Jim Dine Hearts

I've had this project in my 'workshop ideas' folder for a few months now after seeing it on For The Love of Art blog. I was saving it for a Valentines project but then I decided that there's no reason for love hearts to be seasonal and, besides, who knows what I'll be doing in 6 months time? I started the class by showing everyone this picture:

The bright colours really appealed to my students and they were immediately enthusiastic about the project. I handed out sheets of black paper and initially got them to choose one colour of pastel. After they had added some colour, I got them to swap pastels with their neighbours until they had used a few colours. I then went round everyone individually, folding their paper and drawing half a heart for them (or their carers) to cut out. Once these were done and put aside, I gave out larger sheets of yellow paper and small squares of coloured tissue and glue. I asked them to concentrate on gluing the squares around the outside of the paper because we would be sticking the heart in the middle. They all followed this instruction ok. I made sure everyone's squares were stuck down properly before they glued the heart into the centre. Some students almost spoiled their pictures at the last minute by starting to paint glue on top of their heart or by using gluey fingers to press it down - next time I would warn them in advance about that! They all seemed happy with their creations anyway.

Ingrid Calame

I was through at the Edinburgh Festival last week and stumbled across an exhibition by New York artist Ingrid Calame. She makes art by tracing marks and stains she finds on the ground - sounds crazy but her drawings are really beautiful! She uses sheets of architectural Mylar (top quality tracing paper) to trace marks on the ground such as stains, cracks and graffiti which she takes back to her studio and re-traces using coloured pencils. She layers up the sheets of traced drawings to create what she calls a 'constellation', like the example above.
Tracing paper? Coloured pencils? I feel a workshop coming on......

Bird's Nest Collage

I got the idea for this lovely project from the Adventures of an Art Teacher blog.
I had not used the technique of blowing thinned paint through a straw with my class of disabled adults before and was sure that they would find it fun. After handing out the paper I went round each student individually and spooned a teaspoon of paint onto their paper and instucted them to blow (not suck!) the paint towards me. Not all of them managed to blow through the straw successfully but tilting the paper to let the paint run also worked well, as did using the straw like a brush to move the paint around. All of their 'tree branches' looked fantastic and very individual. I then showed them how to draw a few leaves at the end of the twigs they had just created. The paint was of course still very wet and I asked them to try not to dip the pastels into the wet paint. When I cleaned up at the end only one pastel had brown paint on it! Most of them needed help from their carers to draw and cut out some egg shapes from patterned paper. I asked them to place the eggs on the picture and let me check it before glueing them down as there was a temptation to spread the eggs all over the branch istead of grouping them together. I then handed out some shredded newspaper and pieces of raffia which they glued down to make the nest. The final step was to use a blue pastel to give the suggestion of a blue sky. I thought that we might have time to draw a bird sitting on the branch too but the activity took up the whole hour quite easily.

Paper Plate Radial Weaving

Thanks to Mr E and Mrs Jahnig for this idea.

Most of the projects I do with my regular class are paper-based so it's nice to occassionally do some textile art. Radial weaving is new to me (and my students!). When I tried it out at home I realised that my class of disabled adults would probably find it quite fiddly as you need quite nimble little fingers to weave the wool in and out. I almost abandoned the project but then hit upon the idea of cutting out the centre of the plate. This makes it much easier to pass the wool in and out.
When I came to do the project in class, I had pre-strung all the looms (paper plates) so that they could start weaving right away. I encouraged them all to use plastic sewing needles to make the wool even easier to handle.
The class all managed this activity quite well. A couple of students wanted to do their own thing and happily sewed the wool randomly in and out, ending up with something of a tangled mess but a sense of satisfaction at having done it their way!
Once they had been weaving for about 35 minutes I gave them the choice of leaving their work on the loom for display (when I strung the looms I left a loop for hanging) or taking it off. They all wanted to leave it on so I handed out oil pastels so that they could decorate the edges of the plates.

City at Night Collage

For this workshop I tried my own version of the City at Night art lesson I've seen on http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/  and other blogs. I decided to start with a circular background for a change and got the students to draw round a record to create a perfectly-sized circle (try doing that with an MP3 - ha!) which they cut out with help from their carers. Next, I showed them how to use pastels to make a moon and lots of stars. I had pre-cut loads of rectangles in different sizes and colours so they could choose which ones they wanted for their skyscrapers and glue them on at the base of the circle. I had also cut out lots of bright yellow squares for the windows. I explained that they didn't have to cover the whole skyscraper with windows because not everyone would have their lights on! They all seemed to understand and enjoyed positioning the windows. As a finishing touch I gave them a cut-out of a cartoon yellow taxi (much to the delight of one car-obsessed student) which they could glue on to the bottom.

Aboriginal Dot Painting

I know that most art teachers out there have finished for the summer but for a community artist like me the classes just keep on going!
My most recent endeavour was an Australian-themed dot painting workshop. I have used dot painting in classes before but this was the first time I incorporated a hand print into the design (thanks to Kristin Thomas at For the Love of Art ).
I set the scene by putting on a CD of didgeridoo music (it was Didgeralia by David Hudson) and handing out some colouring sheets of x-ray animal drawings.
I then asked them to draw around one of their hands on a sheet of grey paper (black would probably have been better but we didn't have any!). All the students who attend this particular class have a carer with them so I gave them a choice: either the carer could draw around the student's hand or vice versa.
I then demonstrated how to create dots around the outline of the hand using cotton buds (Q-tips) dipped in paint. They could then go ahead and fill-in the rest of the hand. At this point, each student had access to either hot colours or cold colours, not both.
Once they had done this I asked them to draw a simple pattern of lines around the hand. Some students managed this themselves and others needed their carer to do this bit for them. I then swapped the paint pallets around and got them to fill in the background. They all needed lots of motivating to keep going with the dots as they wanted to stop after doing a few in each colour. It was also very tempting for them to use the cotton bud like a paintbrush and make lines instead of dots but I gently discouraged that (unless they were REALLY enjoying it!) A little bit of one-on-one help with each student helped them to get the hang of it. As a finishing touch, they chose one of the x-ray animals they had coloured and glued it on to their picture.
Here are links to the book I copied the x-ray animals from and to the fab CD which all the students enjoyed:

Collage Silhouettes

I spotted this project on Mrs Jahnig's Art Space and decided to give it a whirl with my art group.
As soon as students started to arrive for class I began sitting them one by one in the 'hot seat' so that I could draw their profiles. I just used a lamp to create the shadows on large pieces of paper. It was a real challenge to get my students to sit still and not turn around to see what I was drawing! I had to be very fast and some of the profiles were a little rough. One of my students did not manage to sit still at all and so I drew the profile of his carer instead. After they all had their profiles drawn, I asked the carers to cut them out (one student was able to cut out his own) and then they began flicking through magazines and choosing images that appealed to them. I told them that I wanted them to create a picture of what goes on inside their heads and so they should choose pictures of things that they like or like doing. I'm not sure if they all understood the concept but they were all very definite about what images they did and didn't like. Few students could cut out the pictures themselves but they could all help apply the glue and stick them on to their profiles. I always like to use glitter glue for a bit of glamour!
The profiles were quite big and most students didn't have time to completely cover them in pictures during the hour-long class. It would also have been nice to mount the finished profiles on to black paper to frame them.
It was really interesting to see which pictures the students chose and I felt like I knew them better by the end of the class.