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Tuesday 11 March 2014

Silhouette Art

This year I have the opportunity to do one session a week with a Grade 4 class doing art.  YaY!  I love art.  Today I wanted to share with you the current project we are working on.  This class is studying Africa this term and when I found this pin

This is the first time I've seen this project as DOABLE in early elementary.  Psyched! Draw The Line At: african serengeti

I knew I wanted us to have a go!

We started off by doing a wash last week using watercolor paints, we discussed the colors and why they would look like this at sunset.  We spoke about how the colours would not look like they were in a uniform line but would "bleed" into each other.  I will admit there were some "perfectionists" in this group that had a problem with that....they like straight lines, go figure!




I gave the kiddos some printed silhouettes because the focus of this lesson was not on drawing the animals but rather on colour and shadow.

After they had drawn in a horizon and an area for a tree, they had to oh so carefully cut out the silhouette.......people I won't lie to you an elephant lost a tail, a lion is now missing a paw and the ostrich.......well I think it is best if we don't go there at all.  Needless to say precision cutting is a skill we will be brushing up on!


Next they had to trace in the place where their animal was going to go, they did have an option of adding 2 animals and there were a couple of gazelle being chased by lions at the end of the day :)



Now the fun part!  Painting!  I put out a variety of different sized brushes and we talked about choosing an appropriate size for the different elements on the page.  We also had a discussion about the art of stippling (technical term there) to make the leaves.


Finally some of them wanted to add an embellishment to the top.  I love how the colours bleed in the background of this painting.....not sure what happened to the elephants trunk, perhaps he has a sinus problem.  It is heartening to see he still has his tail, heehee.

Well friends thanks for stopping by to take a look at our African inspired silhouttes!  Next week African inspired 3D masks.....if we get them finished!


I have updated this post to link up with Mel at From the Pond for her Tuesday Art linky!  Head over, link up!


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