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Friday, September 2, 2011

First First Friday Art Class for September 2011 - Mixed Media

I've recently started a little art class for my daughter and some of her friends. We'll meet the first Friday of each month. I'm posting a little overview for any girls who couldn't make it, but if someone else finds this information helpful, that's great too.

We began with a tour of my studio, which is a small area just off my kitchen. I showed the girls all the tools and media I work with. I wanted them to become familiar with them, but also to see that I use a lot of stuff they may already have around their house. Art should not be intimidating!

We then moved onto our worksheet portion. We tried 10 different art medias (in each square of the worksheet pictured below):

1. Watercolor paints (wet)
2. Watercolor paints (dry-ish, they can never really be completely dry)
3. Colored pencil
4. Printed (scrapbook) paper
5. Acrylic paint (wet)
6. Acrylic paint (dry)
7. Magazine or book pages
8. Gesso (plain or mixed with paint) - this may be the only thing on the list that isn't familiar. It can be found in the art section of most art/craft stores. It comes in black and white and is a wonderful base coat for paper or canvas to prepare the surface to accept the paint. I also many times use it mixed with acrylic paint as background for a painting. It's not what I'd call "cheap" so if you want to skip this one, that is fine. :)
9. Ink (thick and thin Sharpie)
10. Rubber stamps (design elements, text, numbers, etc.)


Next we did our masterpiece using most or all of the medias we had just learned about. I gave the students this page to work on:


And this page to practice on or cut up to use as a pattern. The numbers are just to delineate the spaces. The students were free to use whatever media wherever they wanted to and could skip ones they didn't want to use.


Here they are hard at work:

Here they are with their finished pieces:
This one has such a happy nature to her and her lovely art.

This one is NOT afraid of color. She is bold and daring.

This one has such a sense of humor and it's reflected in her art.

A finished piece:

We had fun! I am already looking forward to next month!!

4 comments:

  1. Okay, you are so the funnest teach ever!! What a fantastic idea to introduce them to all sorts of media and then to help them create a masterpiece using several. They turned out amazing!! I wish so badly my daughter could attend. You are so creatively brilliant as a teacher... I really mean that. I am amazed!!

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  2. That looks like so much fun. I can't believe how creative you are, and Peyton too. Those girls did some awesome work! I love how each one is so different and so fun.

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  3. How exactly do you do the dry vs wet techniques with watercolor and with acrylic paint? I'm not finding any tutorials online as to what the difference is between the two techniques with both types of color.

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  4. Eden,
    Basically with liquid acrylics you wet your brush, get most of the water off, and use the paint almost completely dry (as in without water). The same with watercolors. Although you need some water to get the paint going. It's the difference between wet, juicy paint and a dryer more concentrated use of the paint.
    ---Tif

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