Art Class: Printmaking

Hi Teachers! I have a new teacher, Ms J, joining me in my art classes this year. We started co-teaching the Printmaking unit. Ms J adapted some current resources and added new ideas of her own. The tuning-in activity included printing with LEGO bricks. She brought some from home and got the students to try printing with acrylic paint. It's funny how sometimes I think teaching is probably the only career that is widely acceptable to bring things from home for work purpose. 

The uniform LEGO bricks produces interesting textures and shapes. While it might seem easy to carry out the activity, we had to remind them that the amount of paint that is picked up by the brick will determine if the print can be seen clearly. There is a way to coat the paint evenly before printing without the use of brayer in this case.  Another point to note is that students have a tendency to use the brick like a paintbrush so the imprint of the LEGO bricks is not visible. 

In the following lesson, students watched a video on making collograph and they sketch out a robot collography on their sketchbook. It's inherently important to discuss some common 'mistakes' in Printmaking because there are just too many elements to watch out for. It's great if students can just discover these elements but that would mean some students will not feel successful when the time runs out. As students need to do more than one print to get their ideal ones, they show the deconstructed parts of their sketch first and then transfer the drawings to a piece of foam before cutting and pasting them on a piece of cardboard. Next, the placement of the parts also determine the intricacies of the final print. Having the parts pasted without gaps would just yield a big blob of ink while gaps that are too distance will make the work looks sparse. 

Art Class: Composition

Hi! I repeated a lesson from the previous year but our focus this term is mostly on composition during art class. The students are familiar with the term composition because it means story writing in English class. Activating students' prior knowledge is a given when teaching something new in any subject. In fact, writing composition means putting things together in an orderly manner. You can think of it as stringing sentences such that it seems coherent and logical to bring forth ideas and structure.

Composition in Art is a similar concept in which different elements in of an artwork is combined so that its whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In Photography, there are composition rules or formula that creates interesting viewpoints to the viewer. In posters designs, prints or books, the composition can work in tandem with the content to bring out the best.

A book that shows how composition can affect the viewers is Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang. The author uses the story of Little Red Riding Hood and illustrations of graphic artworks to tell a story that engages the affective domain.

It's because of how the focus changed this time that the students were more invested in the layout of their artbooks. Rather than just separating illustrations and text on each page, making their stories seem very predicable and mundane, the current students put more thoughts into planning and making full use of the limited space which in turn produces more visual elements.

Art Class: Air-dry Clay Monsters Pinch Pots

 

Hi Teachers! I'm working on a new lesson unit on monster pinch pots this term. I will love seeing the creative ideas as they bring flat drawing to form. When making these pinch pots, I created a few extras just in case the children had theirs broken in the process so they will not be too disappointed.

Children will learn with experience that not all 2D drawings will translate directly to a stable 3D piece. It's great to let the children learn as they do and allow them to realise what works best. The final artwork has to stand on its own and attachments definitely has to be firmly secured. Please check back to see our progress. 

Art Class: Road Safety Signs

Hi Teachers! My colleague handed over this project to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in the beginning of this year and walking out of the school one day, I noticed the students' drawings installed as road safety signs. This is such an innovative way to capture students' attention and ensuring their safety outside the school boundaries.