Illustration

Looking at different illustrators in art fits in well when making important cross curricular links to other subjects and naturally the theme of illustration fits in with literacy. You can look at doing this through two different ways, you could ask your children to create illustrations for a book you are studying in English, or for a piece of their own writing. Another way you could address this is also to look at creating an illustration of a recognisable character in the style of another illustrator. Out of the two I prefer the later task as I think it gives the children more opportunity to be creative as well as allows for a variety in the work produced by the class. I have had a go at making my own illustrations, my first illustration is of Olaf from frozen in the style of Lauren Childs.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see from my images that I have used different materials to create the same style of Lauren childs. I have used wall paper, wrapping paper, paints, pens and pencils. I even Stained my own papers to create some of the colours that I wanted.

 

You could further this activity more by then photo editing the childrens final work. This allows for the children to use their own original pieces of Art work to edit and enhancing the work that they have already created.  Using editing allows for children to experiment with their work as explained by (cox and Watts 2007 p.77). This enables children to experiment with their work without fear that if they try something new and it does not go as planned they have not ruined their work. Allowing children to play with composition, colours and layers having freedom in their work.  (Cox and Watts 2007 p.77) states that how children are able to review and modify their work therefore having a direct effect on the quality of the work produced. This also helps make Art accessible to all children and all will have opportunity to achieve, even children who do not feel confident in their artistic ability can use photography and photo editing software to create a piece of Art. It also allows the children to experiment and see how they could further develop their own work, to reflect on this in their own studies. Being able to reflect and experiment their selves is similar to Vygotsky (1978) and his suggestion that children learn best in their zone of proximal development. In this case the ICT allows for the children to experiment with effects and editing without the aid of the teacher and work independently.

 

 

 

 

The first image of Princess Jasmine is a simple pencil drawing that has had colour added to it using water colour, the colour are flat and dull and I think the overall look of the image is not of a high quality. The second Image of Princess Jasmine has had the picture sharpened, colour enhanced, and increase of contrast as well as text added. I personally think that the second image is a much higher quality, and in accessible to all schools as the editing was done with Picasa photo editing which can be downloaded for free and is very simple to use. Personally I think with guidance even KS1 should be able to use the software.

 

 

 

 

Reference List

 

Cox, S. and Robert, W. (2007). Teaching Art and Design 3-11 reaching the standard Series. London: Continuum.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and Society: The Development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.            

 

 



Paste Resist

Paste resist is a really good way of introducing children to the idea of batik. Paste Resist involves using a simple flour and water paste with the consistency of double cream to outline an image drawn onto fabric.

For paste resist you will need:

·         Plain Flour,

·         White fabric,

·         Brusho Inks in which ever colours you desire.

·         Squeezy bottle for example washing-up liquid bottle or shampoo bottle.

·         Paint brushes

 

 

1.       First you will need to mix up a paste of flour and water, the paste  should be of a consistency of double cream. Once you have made up the paste transfer into a bottle such as a washing-up liquid bottle or shampoo bottle which will allow you to squeeze the paste out in a continuous line. This should be done the night before you intend to use as the paste needs to be left overnight.

2.       Children should fist sketch out a design before drawing on fabric once they have done this the children can draw out their design You can either have a piece of fabric for each child or larger pieces of fabric and ask the children to work collaboratively in a group. It is important  to remind the children that their images to be large, this will prevent when applying the paste the paste all running into one blob, this is what can happen if the images that the children are applying the paste too are too small. The children should use pencil when drawing on their design, it is important to remind the children that any mark they make on the fabric cannot be removed.

3.       Once the children have drawn out their design it’s time to go over the outline using the paste, it is important to demonstrate this process to the children showing the children how a little is a lot!! They do not need to use a lot of paste. If the children accidently apply to much paste then they can use a fine paint brush to spread the paste along the lines. Once all the lines are covered the design needs to be left over night or until the paste has dried hard.

 

4.       Once dried the children can then fill in different sections of the design with the Brusho ink. The paste creates a barrier to the fabric leaving the parts covered in the paste white whilst you apply colour to the areas that have no paste. It is a good idea to do this on some plastic dust sheets  and news paper as the area can get very wet!! Again this needs to be left over night to dry.

5.       Once the Ink has dried you can peel off the paste, I find that this is difficult for little hands and using spoons to peel off the paste is much easier. Once you have peeled off your paste you should see your design in the fabric.

 

This activity is great with EYFs and once you have done this activity with the children fully guided I see no reason as to why the children couldn’t do this independently if the activity was set up for them. I have used this activity twice in school the first was with a KS2 class who made pieces around things important to them as a collaborative piece looking at Grayson Perry. I also completes this activity KS1 and EYFS with an under the sea theme to fit in with the childrens topic work, both times they worked brilliant and where a massive success!

With older children you could even work in to the design once you have peeled off the paste with stitching, and different types of applique to make this more of a textiles piece making cross curricular links with Design and technology. If working collaboratively you could look at introducing P.S.H.E and being respectful of others and their work as this is really important to creating a collaborative piece.