May 18-22, 2020 Lesson Plans

Course: 8th Grade Art

Project: "Aluminum Foil Sculptures"

Sculpture doesn’t just have to be made using clay. Many artists throughout history utilized a wide range of materials to create amazing artistic sculptures. Sculpture is also a great way to explore the principle of design, movement. This week, create an aluminum foil person sculpture that strives to portray movement in a chosen pose. Your figure could be running, walking, falling, dancing, or any sort of movement you would like to attempt to sculpt.

Materials:

● Aluminum foil ● Newspaper (you could also use plaster strips if available) for paper mache ● Elmer’s glue ● Acrylic or Tempera Paint (optional ● Paint brushes, water containers, paint trays (optional) ● Sharpie

Instructions:

● Start with approximately 1-1.5 feet of aluminum foil. ● Make two cuts 5 inches deep in the top of the aluminum foil. ● Make one cut at the bottom of the aluminum foil 5 inches deep.

● Form a head from the middle piece at the top. ● Form two arms on either side of the head.

● Form the legs of the aluminum foil person. ● Ensure that either one leg or arm is able to be glued to a piece of cardboard as a

stand.

● Rip newspaper up into long thin strips (could also use plaster strips). ● Put newspaper one piece at a time into diluted Elmer’s glue (50% water, 50%

glue) and smooth it out around your aluminum foil figure.. ● Let dry for 24-48 hours then paint your figure if you have acrylic or tempera paint

available. ● Once dry, you can add features and details with a sharpie marker.

May 25-29 & June 1-5, 2020 Lesson Plans

Course: 8th Grade Art

Project: “Abstract Painting with Coffee"

Painting with coffee is a great activity to do at home, especially if you don’t have any paint. Art does not always have to depict realistic imagery. Oftentimes, artists create abstract art, which is a form of artistic design in which the artist does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.This coffee art is inspired by looking at tree bark.

Materials:

● A paintbrush ● Instant coffee* ● A pencil and paper

*Instant coffee works best, but if you don’t have it try a finely ground dark roast coffee.

Instructions:

● First, draw a very light spiral on your page. It needs to be light as you are going to erase this line.

● Next, go around the outside of the spiral with a wiggling line so you end up with something that looks like the image on the right below.

● Next, look at all the shapes that you can see in the tree bark below.

● In the spiral you have drawn, draw shapes inspired by the bark above. Look at how the shapes, inspired by bark, have been drawn inside the spiral below.

● When you have filled your spiral with shapes it will have similar visual characteristics to the drawing below..

● Go over your pencil lines with a black ballpoint pen. Go over the lines more than once if necessary to ensure your lines are black.

● When you have finished, attempt to erase the visible pencil lines. Be careful so you do not smudge the pen lines.

● Start Painting with coffee. Mix up some instant coffee that is roughly one part coffee to 2 part water.

● Carefully paint in three of your sections. Crush some of the instant coffee granules so they are really fine and sprinkle them on the wet coffee. The granules will bleed into the wet coffee creating an interesting texture.

● Continue painting 3 or 4 sections at a time and then sprinkling with crushed coffee.

● When the spiral is complete, you will end up with a similar result as you see below.

● Now you need to paint in the background. Protect the pages beneath with some newspaper or scrap paper. Don’t worry if the coffee pools a little bit as this adds to the interesting texture.

● Finally, mix up some really, really strong, instant coffee. You need over 50% coffee in the mixture. Add the dark coffee around the edge of the spiral, dabbing it on.

● If you would rather apply the same process as detailed above but with a different subject matter, feel free to paint whatever imagery you desire. Experiment with how much coffee you add to water. More coffee and less water will make a darker shade, whereas diluting the coffee with more water will create lighter shades. Take a look at some other paintings that use coffee below.