Kandinsky Mixed Media Study

This past week was the beginning of semester 2 of Modern Art with my homeschool kiddos. I began with a great little get-to-know-you project I've posted before where the students move about to four different stations experimenting with different media and making color study pictures like Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky. The students were required to make four squares (one in colored pencil, one in marker, one in collage and one with watercolor resist), but a few had time to complete 6 squares.

Here's the original post on the how-to of doing this projects with the four stations.

Enjoy!

Foil Giacometti Figures

This week, I had my students create sculptures with foil similar to Giacometti. Foil is inexpensive and easy to mold (and pretty addicting when you get twisting and turning). I also wanted to give the children an opportunity to learn the proportions of the human figure and practice gesture drawing.

Look at those muscles!

We were also able to talk about 3D versus relief and then I introduced Giacometti's work. We had an interesting discussion about how his pieces LOOKED (skinny, stick-like, like a zombie, like they had been burned up like a match-stick) and how they made us FEEL (sad, not sad, scared, uncomfortable).

I saw that another blogger, mccann at Doodles & Noodles, added another dimension to this project by having the children include the shadows of their figures. I thought that was an interesting idea. Not only does it look great visually, but it is interesting to compare the original gesture drawing of the figure to the 3D sculpture and the contour of the shadow.

Giacometti Figure Study

Supplies Needed:

• A few sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" copy paper
• Pencil
• A manikin, if possible (I bought mine at IKEA for $5) and a friend to draw
• 3-4' section of aluminum foil (I buy mine at the Dollar Store)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Matte board or thick cardboard
• One 9" x 12" piece of black construction paper
• Stapler
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Lamp (we used a flashlight but that moved too much)

Directions:

1. Warm up by drawing a few gesture drawings of the figure in different poses. I talked briefly about the shapes that make up the human figure and how to draw the figure step-by-step. As the students posed, I posed Manny, the manikin, into the same pose so we could talk about the parts of the body and how they were arranged in each pose. I pointed out how the parts of the body joined and how they bent. Many times, young students will add too many joints or make knees bend the wrong way (OUCH!). One of my students asked, "When did this become a science lesson?" And it's true, learning to draw from life forces us to study and learn the structure of objects and beings.

2. Choose a pose to use as inspiration for your sculpture. I gave each student a 3'-4' piece of foil. I demonstrated how to shape a figure from the foil. I suggest scrunching the foil lightly at first to get the overall shape of your figure down and then squishing the foil to be more compact once you have all of the parts figured out. I really encouraged the students to create the figure from the one piece of foil and not pull off bits of foil, make parts, and then try to join them into a figure. Once you have your figure, pose it in the way it should be, using your drawing as a guide.

3. Use the hot glue to tack the figure's feet to the matte board. 

4. Slip a piece of white copy paper under the foil figure's feet in the direction you want your shadow to fall. Place the entire sculpture in front of a lamp or bright light source so that a shadow comes from the foil figure and goes across the white copy paper. Trace the shadow onto the copy paper using pencil. 

5. Compare the contour of the shadow to the gesture drawing you originally made--how are they different? How are they the same?

The elements of the Giacometti Figure Study (clockwise from top):
Manny the manikin, the gesture sketch, the shadow tracing,
 and the completed foil figure.

6. Staple the white copy paper with the shadow on it to a piece of black construction paper. Using your pencil line as a guide, cut through both layers to create a shadow from the black paper. Remove the staples and glue the shadow to the matte board using a glue stick. Note: Make sure you glue your shadow down facing the proper way--some kids tried to glue their shadows on upside down! Also, make sure that you slip a bit of your shadow under the foil figure's feet--shadows start UNDER our feet.

And Yet ANOTHER Science Link: If you had the luxury of time and patience, you could trace your foil figure's shadow throughout the day (say three times?) and cut each shadow from a different color of construction paper and then layer them on the matte board to show the passage of time or how our shadows change as the sun's position changes...just sayin'. That would be pretty awesome! ENJOY!

"Running To A Friend By The Sea"

Movement With Lines

June 2020--PLEASE NOTE--this project has been updated for distance learning to now include a HOW TO VIDEO! The updated post is here.

And the new video can be viewed below OR on youtube. ENJOY!

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This is a great project that uses only a couple of supplies (and a bit of patience) to create a piece that transforms from "ho-hum" into "WOW!" This is a great way to illustrate how various lines can show movement. 

Horizontal lines are sleepy and calm. Vertical lines are strong and stand still, but diagonal lines seem to slide and move, bringing our eye from one side of the page to the other and then "whoosh!" off the page! We start off this exercise by using the ruler to create a series of diagonal lines and color them in with markers. Then, we cut the piece up and fan the strips out and create another type of line...a swirly, curving line that also shows movement! This is also a nice op-art activity. You can use complementary colors for your diagonal lines or a full rainbow of color. Experiment and enjoy the process!

Movement With Lines

Supplies Needed:

• One sheet of white construction paper, 9"x12"
• One sheet of black construction paper, 12"x18"
• Ruler
• Pencil and eraser
• Markers, assorted colors
• Glue sticks

Directions:

1. Draw a series of diagonal lines on the white construction paper. You can draw three smaller lines going across the page or fill the space with lines. Both look great, in my opinion.

2. Color in the diagonal lines using markers.

This is the "Before" Photo

3. Flip the page over and divide the page into twenty-four 1/2" wide strips. Use your ruler for this and try to be as precise as possible. BEFORE you cut the strips apart, number them on the back from 1-24 at one end (the same end of the strips for all numbers).

This photo is kind of hard to see, but it shows all of the strips
numbered on the back at the same end.

Now, this is where it gets a little bit tricky. I'm sure you can do this many ways, but I made three of these and I finally landed on this way of doing it.

4. Cut out the strip marked #12. Put glue on the back and glue it on your black construction paper background in the middle, like this:

Strip # 12 glued on in the center
of the black paper (hold the black
construction paper vertically)

5. Now you can cut strip #11 out and put glue on the back of it. Overlap the left edge of the strip over the left edge of the previous strip (in this case, strip #12), fanning the right edge out slightly (about 1/2"). Repeat with strips 10-1 (working away from you) until you get through strip #1, forming a nice curve with the strips. Use the photo as a guide.

7. Once you have finished gluing down strip #1. Place glue on the back of strip #13 and overlap the right edge of the strip over the right edge of strip #12, fanning the left edge down slightly (about 1/2").

8. Repeat with strips 14-24 until you get through all the strips, forming a nice curve in the opposite direction with the strips. Use the picture as a guide.

It is OK if the ends of the strips continue off the edge of the page. You can leave them that way or trim them to the edge of the black construction paper.

This project is good for the older child since they may be more tolerant of cuting up their artwork and transforming it into something else. Also, they are more capable of handling the precise measuring and cutting this project needs in order to be successful. It took me three times to get all the strips to fit on the black construction paper properly. But I really liked all of the other attempts I made too. It's an experiment, so don't get too stressed!

Enjoy!

Kandinsky Media Study

For my after school Modern Art class I wanted to try something a bit different. I usually do a Kandinsky project inspired by Art Projects For Kids using watercolor and crayon resist, but I thought I'd mix it up a bit and try not only experimenting with color, but also with media. I had each child create two 3" squares using the following media:

• watercolor and crayon resist
• collage
• colored pencils
• collage (using magazine pages)

This piece was created by a 13-year-old student I teach private lessons to.
Feel free to vary the amount of squares depending on the
age and ability of your students. This project looks great with
four, six, eight, nine, twelve squares, or more!

The lesson is perfect as an introductory project when getting to know students or as an assessment project. Originally, Kandinsky created his circle compositions as color studies, so we can too!

I set up four stations in the room, explained how to use the media at each station properly and then let them go. I timed about 10-15 minutes per station (they created 2 squares at each station). About two-thirds of the students were able to create the necessary squares in the allotted time. I think I would break this into two class sessions in the future and have them do watercolor and marker the first week and collage and colored pencil the next. Or, maybe have students just do one square each (for a total of 4 squares).

The finished pieces were glued to black construction paper. Lovely color and media studies! Thanks, Mr. Kandinsky!

Kandinsky Media Study

This project is designed to be worked in four stations. I'll describe each individually...

Station 1: Markers

Supplies Needed:

• 3" squares of marker paper (marker doesn't bleed)
• Pencil with eraser
• Markers (We used Sharpies)
• Newspaper to protect workspace

Directions:

1. Use pencil to write your name on the back of two squares. 

2. Draw concentric circles on the paper using pencil. The circle can stay within the box or go beyond the box slightly.

3. Color the rings in with various colors of markers. 

Marker Example (Using Sharpies)

Station 2: Colored Pencils

Supplies Needed:

• 3" squares of drawing paper
• Pencil with eraser
• Colored Pencils

Directions:

1. Use pencil to write your name on the back of two squares. 

2. Draw concentric circles on the paper using pencil. The circle can stay within the box or go beyond the box slightly.

3. Color the rings in with various colors of colored pencils. You can use light or heavy pressure to vary the intensity of the colors.

Colored Pencil Example

Station 3: Collage

Supplies Needed:

• 3" squares of drawing paper
• Pencil with eraser
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Magazines or paper scraps

Directions:

1. Use pencil to write your name on the back of two squares. 

2. Cut a 3" square from a solid-color section of a magazine picture. Adhere to the 3" square of drawing paper.

3. Cut rings of various colors of magazine paper and glue to your squares.

Collage Example
(Using Magazine Paper)

Station 4: Watercolor Resist

Supplies Needed:

• 4" squares of watercolor paper (note the larger size)
• Masking tape
• Piece of cardboard
• Pencil with eraser
• Crayons
• Watercolor paints & brush
• Water bucket, paper towels

Directions:

1. Use pencil to write your name on the back of two squares. 

2. Tape the two squares to the cardboard or to the table. Tape a 1/4" border all around the squares--this will keep the paper from buckling as it dries.

3. Draw concentric circles on the paper using pencil. The circle can stay within the box or go beyond the box slightly.

4. Using a crayon, trace the pencil lines, pressing hard enough to leave a nice, thick pencil line.

5. Color the rings in with various colors of paint. You may not want to paint the rings in order since painting two sections that touch could cause the paint to bleed.

6. Let dry thoroughly. Trim squares to 3 inches.

Watercolor Example

To finish:

Mount all squares, touching, in a pleasing arrangement, onto black construction paper. Most squares will adhere nicely using a glue stick, but the watercolor paper may need tacky glue to stay glued down properly. Enjoy!