembling!

 It was a challenge, but the kids were enthusiastic nevertheless!

 Here are the (somewhat) completed pieces.

 

 

The aftermath!

We've got some really fabulous new projects my students are working on now.  I'll be telling you more about them in the coming month, when the artwork is completed.  Now, I'd better go finish packing!!!  Hope to see some of you in Binghamton!

Warm and cool colors for painted paper!

My DragonWing Arts students have been making painted paper, to use in sunshine collages we will be creating during late April or early May.  Everybody painted 4 sections of an 18x24" sheet of paper, so there will be lots of choices to use for the sun and its rays.

We painted with brushes, scratched lines with the back of the brushes, stamped with foam circle stampers and also with slices of pool noodles cut in half, among other things.

We also painted smaller pieces of paper (12"x18") with cool colors, to use for our skies.  We used the same methods and tools.

 I found a rubbery waffle place-mat at the dollar store, and cut it in pieces.  The kids enjoyed using them for stamping texture onto their papers.  It was especially fun because their hands got so messy in the process.

 Stay tuned; next month I'll post the process of putting together the collages and the final product.  I've got some fun ideas for them - hopefully they'll be great!

Our Collages are Out of This World!!

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My DragonWing Art students have been experimenting with various paint techniques, with the results being made into planets for colorful "out of this world" collages. 

We began by painting large (18x24") pieces of paper with black ink, leaving unpainted borders about the thickness of a ruler. We also used some glittery purple paint on the ink, to add some sparkle.  When dry, white paint was spattered on with a toothbrush, to make more stars in space.

On small sheets of white paper, we used liquid watercolors in several ways to achieve interesting surface texture.

We used the watercolors with salt, 

With saran wrap,

And with bubble wrap.

 plus liquid watercolor and shaving cream for marbling.

We also used bleeding tissue paper applied with water, removing the tissue paper when dry, to create colorful blends.

 And finally, we printed some papers with slices of pool noodles and tempera paint.

 Often, our hands ended up getting printed, too!

 All the papers that were created were used to make into planets and more for our collages. 

We used various bottles, caps, bowls, cd's, rolls of tape, and more as circle tracers for planets.

We used black crayons to add shadows to our planets to make them look round.  This was easy for some of the students, and more challenging for others.

 I showed the students how to cut rings for planets if they desired. 

 And the students began merrily cutting planets for their collages, to glue onto their painted and spattered background papers.

I gave the students strips of holographic contact paper, that they used to create fancy borders for their papers.

I also had strips of glow-in-the-dark contact paper, which was used on the sides of the collage pictured below.

 Finally, I also offered the students some glitter glue.  The bottles hadn't been used in a while, and the glue often squirted out in wonky and unexpected ways, but still, the sparkle really jazzes up the skies!

There are currently 5 students in my DragonWing Arts class; I unfortunately neglected to photograph one of the final collages.  I'll photograph it in a few days, and then add the pic to this post.  In the meantime, here's one last pic.  

Wonderful Weaving with Warm and Cool Colors!

My DragonWing Arts students recently finished some colorful paper weavings.  I posted some pics on Instagram and received some questions and comments, so I thought I'd share the (simple) details here.  It was an easy and successful project!

The students each were given three sheets of 12x18" white paper. They divided two of the papers into stripes lengthwise, and painted one with warm colors, and the other with cool colors.  The paints were fluorescent tempera, and they used one brush for warm and another brush for cool, but did not wash the brush between colors, so that they got some subtle color blends in their stripes.  The third sheet of paper was filled with shapes - the kids chose to use hearts, stars, and 'amorphous blobs' (random organic shapes).  The shapes were painted with warm and/or cool as desired.  Then everything was outlined thickly with black paint. Finally, we used Sax Tempera Gloss Varnish to paint a coat of shiny sealer on the paintings.  It really enhanced the colors!

The students each were given a 19" square of black poster board.  They cut the stripes from one painted paper, cutting right down the middle of the black lines, and glued down the ends of the stripes, side-by-side on the poster board, to create their warp.

 Then they cut the stripes on the second paper, and used them as weft, to weave through the warp.

When the weaving was complete, all the ends were glued down, and the shapes were carefully cut from their third papers.

I had been given a bunch of 3D-O's, and we decided to use them to make the shapes 'float' above the weaving.  Note the 'happy face' arrangement of the stars in the piece below! 

 I know it's hard to see the 3-D element in these photos; it definitely looks more effective firsthand.  But honestly? I'd never used 3D-O's before and the kids and I found it annoyingly difficult to peel the end papers off to reveal the sticky parts.  Next time, I'd prefer to cut little squares of heavy cardboard and have the kids glue and stack them under their shapes to create desired depth, in place of using the 3D-O's. 

The original motivation for this project was a pic I saw on Pinterest, using warm and cool colors to weave in contrasting directions, in layers of weaving.  There were no instructions, and I used the image simply as a starting point to develop my own project for my students.  I thought the floating shapes would be a fun enhancement for the basic weaving, since we weren't working with multiple layers.  I also thought the contrast of using fluorescent paints and black lines made the final images more lively. 

I can imagine lots of ways to further enhance the project - patterns in white on the black backing, perhaps?  Or black and white patterned strips woven through diagonally?   It's fun to imagine all the possibilities!!