Art Class: Watercolour Painting for Beginners

Hi Teachers! The Primary One students have started using watercolour cakes to paint. We watched an instructional video in the previous lesson and talked through the things to bring for the following lesson. The children wrote down the one thing to bring - an empty container to hold water.

Now, there are a few points to make clear when you entrust the children to bring an important piece of material. Because no container = no painting. I've explained that I don't have enough for everyone. So, if they have, they should bring the containers the next day and labelled with their name and class with a permanent marker and kept in the art cupboard lest they forget if they wait until the next art class (weekly art class).

The painting day arrived and some students had forgotten to bring a container. Last week, a boy from one of the Primary One classes came up to me the moment I entered his classroom. He repeatedly thanked me for teaching him an important lesson that day and said that he will not forget to bring important things again. I was quite impressed by his response. 

Children without water containers were given a set of coloured pencils instead. I mean what I said. And this reputation goes a long way and essential for classroom management. They could still practise the use of Warm and Cool colours even though the medium has changed.

I mostly rejected the use of lunchboxes as water containers and the best try goes to a kid who wanted to use a pen cap as a container. Yes, anything that looks like a vessel😭

Most children had painting experience but they will still enjoy when asked to do it. Thus, asking them to bring something isn't that difficult because responsibility is taught by leveraging on this activity. I do bring a few containers to class in case a child's container has cracked. Sometimes, it irks me to delay the lesson unit due to small hiccups but I try to think of the long-term benefit over the short-term inconvenience. 

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: Places of Interest in Singapore

Towards the end of Term 2, my youngest students learnt about the places of interest locally. They were all excited to share about the places they have visited and I conclude that a high percentage of the children have visited Universal Studio and Sentosa whereas there is less awareness about our historical sites.

We discussed about the activities that happened at Singapore River and the Cleanup that took 10 years. I showed them some black and white photographs of Singapore River in its dire state. Paintings by pioneer artists which is related to the Singapore River were also discussed. Some children volunteered to do a role play on what they would do if they live by the river while the rest guessed. 

We spent a lesson drawing and cutting the river out from our painted paper made in the previous art class. Then, the children pasted them in their sketchbooks. The rest of the details were drawn in markers.

Art Class: Painting Routines

Hi! The children have started painting with water. I like using the coloured crepe papers for this lesson to talk about the painting routines. So when we are ready to proceed to using the actual paint pigment, the children are familiar with the routines and movement:

• clutter-free desk
• half-filled water container
• water container placed in the top center of the desk
• given only one paintbrush
• must place recycled paper underneath the watercolour paper
• tear the 'magical papers' and keep them under the water container
• hold the recycled paper lengthwise with both hands and bring to the drying rack
• rinse the paintbrush and water container

Instructions such as the amount of water to use is learnt through practice. Some children need more reminders so rest assured after a few practices, they will remember the routines. Take swimming for example, you can listen to explanation after explanation and watch many swimming videos. By not getting into the pool, how would you learn to swim? When all the children are in their painting mode, you could hear the pin drop! But the silence doesn't last long. 😹 

Art Class: Applied Learning Programme

 

Hi! It's been busy times. I wish I have more work-in-progress photos to upload. My students have completed their projects and they are tidying up their scripts for the upcoming recorded video presentation. The ICT teacher went through the concept of the project while I gave them suggestions on attaching the microbits and presentation of the work. I didn't like the idea of pasting masking tape directly over the microbits so I had them cover it up with bits and pieces of paper first. It will be easier to separate the tape and the microbits when the project is over. Check out my teacher's work sample in the video. I'm happy to see that the foam brushes produce an even finish and are effective for painting larger surface area compared to paintbrushes. I'm always curious when students bring something from home as add-ons. The toys as furniture looks so adorable👶. For the final layer, permanent markers are used to speed up the process otherwise we will never resume our routine art classes!

Art Class: Surrealism in Watercolour

 

Watercolour is an unforgiving medium. Its transparency is beautiful but a mistake is clearly visible unlike the acrylic paint where you can go over it by applying a new layer. 

I prefer to let the students use acrylic paint but since I'm conducting art class in the classrooms, I'm changing the medium. A good thing is each class is equipped with a sink so at least they still can wash their supplies without making visits to the washrooms. 

I prepared paint on the plastic lid and allow them to dry before distributing them to the students. They would just need to fill the continer with water and start paint. To clean up, they will empty the container and allow the paint to dry the same way when they have just received them. I made a watercolour video and the students will be learning to apply the techniques to their drawings. We'll see how it goes.

Art Class: Paintings

Hi teachers! how I miss working in the art room. I have only been using them as storage rooms for the children's artworks since three months ago. 

These graduated students from last year did their Surrealist paintings. They managed to complete them prior to their final exams. Take it as your graduation gifts 😆 was what I'd told them. 

Art Class: Surrealist Paintings

I do wish the P6 students have more time to touch up their Surrealist paintings. Since their PSLE exams have ended, they are now busy attending post-exam activities and doing their final community project. Some artists' works which we looked at were Salvador Dali's, Rene Magritte's and Meret Oppenheim's.

I like sharing the children's book, Dinner at Magritte's by Michael Garland. Got mine, second hand, at Amazon. The illustration contains many references to paintings from Surrealist artists which poses intriguing questions for classroom discussions.

The most challenging part in this unit is idea generation for the students. Some students spent too much time on conceptualising their ideas and compromise on their painting time. I think if I were to continue to collect photos of past year students' works and their write ups, I would be able to share more ideas with current students to hasten the work process. 

Art Club: Mark Making

Primary Two children did mark making with unconventional materials. They explored different ways to make marks and learnt from observing their friends. I gave them specific instructions not to let paint touch their hands because I know a few will. So if I do allow them to touch the paint, they will probably use their whole arms! Prior to individual work, the children painted on canvas and we had a class discussion by comparing the paintings.

Housekeeping: Managing Paint

I'm very lucky to get two stainless stain sinks in each artroom with this depth! Perhaps they would remind you of a surgical sink, but in fact, it is quite common in art schools. This sink facilitates washing effectively and the most important thing is that it acts like a backsplash which otherwise would result in slippery floor. Imagine forty children doing washing and if one causes a little splash, it would be a significant amount of water on the ground towards the end of the lesson. With back to back classes, it is a substantial mental load just to ensure everyone's safety.

Another thing that I like doing is to minimise the amount of paint staining our new sink. I like children to clean their dirty paintbrushes on a recycled cardboard first before they do the washing. A picture says a thousand words:

Art Class: Patterns Around Us [Part II]

The P3 children are transferring their pattern studies into a mixed media artwork. Their observations of patterns are from the school environment can be read here. They did watercolour resist work by drawing patterns with oil pastels first and applying a layer of black watercolour. I find that there is a fine line between choosing to give explicit instructions in art lessons and allowing children to discover for themselves. I will further elaborate on this point in my subsequent post. In these lessons, explicit instructions are necessary to ensure safety in the art room even though some of the instructions might seem trivial. We should never make assumptions in our teaching. Occasionally, I will still get a child who would fill up his water container to the brim and other children would help to remind him of the right amount of water that goes into it. Gaining the confidence to carry the filled containers from the basins to their workstations can easily be overlooked. Other instructions such as using sufficient pressure on the oil pastels and getting the paintbrushes to hold enough colour pigment before painting especially when we are using the watercolour cake are just some habits of mind the children have to adopt and practise regularly.  

Art Club: Sky Colour

What would you do when you run out of blue paint? Is blue the only colour of the sky? Art Club P3 pupils are working on a 'mural' after reading the book Sky Colour by Peter H. Reynolds. The children discuss and brainstorm on the possibilities of sky creatures and flying objects.