Thursday 17 March 2016

Colourful Paper Mache Cats



How funky are these CATS!  These tied in nicely with our term Cats theme (inspired by the Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei Cats exhibition on in Melbourne at the moment).


The kids have been begging me to do paper mache so I devised a paper mache cat project.  I often get my ideas from others (thanks everyone for being so good and sharing ideas) however this one I did come up with all on my own so here are the instructions.

 
Before starting we watched a couple of youtube videos by Dan Reeder for inspiration.  His paper mache creations are amazing!

What you need:
  • empty water bottles (with rice in the bottom to keep them standing upright)
  • masking tape
  • brown paper bags (small lunch sized ones)
  • newspaper
  • stiff cardboard
  • aluminum foil
  • paper mache paste (I made my own just mixing flour and water)
  • spray paint (you could use normal paint just takes longer to dry)
  • accessories (feathers, eyes, jewels, fabric, pipe cleaners, wire, noses, buttons, ribbon, glitter, beads etc)
  • hot glue gun or white glue

How To:
Week 1:  
  • Make the forms using the water bottles, newspaper scrunched for a head and foil / cardboard for the ears and tail.  Use masking tape to attach everything.  I went around the room and helped with this as needed and ensured bits were stuck on well enough.
  • Tear up two brown paper bags into strips (the kids did this themselves)
  • Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply one layer over entire form
  • Allow to dry
Containers of paper mache paste - just plain flour and water mixed

Cats before decorating


 Week 2:
  • Tear up two brown paper bags 
  • Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply a second layer over entire form
  • Allow to dry
* we finished our Romero Britto Hearts and did Andy Warhol Watercolour cats at the end of this lesson if finished early


Week 3:
  • Spray cats with spray paint (low toxic sugar spray, using masks and outside)
  • Leave to dry outside for 5 mins and then bring inside to add accessories
  • For the eyes and noses we used the ones you buy for teddies and I drilled a hole in the paper mache for them to be pushed in.
  • The kids then got really creative using fabric for clothes, feathers for the hair or hats, wire whiskers (some were pushed in some were glued) etc

The Results:
They all have such cute different personalities.  I made the children leave them in the studio for a week so we could all admire them.  Great effort everyone!

















Cheers
Fiona

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Romero Britto Valentines Hearts



I really should have posted this just after Valentines Day back in February, however a few of my students were still working on these beauties at the end of each lesson. 


These are lovely and bright and colourful.  The lesson is based on one by Deep Space Sparkle, however Patty used coloured markers and we used paint / water soluble oil pastels.  For directions please refer to Patty's blog.


Here are our results, some are just stunning.






A few early finishers also completed Romero Britto Cats:



Cheers
Fiona

Sunday 13 March 2016

Andy Warhol Watercolour Cats



We have been looking at Andy Warhol this term and have had a Cats theme to tie in with the current Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei exhibition at the NGV.  The exhibit and the Studio Cats area for kids are just wonderful and highly recommended (runs till 24th April).  My kids just loved it!

I didn't actually run a lesson on this, yet rather these cat drawings were done by my early finishers.  However I just love how they turned out.  Some of these children are as young as 7 and they did such an awesome job of drawing a cat. 

I gave out three how to draw sheets to assist if they needed (one licking its paw,  one sideways and one front on).  I encouraged the kids to draw in pencil first.  Then they went over the pencil with a black marker.  I encouraged them to use disconnected lines to give the cat a furry look.  This is based on this excellent art lesson by Art Projects for Kids.  Our example of Andy's work had his cats name Sam written next to it so I encouraged them to come up with a name for their cats too..

Andy Warhol Cat Painting (used by us as inspiration)















Cheers
Fiona