Every summer I get to experiment lesson ideas with my summer camp students. Without the constraints of curriculum, observations, I get to work with an enthusiastic group of creative kids and CREATE! My program includes students ages 7 through 16 with varying levels of skill and is in it's 23rd year at The Firehouse Gallery of Bordentown.
I bookmark ideas I see all year that grab my interest, then create a large file of "stuff" to try out. Above is a self portrait project with the hair being blown watercolors. Simple enough, but more expressive looking than I thought they might be.
I bookmark ideas I see all year that grab my interest, then create a large file of "stuff" to try out. Above is a self portrait project with the hair being blown watercolors. Simple enough, but more expressive looking than I thought they might be.
After finding some white umbrellas on sale from Oriental Trading Company, I decided to have students paint a design that would work on a round surface. Below you'll see fanciful fruits, Spongebob and underwater characters, as well as two explorations of deep space with shooting stars on one and nebula on the other. These were created with thinned acrylics and permanent markers.
We explored "Spirit Animals" below and did some oil pastel resist images on paper with India Ink and steel wool bits to reveal the images. Students wrote a list of their characteristics and decided what animal best fit that description.
The image above is a sample of a color exercise. Students cut out a symmetrical shape they felt was personally expressive (This one an actress) and colored in the negative space with opposite colors. This was set aside and worked on while other projects were drying to keep "downtime" to a minimum.
Below are drip self portraits. We colored the canvas in a favorite color, used a brush to "draw" the portrait into the wet paint, then dripped onto those brushstrokes. Using brushstrokes in wet paint meant we did not have to draw in pencil first, and no pencil lines would be evident in the final work.
Below are drip self portraits. We colored the canvas in a favorite color, used a brush to "draw" the portrait into the wet paint, then dripped onto those brushstrokes. Using brushstrokes in wet paint meant we did not have to draw in pencil first, and no pencil lines would be evident in the final work.
I got a donation of plexiglass and was able to do some monoprints with students. I photographed them, and we traced those images under the glass in water based markers with dampened paper, and later in permanent marker with rubbing alcohol sometimes sprayed onto the paper, and sometimes spritzed onto the plate for different effects.
This last project was to use up the extra rubbing alcohol, so we did expressive patterns on canvas with permanent markers, spritzed them with the alcohol and used straws to move the fluid around. We then added a layer of patterns on top to contrast with the bleeding colors. Though this might not end up an actual project in my classroom, it may be a technique I can employ for certain effect within a larger painting unit.
I will post more weeks of camp projects each weekend. Feel free to post questions below and subscribe to the RSS feed so you catch even more project ideas.
Additional art ed based resources can be found HERE. Remember to use discount code 3YPBN853 for 30% off most resources. Schools can order directly through eNASCO.
Additional art ed based resources can be found HERE. Remember to use discount code 3YPBN853 for 30% off most resources. Schools can order directly through eNASCO.
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