Monday, September 19, 2016

Fire and paint, oh my!!

Who wouldn't want to start out the school year with a little smoke, fire and paint?  What a perfect way to get the advanced classes back into the swing of things then learning new techniques.

A few days before school started I happen to catch a video on the Art of Education website about how to use smoke to shade a work of art.  So of course we had to try it.  And just so you know, once you get the hang of it, it actually works really well.  You just light a candle and run the very top of the flame over where you want to shade the artwork.  The paper has to be above the flame so you feel like you are working upside down, also be careful of candle wax drips.   If you want it darker you have to run it over that spot a few more times and if you want it lighter you run it over that area less.  Also when you are done you can easily erase any areas that you want white.  Just be careful to keep the flaming moving over the paper, if you pause too long in a spot you will set the paper on fire.

Of course this is where a few of my students started having some fun.  They would smoke the paper for awhile and then create small holes (or at least try to keep them small) to make spots you can see through.

Well were does the paint come in on this project?  Did you know that acrylic house paint can float?  Really!!  IF you take a small spoonful and just very carefully drag it over the top of the water, the paint will just float there.  If you get too big of globs or are too high above the water it will sink, but if you are just in the right spot you can created marbled paper with half the prep work.  Once you have the paint on top the way you like it, just carefully lay a piece of paper on top and gently press it down,  then lift it up.  And WOW,  amazing works of colored paper.

I then had them combine these into a quote that they found.  Here are a few results:


Kaitlyn

Morgan

Jaymon

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