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'm way behind on the blog again. Whoa. I've got several projects that are ready to go up. It's just a matter of finding a free minute to get it done.
This project isn't a new one for me, but one that is very successful every year. It's a pretty straightforward Aboriginal inspired piece. Kids get to select an Australian animal to depict as an x-ray drawing. The animals are drawn on construction paper and colored with oil pastels. The background are on a separate piece of construction paper that is painted (with long q-tips) prior to adding the finished animal.
I make little changes to this lesson every year. In the past, I asked students to cover their entire background with dots. I could tell it was a little much for many students, so I allowed students to leave some background areas dot free this year. I liked the results.
Check out my lesson plan here!
For some reason, I really enjoy beginning the year with this project for 3rd grade. It is a nice combination of drawing, pastel, collage, and painting so it gets the students back into the swing of things. For this project, we study the art of the Aboriginal people of Australia. Each student chooses an Australian animal and begins by doing an "x-ray" drawing of the animal on construction paper. These drawings are colored using oil pastels. Next, backgrounds are designed using a different color of construction paper. This really makes the animals pop. Usually, the simpler the design, the better the background comes out. Finally, students used q-tips and a limited range of colors to paint the background.
The lesson plan can be found here.
My keynote is here.
Please feel free to use these in your classroom!
3rd grade students recently finished their first big project of the school year! They learned about the Aboriginal culture from Australia. Aboriginal artists have been around for hundreds of years, often making their own paint and painting on everything from stone walls to bark and paper. Each 3rd grader chose an Australian animal and drew it in the typical "x-ray" style of the Aboriginal people. The backgrounds are painted with q-tips in order to make a dot pattern. Great work, 3rd grade!
3rd grade students just finished a project involving art from Australia. We studied artwork from the Aboriginal people and learned about many kinds of Australian animals. Each student chose a native animal to draw in the "x-ray style," which is somewhat typical of aboriginal artwork. The background of the works is made entirely of dots. This was a fun and extremely successful project!
