Visual and verbal - art project

Arts & Activities, March, 2003 by Patricia Rourk

MATERIALS

* 12" x 18" sheets of white drawing paper, black construction paper, Dippity-Dye paper

* 9" x 12" manila paper

* Dippity-Dye in primary colors

* Plastic containers

* Drawing utensils

* Various pictures of sea-life

* Hole punch

* Scissors

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* make the connection between their visual acuity and verbal understanding.

* strengthen their use and knowledge of basic art terms.

* learn to express their ideas through verbal communication.

* understand creating shapes within a shape.

* use a combination of media.

Are your students as visually or verbally attuned in the classroom as you would like? I don't mean just talking in class; are they able to verbalize in complete sentences using the art terms we have taught in class?

Helping students realize there is more to a work of art than what you see at first glance is one objective of this lesson. The other objective is to integrate art terms into their descriptive language, helping students verbalize their knowledge into complete sentences. This practice enables students to feel comfortable with the terms we teach, and gives them a sense of confidence when speaking in front of classmates.

When introducing a lesson, I may ask the students to find something in the room that is relative to the lesson, and have them tell me about it. It might be to find a repeating pattern, for example, or three-dimensional object.

Most of the time, the response is "The picture near the blackboard." To this I might respond, "There are eight pictures near the board, try to be more specific with your answer."

Or, when asked where they see a sculpture, the response might be, "The stuff on the bookcase" (where I have plants, sculptures and other objects).

I then tell the students we are going to really work on observing the object we are looking at and being more specific when answering questions. We discuss trying to use an art term along with making a complete sentence when they give a response.

The lesson begins with a simple picture on the board. The picture consists of a multicolored background, a black paper fish shapes cut out on the inside, a ground line at the bottom, like sand, and some black paper cutouts resembling seaweed. There is nothing else in the picture.

My first question to the class is, "What do you see in this picture?"

Hands go up immediately: "A fish!" "Sand!.... Seaweed!"

I wait. They look at me as if to say, "What are you waiting on? We've named everything. Give us the next direction or question."

The question comes again, "What do you see?"

Silence. Then, someone meekly holds up a hand and answers, "There are colors in the background."

I write the word color on the board, and say, "Great! You've just named an art term and put it in a complete sentence."

Then someone says, "There are some repeating patterns in the fish." Now they're getting the general idea.

"There is movement in the seaweed."

"There are lots of shapes in the picture."

"I see overlapping in the plants."

"The yellow color in the background looks like sunlight coming through the water."

I continue writing the words on the board until they've named at least six or eight things that they have learned from previous lessons in class.

They began to realize the point I was trying to get across to them: There is much more to their artwork, or any work of art, than what is casually observed on the surface. Comments poured out with this realization and how clever they felt. It was like light bulbs clicking on in their minds.

After this demonstration, the class was ready to begin. The first question was, "How do we get that neat background?"

Students are given one 12" x 18" sheet of each of the following papers: white drawing, black construction, Dippity-Dye, and one sheet of 9" x 12" manila. Only primary colors are set up in plastic containers on one table for students to dip and dye the multicolored background for the project.

I then demonstrate how to fold the paper several ways--vertically or in triangles.

When ready to dye, bring the folded Dippity-Dye paper and the white drawing paper to the table. If making a triangle, students should dip one corner of the triangle into each color. If folded vertically, they should dip the two ends in two of the colors, then fold the paper in the middle to dip into the third color. Students need to make sure they dip far enough in the dye so the colors merge and make secondary colors, getting variations of oranges, greens and purples.

But, beware: If students continue to dip the paper over and over, the colors sometime blend too much and result in muddy backgrounds. If they don't submerge the paper enough, too much white will be left, which some students prefer as it resembles water.

After the paper is dyed, it is opened at the table and laid on top of the white drawing paper and moved to a drying rack. Names should be written on both papers because the name will sometimes disappear on the dyed paper.