Hi,

 

Just a quick note to let you know that our blog has moved.

You can find us at http://www.colorific.com.au/news/blog.

 

We look forward to seeing you there soon!

Kind regards,

Colorific

 

As part of our ongoing information series to help educators learn about the many facets of art in learning, we thought we could have some fun with an alphabet of art inspiration!

H is for Hatching!

Hatching is the use of parallel lines to create an illusion of shade or texture in a drawing.  Following from our cartoon theme of last week, the cartoon pages or Manga books are the best places to see this in action, if you still have some pages left, explore how the use of thicker and thinner lines creates the illusion of depth on the flat page.

Have students observe a cube on the table.  Shine a light from different angles to show light and dark surfaces.  Have them draw a series of cubes (younger students may need a template) then have them use hatching to give depth to the drawings based on what they see.  Move the light source to different locations – from above, further away (longer shadows), closer (smaller shadows but more intense), left side, right side etc.

When the exercise is done they should be able to identify in each of their drawings where the light source was positioned.

If you think the class is up to it, using the principles of shading – use the healthy people silhouettes and colour them using black markers or pencils only to give the illusion of movement and depth to the flat shapes. Remember the folds in fabric and rounded edges or faces and ears etc.  You could also mount the silhouette to an A3 page and have the students create ground based shadows too.

Anybody who has seen the original Batman & Robin TV series from the 60′s will be familiar with the ‘kapow’ ‘blam’ ‘biff’ type of wording used to overlay the fight scenes.  We found a fun clip here that you can show the class…there are some fabulous words, and we think they will get a kick (pardon the pun!) out of seeing how things have changed!

[YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_7semtxI0&w=425&h=349]

Here is a great opportunity to create some class action stories.  Having students in small groups, spend 5 minutes working through a plot line.  Then use digital cameras to take photos of over-exaggerated expressions in fight scenes or dramatic scenes.

Print the images and create a story board and be sure to intersperse plenty of those cartoon action words.

If you don’t want to use digital cameras, use images from magazines to set up an action story, or simply have students do some cartoon cell drawings.  You could also photocopy pages from Manga books to cut up and rework into a new story.

Fizz….zapppp….we’re off until next week…BOING!!!!

As promised, here are some instructions to create these little woollen characters. The basic characters are easy to make and you can add complexity by plaiting the limbs or adding hair, clothing, hands etc.

2 Fun little characters made with Colorific Wool Scraps

All you need is a bag of wool scraps! However, you can also use sequins, beads, moving eyes, stems and foam shapes! All can be useful and fun embellishments to these little guys.

Download the Wool Character Activity Sheet here.

Use them in dioramas which are always fun! They’re also great for brooches (mother’s day), embellishments on cards, on Christmas decorations, as puppets, pencil toppers, in team colours, as friendship awards…what can your class think up to do with these fun little characters?

Last week we looked at the fabulous 150g bag of wool scraps…this week we are going to give you some ideas on how to use this mystery bag of colour!

1. Lets start with the obvious – they are great for collage work – mix with some PVA or even a glue stick and twirl, wrap, tie and cover with the colourful strands.
2. Combine with our cardboard weaving loom bookmarks or cardboard weaving loom christmas tree and star shapes and tie pieces of wool around the loom struts like the old hook and loop rugs – the more wool you tie the fluffier the decoration becomes!
3. Or, using the weaving loom still, opt for the traditional route and weave the strands in and out of the struts to create a flat bookmark – leave loose ends hanging out for fun effects.  You will need to run a line of glue on the ‘back’ of some of the woven lines to secure the wool.  If students are having difficulty threading the wool through the holes, use a stem as a needle – just bend the bottom 1cm of the stem over the tip of the wool scrap and you can use it like a needle to thread and drag the wool after.
4. Friendship rings (or bracelets if you combine 2 together).  Knot a few strands together and either opt for a simple plait, or research online and use some of the more sophisticated friendship knots.  One length will easily make a ring, or tie a couple together to make bracelet lengths.
5. Glue wool scraps around cardboard rolls in patterns, then tie multiple rolls together to create pen holders.
6. Mini ‘fireworks’ sparkles – lay a bunch of coloured strands (around 20 or 30) side by side and tie as tightly as possible around the centre with another piece of wool.  Wrap the end of a stem a few times around the middle, then ‘fluff’ the pom pom out – trim stray edges as necessary.  Great for hair or hat decorations on sports days, rings, bracelets, desk accessories, pen toppers…you get the idea!
7. Wool wrapped mini basket (warning, this is a messy one!) Cover the outside of a small bowl with plastic wrap, then make a solution of PVA and water in a second container.  Soak wool strands in the PVA mix and wrap in patterns around the bowl.  Criss cross and loop around for fun effects.  Make sure to pat all pieces into each other so they stick together - then leave to dry.  Once dry remove from bowl and there you have a nice little treat basket!  Have some extra PVA handy for any weaker spots or strands that need re-gluing in place.
8.  ’Dream catchers’.  Using our eye masks cut into the eye holes to extend them leaving around 1.5cm of card around the edges. To make threading easier use a hole punch to make holes around the edges of the shape – as many as possible without compromising stability.  Thread tie and wrap coloured wool scraps from one side to the other in random patterns.  Combine with the Bucket’o'buttons threaded randomly throughout.  Tie some coloured feathers so they hand from the bottom, glue on some sequins or glitter and you have a fun ‘dream catcher’ type mobile.
9. Dough Worx pet rocks – poke tufts of wool into the top of a blob of dough and when dry glue on some moving eyes for fun.
10. Wool makes great hair when glued to characters made from polystyrene balls, felt or foam or use around masks.

There are 10 of our favourites…what else can you do in your classroom with wool scraps?

Tune in next week to learn how to make our fun little woollen people.

How much wool is in a 150g bag of wool scraps?  Handfuls and handfuls of coloured pre-cut pieces of mixed ply wool.  The pieces are pre-cut into roughly 15cm lengths – making them ideal for many art and craft activities without the messy tangles and knots that cause so much wastage when working with full balls of wool!

There were 12 different colours of wool in the one bag I picked up, just think of all the fun things that could be done with so many different kinds of wool…in 2 weeks time we will give you our list of ideas…what are some fun things you’ve done with wool in your classroom?

Next week we will give you a fun downloadable art activity using the wool scraps to create a woolly family that you could use as puppets, card embellishments, decorations, brooches, or diorama characters.

As part of our ongoing information series to help educators learn about the many facets of art in learning, we thought we could have some fun with an alphabet of art inspiration!

G is for Graffiti Art!

Type the word Graffiti into Google and in 0.05 of a second you are rewarded with over 40,900,000 pages of content!  The term ‘graffiti’ is actually the plural of the word ‘graffito’ which is a term used to describe scratching marks into a surface (used by potters to mark their work or a technique used by artists to scrape into layers of paint).

The earliest forms of graffiti were marks scratched into walls and rocks.  Wikipedia has a great historical article explaining historical forms of graffiti which would make a great starting point – even the ancient Romans had a graffiti problem!

However, it is modern graffiti that we recommend as this allows opportunities for students to perhaps copy, photograph or examine graffiti in all its forms – as an artwork on endorsed surfaces, and as a form of vandalism.  Next time you catch a train ask students to look out the windows, the tracks are usually lined with walls covered in graffiti – some purely vandalistic in appearance, whilst other works people have spent considerable time crafting.

Talk to students about the impact of vandalism, and why perhaps people feel they have the right to mark property in such a way, and explore graffiti as public art.  There are some great sites dedicated to the art of graffiti and there are some famous artists who use the style.

A great site called ‘Free Graffiti Creator‘ has a step by step instruction to creating graffiti style lettering.  Create a classroom graffiti wall, have students decorate an A3 page with their name or symbol in the graffiti style – try using the Colorific Spritzer airbrush with marker pens to create a spray can effect on pages.

What a great creative writing stimulator!  The mysterious Easter Island statues!

Easter Island, a small island in the South Pacific was named Easter Island by it’s first European visitor in 1722 who encountered it on Easter Sunday.

What mysterious stories could students create for its existence?

Who carved the heads and what do they mean?

Has anybody seen Night at the Museum and the Easter Island head who loves to eat ‘gum-gum’?  Imagine if those strange statues really could talk…what stories would they tell!

You could let students research the statues, or you could simply show images of them and let their imagination do the rest – then research them afterwards.

However you tackle this word spark, it is sure to get some fun tales, these guys are fabulous for inspiring creative thinking if for no other reason than their mysterious look!

As we move into April, in Australia we start to prepare for Easter celebrations and mid semester holidays are being planned.

Whilst the Easter celebration itself is a Christian tradition, there are many different customs from around the world. As with most of the Christian celebrations, there is a non-religious side that pre-dates Christianity.  In the northern hemisphere Easter coincides with spring – as you can imagine early civilizations had great cause to celebrate the coming of spring. Eggs are a symbol of birth, and the Easter Bunny too has pagan origins through the worship of Eostre, goddess of fertility and spring,whose earthly symbol is the rabbit.

If it is not in conflict with your school beliefs it would be interesting for the students to research pagan ‘Easter’ beginnings – we mean not to disrespect their Christian importance, but simply to observe that as Christianity swept over pagan countries and converted them, they looked for ways to integrate existing customs with Christian faith and this is just one of them.

The site ‘I Love India‘ has a very comprehensive section on Christian festivals and Easter around the world, as does ‘why easter‘.

If you wish to make Easter cards, why not use our egg shaped cards and combine with glitter and sequins to create vibrant artworks.  Or why not set a different challenge – turn the obvious egg  shaped card into a character – say the Easter Bunny or an Easter chicken with the addition of some foam pieces, stems or concertina folded paper for legs, moving eyes and feathers.

However you celebrate Easter – we wish you a happy and healthy lenten season.

As part of our ongoing information series to help educators learn about the many facets of art in learning, we thought we could have some fun with an alphabet of art inspiration!

F is for Fabulous Frontispiece!

An illuminated manuscript

 

A frontispiece is the (often) elaborate illustration that precedes the title page of a book.  Elaborately engraved frontispieces were popular in early books in particular bibles.  Many illuminated manuscripts that were hand drawn by monks and priests are absolute works of art to amaze at.

You might want to revisit our earlier article on Illuminated Manuscripts here.

A Google search for images on the word ‘frontispiece’ will give you a cornucopia of resources to explore!  Have students create an elaborate frontispiece for one of their work books, or perhaps to illustrate a story they have written, or maybe forget the story and go straight for the artwork.

Another idea would be for you to decide the brief – have several story titles for students to chose from and let them illustrate – you will see some great interpretations of the same story title – maybe that could be the inspiration to writing the story to match the title and frontispiece – a little back to front we know, but that is what creative stimulation is all about….doing things a little differently from time to time.