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Tree of Life: Gustav with Gusto - Arts & Activities Magazine

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(Circle No. 217 on A&A Reader Service Card)<br />

(Circle No. 231 on A&A Reader Service Card)<br />

School<br />

Assemblies<br />

(716) 684-0244<br />

(Circle No. 221 on A&A Reader Service Card)<br />

GUSTAV<br />

continued from page 37<br />

paintings and students<br />

noticed that<br />

although the faces<br />

were very three-dimensional and realistic,<br />

everything else was rather flat and<br />

stylized. I showed students how his artwork<br />

progressed from his early years<br />

into this Art Nouveau style, and shared<br />

biographical information to support this<br />

progression. We then focused on <strong>Tree</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Life</strong>, discussing the stylized quality <strong>with</strong><br />

the lovely patterns and gold overtones.<br />

I explained to students that our<br />

project would include both printmaking<br />

and painting, while asking them<br />

if they could explain the difference.<br />

We decided that prints are a way <strong>of</strong><br />

making more than one copy <strong>with</strong> various<br />

methods, including stamping,<br />

block printing, silkscreens, printers,<br />

I explained to students<br />

that our project would<br />

include printmaking<br />

and painting ...<br />

etc., whereas paintings are single,<br />

original works made by applying<br />

paints <strong>with</strong> a tool, such as a brush or<br />

palette knife.<br />

The first session we focused on creating<br />

our wet-on-wet watercolor backgrounds.<br />

We used heavy (90-lb.) drawing<br />

paper cut into 8" x 10" sheets. This<br />

would accommodate our polystyrene<br />

plates, which were made from lunch<br />

trays. After cutting <strong>of</strong>f the edges, our<br />

plates ended up being 6" x 8".<br />

I demonstrated the wet-on-wet technique,<br />

explaining that the paper needs<br />

to be very wet so the colors will bleed<br />

together. I show students how to place<br />

one color next to another and let them<br />

bleed together for exciting results. If<br />

they stay in the white spaces and don’t<br />

paint one color over another, the colors<br />

will stay vibrant.<br />

It is important that students get<br />

a good amount <strong>of</strong> color on their<br />

brushes so the colors will be vivid.<br />

Also, I discuss warm and cool colors,<br />

asking students to choose one<br />

color group, although they may<br />

introduce one accent color from the<br />

other group. This guarantees that<br />

see GUSTAV on page 41<br />

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(Circle No. 208 on A&A Reader Service Card)<br />

40<br />

november 2010 x www.artsandactivities.com

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