Sorry, I couldn't resist.
my experiment above
In honor of the approaching Valentines Day I thought I'd have the children create a Jim Dine inspired heart print. This session has been all about finger painting. So that is how we created our base. There were no rules here. I just reminded them to watch out for what colors might create a muddy look: all the complimentary pairs, red and green, yellow and purple, and orange and blue. This was a great little color theory lesson. After our base had dried we cut out styrofoam hearts that we carved designs into with pencils. We printed these hearts with black acrylic. After these were dry some children used oil pastel to finish their pieces. I loved the looseness of this project. It was a nice departure from all the direct line drawing lessons we've been doing.
I LOVE the energy in these!!!
ReplyDeleteI <3 these so much! Nice way of explaining which colors made mud too, I'll definitely have to borrow this lesson! were boys against it in any way? Like eww..hearts are for girls?
ReplyDeletep.s. yes I do miss the sunny SoCal weather!! Sigh..
Thanks! They had no problem doing the hearts since they process of cutting, carving and printing was almost like science experiment to them. The O'Keefe flowers on the other hand brought out an almost boycott amongst my boys. :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colors, beautiful energy, beautiful work. I can just feel the kids exuberance coming through...Hope it was as fun for you!
ReplyDeleteThese are great! What grade levels?
ReplyDeleteThe works here are Kindergarten thru 3rd. But I'm doing this project with all my grade levels. I think the younger ones are having more success because they don't judge their work as much.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE these! We are doing Jim Dine too! The boys seemed to be a little nervous about hearts at first but once they got into it, they really had fun!
ReplyDeleteYup.. this will be my next activity! They look fab!
ReplyDeletelove this idea w/the prints! so cute!
ReplyDeleteI like how you turned this into a color theory lesson! This may be in our future!! Check out my blog at smartypantsjohnston.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThese are really gorgeous! I love Jim Dine!
ReplyDeleteHow do you (or I, with minimum art experience) start? Just expose the kids to the artist's works, and point out the how of it (e.g. used a dry brush, dotted layers of colour with fingertips), then give them the materials & say go? I am not sure how to best emulate your classes here at home. Should I make a basic point form summary of the style, or what?? Thanks for your help.
ReplyDeleteI think you have exactly the right idea. Show a lot of examples of Dine's work. And talk about how you think he created them. You can offer cotton balls or cut up sponges as an alternative or in addition to finger painting. For younger children, you might want to limit the color choices to avoid a muddy brown mess. Have fun!
DeleteI love the ideas of finger painting the base. This is my favorite Jim Dine project I have found yet. Thanks for sharing!
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