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Monday, May 20, 2013

coloring with kimmy.

What a mess!

The 4th grade classes are painting their Kimmy Cantrell inspired clay faces this week. I have them using acrylics instead of glazes to achieve a bit more of a matte finish on the pieces instead of the high gloss glazes the other grade levels have been using on their projects.

First thing the students do is paint their clay face completely black to get some of the dark lines and under tones that Kimmy gets in his work. I have added water to the black acrylic to make the paint easier to apply. Every 4 students shares a cup of paint. They use 1" round brushes to apply the paint.

After this, students do a color study/ rough draft of their face, so they can plan out what colors they will use and where they will go.

I do a quick demo of paint application with a smaller brush. I show them how some of the colors look really dark over the black and how they can apply a couple coats of those colors to make them stronger. I also show them how to add a little bit of white to colors to make them brighter. Students are allowed to do color mixing on their sketch paper and "tablecloth" paper, as long as they clean their brush when dipping it into the needed colors for mixing. They then dive into the color painting.

The results have been pretty cool. An interesting range of color approaches. Like I said, it has been messy. Some kids have gone a little overboard with color mixing on their paper, but in most cases it has been cool to see them explore different color combinations. Some students have focused more on painting their hands than their faces. This has not been so cool;)






















2 comments:

  1. Whoa!! What a great collection of shapes and colors!!!!

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  2. Hi Don

    These turned out great. The shapes are really strong.

    ReplyDelete