Aboriginal artwork is fascinating to me. As an artist, I have always been fascinated with the process of making art as much as anything. I enjoy printmaking because of the preparation and thought that goes into a piece before final artwork is ever made. When I think about the process that went into the early Aboriginal art, I'm always amazed. Whenever someone makes their own paint simply to create art I'm impressed.
I've taught this aboriginal project for several years and have changed it bit by bit every year. Originally, the students drew and painted an animal on one paper, then did a dotted background on the same paper. That later changed to drawing the animal on a separate paper and adding color with oil pastel before attaching that do the dotted background. This year, I went a similar route with the animals, but changed the background. First, I made it smaller. I went from 12x18 to 12x12. Kids get overwhelmed with the amount of dots they used to have to make. I wanted to simplify that. Second, I allowed students to create some decoration on their backgrounds with cut paper. This further reduced the amount of dotting that was required. I really like how the work turned out this year. I cut at least one full day from the project by making the dotting less complicated. I'll add that on to one of the new projects I came up for later this year.
Download the lesson plan here!
I agree about the smaller format, especially when the technique can be tedious and repetitive - pointillism, mosaic, etc. Even the best starts can go haywire when a project drags on and on, especially with elementary. I only work 12x18 or larger when it's a fast-paced, free-wheeling kind of thing, like gadget printing, free painting, etc. I like 9x12 and smaller for most, and I get double the paper $$$.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking projects.