Summer Art Camp: Week 5 of 5

Another summer comes and goes and we look back at our final week with themes of "Art Buffet" and "Pirates."

Art Buffet is a class I created for the kid who loves to do everything, so we always do a drawing, sculpture, and painting by the end of the week. 

We did an art quote in front of my building.

“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” ― Pablo Picasso.

​We had 10 children in the class so they picked a word of the quote from a bucket and did a fanciful sketch of that word. Sketches were taken outside where I had measured about 2 feet of space for each participant to work. We even used paint brushes to blend colors which worked out really well.

Our sculpture project was to make a "Personal Initial Sculpture." We covered floral foam from Nasco with plaster to make their first or last initial to cover with personality traits and symbols. I told them to pick their first initial if it was going to be about themselves and a last initial if it was going to be about their family. We painted with tempera cakes and sealed them with clear spray paint. 

We did a photocopy printing unit as well based on THIS project I detailed on my blog in March of 2017. There is a video tutorial that will be helpful at that link. We did all our copies (6) at the local printers just one block away. It's always a good idea to support local businesses when you can.

"Pirates" class was all about treasure maps, dragons, making rope (weaving) making a stuffed "Kraken." The treasure maps make a great unit that combines cartography, geometry, and ruler skills.

Each student created a treasure map of an imaginary island. It could be scary or cute, and having a treasure was optional, though most included "ye olde X-marks the spot."

We always start with a thumbnail sketch for quick ideas, then go to a 1/2 size sketch where we use rulers to get use to them. Then onto the final drawing which is a large 18 x 24 inch paper.
(Skipping sketches does make projects worse.)

Maps included the following: Detailed border, rose compass, longitude/latitude, 5 land feature symbols, key for symbols, 2 landmarks, 2 water symbols in the water, 1 sea monster and 1 ship. 

Maps were wrinkled and aged by soaking in watered-down paint. We used heavy drawing paper, near 100lb. Pencil, sharpie, watercolors, then aged in a watered down paint solution. Maps need to be in and out as quickly as possible, more than 5 seconds makes more rips. 10+ seconds and it shreds. Type of paper may matter a lot. Always test teacher samples first. The final solution for aging was about 1 cup of any brown paint per gallon of water.

​For older students, we use dip pens and india ink to make our drawings more authentic.

While parts dry or as some finish steps of their maps early, I have students work on a code to put on a scroll with directions and warnings about their islands. It's a great way to keep kids busy and on task.

We also make "rope" by weaving string. This tutorial on Youtube will help. I thought kids would be board by it but once they got the hang of it, they brought their looms every day and made bracelets during their times off.

We used information from "The Emotional Color Wheel" to pick colors, so each color had a specific personal meaning. (Use discount code 3YPBN853 for 30% off all their books)

We made monoprints of the dragons that protected their islands. This was done with sharpie, and run through a press with paper that had been sprayed with rubbing alcohol.

Camp finished by making a Kraken sea monster for the waters around our islands. Really just an octopus craft I learned as a child. I've posted a Youtube tutorial I found, but they are really easy to make. Again, colors were chosen based on "The Emotional Color Wheel" and the best part was that the girls taught all the boys how to braid yarn!

You can see by the last image we had to wear our cut yarn at least once for a silly class photo. It was a sun week with a "Pirate" theme.