Friday 11 July 2014

Plasticine Pictures (Barbara Reid inspired)

I based a lot of our lessons last term on great books.  Barbara Reid is an artist and author I've been wanting to use as inspiration for a lesson for quite some time. I could possibly say this lesson was one of my favorites of all time.


I had put off doing this lesson as I was nervous that some of my younger students would have difficulties with smudging the plasticine background.  In the end this wasn't such a problem as I initially thought.  I simply worked my way around the table and helped everyone with their back grounds.  Yes some struggled, some didn't,  yet no one complained and in the end we got them all done.   Once all the backgrounds were complete I was free to sit back and watch them create and create they did!  The works of art produced in this class were simply stunning!  These are produced by children 5 to 9 years old.


Barbara's website has amazing information and the most informative videos.  They are a little long to show my class (I tried once yet they soon got bored) yet would work well with older kids.  The children were amazed by her ability to produce such amazing pictures simply out of plasticine.

We used her latest book "Picture a Tree" as inspiration, however I wasn't strict that the children had to produce a tree.

 

What you need:
  • Plasticine - lots of colours (I tried some cheaper modelling clay and it was really hard to smudge for the backgrounds so for this exercise its worth paying for proper plasticine)
  • Pieces of cardboard for the base approx A5 (I used pieces I had collected from the scraps pile at the local art store - thanks Melbourne Artist Supplies!)
  • Pottery tools, old toothbrushes, wooden skewers
How To:
  • Read the book and look at the pictures for inspiration
  • Demonstrate the three steps 1) Smudge background 2) Add details 3) Add Texture with tools.
  • I made sure they got the OK from me before moving to the next step
  • If they finished early I had them walk around and look at others work and then go back to their own to see if they could find any further details to add (reminding them that Barbara's work is very detailed)
The Results:

WOW is all I can say!




Cheers
Fiona

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