Foundation, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students have been exploring some wonderful books in Art this term, investigating the techniques used by authors/illustrators in their artworks and illustrations. There are so many wonderful authors and illustrators to choose from, but we focused particularly on books by Lois Ehlert and also Leo Lionni. Our first project involved reading and admiring the book 'Snowballs' by Lois Ehlert.
We loved how Lois used a mix of painted papers and real life and natural objects in her collages - every page was full of texture! We also loved the little birds she made out of painted papers and thought they really stood out against the backdrop of the birch trees.
It was then our turn to make an artwork just like Lois Ehlert! First, we used small bits of cardboard and scrapers to scrape black paint onto white strips of paper to create our birch tree trunks. While they were drying, we worked on our painted papers for our bird. Students used black and white oil pastels to create patterns and lines on one side of their paper and then used watercolours to paint over the top and create a resist. Adding salt to the wet paints also created texture on our papers as the salt soaked up the salt.
Next lesson, we used a template to trace the shapes of our birds onto our painted papers - head, body, tail feather, wing and beak.
Once we cut out our bird shapes, we then assembled them onto our birch trees. The final touches were added with white paint dipped into a cotton filter - SNOW!! Aren't they gorgeous!
We learned a lot about Lois when we read through 'The Scraps Book' - a book all about Lois and how she became an author and artist. Ever since she was a little girl, she wanted to write books and her parents both encouraged her to make artworks out of scraps of material, wood, buttons, papers, etc,
Reading and sharing 'Lots of Spots' was so much fun! Lois has created the most amazing paper collages to illustrate this book.
We felt so inspired by her collages, that we delved into our box of specialty papers and started creating our own animals (with lots of spots of course!) The results amazed me!!
Leo Lionni was the next author we investigated and his book 'A Colour of his Own' was just the sweetest story. We spent some time talking about chameleons and how they change colour and then discussed how to draw a chameleon.
Some students were keen to draw a chameleon on their own, while others felt more comfortable using a template. Using dispersing paper for this project resulted in lots of 'oohs and aahs' from the students as they watched their paints spread over their papers.
A sprinkling of salt also created some interesting effects. Well done - your chameleons look adorable!
