Mixed Media Gel Printed Fish Bowls

Here is a fun way to use your gel printed botanical pages to 

create fish bowl or terrarium collages.

 Gather some leaves - the greater variety of silhouettes, the better

 I press mine in an old dictionary. The kids get the biggest kick out of the fact that this is how we used to look up the spelling and definition of a word before the internet. 

 Add some paint to your Gelli Plate - Remember that this will be the color of your plants. With that in mind, you might want to use light or warm colors for a nice contrast.

 Now add some paint for the water or background of your fish bowl or terrarium. Lay down some leaves and make a print using the same paper as above. 

Use a template to trace for the fish bowl. You could use any vessel shape. We used metallic markers and added white pen to create highlights in the glass. You can use different pens and markers to add more plants if you want. 

I had some Gelli Arts DIY Kits with 5 inch square plates. These were perfect to create 

small fish bowls following the same steps as the larger bowl. 

You can create collage rocks using gel printed papers 

or you can add them with paint or markers. 

 Some of my students created shadows under our fish bowls 

using chalk pastels with water and a paint brush. 

Just color an ellipse and spread it out with water for a watercolor effect. 

I offered a variety of ideas for creatures to create, cut and place in the fish bowls. 

You could go realistic, whimsical, cartoon or imaginary,

You can use leftover gel printed papers or create fish 

or creatures using white paper and markers.

We glued our fish bowls on watercolor paper. 

 This background was created using acrylic paint for the wall, watercolor for the table

and charcoal for the shadows,

You could create single vessels with painted backgrounds

using an 8x10 or larger Gelli Plate. 

 Added collage succulent

The pieces below were created by students, ages 5-12.

 6th grade

 Kindergarten

 Kindergarten

 3rd grade

3rd grade

6th grade

A special thanks to Natalie at at smART class for her Fabulous Succulent Garden art lesson here https://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/2018/05/succulent-gardens.html
and artist, Clair Bremner for her Create a Terrarium Artwork with a Gel Press art class on Skillshare for Inspiration.