Animals that run, hop, slide & slither
Art Making Activities
Activity 1: Animal sculpture
For this activity you are going to make your own animal sculpture based on ‘Rhinoceros’. Using plastic shopping bags to form the body of the rhinoceros, scrunch them up to the size you want to make your animal and then tape them in place with masking tape. For the head and legs you can form them separately and then add more tape to attach them to the body. Remember to make the shapes of the body, head and legs as realistic as you can by pulling things into shape with the tape and add any detailed features such as horns at this point. These can be made by shaping the masking tape into the particular feature and attaching it. Tear up various sized strips of material, coat them with glue and then wrap them around the ‘rhinoceros’ trying to keep the overall shape and features well defined. When it is completeley covered allow it to dry. Cover the entire sculpture in a paint colour of your choice and when the paint is dry seal it with a paint sealer.
Older children can use strips of material or string to tie on the material around the animal, as in Rhinoceros, before painting and sealing.
Activity 2: Make your own Animal
Pick three animals, one that runs, one that hops and one that slithers. They can be big animals or a small animals. Try to pick a combination of wild animals and domestic animals. Find a photo of each animal and pick the most distinguishing feature from each animal that you have chosen and cut it out from the photo. You could choose its eyes, its legs, its tail, its teeth, its trunk, its ears, its neck etc. Make sure you choose a combination of features, that is don’t choose all legs or all eyes. Now arrange each of the features on plain white paper, leaving large spaces between them. Don’t worry if they don’t all match up, they are not supposed to! Glue them on the page where you think they look best. Now using a crayon or pencil make a body for your animal, making sure it includes the 3 animal features that you cut out. Now you have created your very own animal that no-one else has. Where do you image your ‘animal’ lives? Try drawing its environment around it and cover the whole page, and last of all, don’t forget to give your animal a name!
Activity 3: Chalk pastel drawings inspired by Aboriginal art
Look closely at the Aboriginal artwork titled, Totemic Kangaroos included in this section. Notice the white lines and shapes are painted on brown bark and the artist has applied the X Ray style of art showing internal organs of the kangaroo. Make a list of all the Australian animals you know that either 1) run, 2) hop, 3) slither or slide
For the artwork you will need to choose at least 2 animals from one of your 3 lists (eg 2 that hop)
Use a large piece of brown cardboard or brown construction paper (scrunch paper and then flatten it out to create a textured surface like bark).
Select one white, black and dark brown chalk pastel (an alternative to use is crayons) Draw your large animal shapes in white and use either the brown, black or brown coloured chalks to show particular internal features (like the heart, liver, intestines, digestive tract, skeleton, etc). Repeat your 2 animal designs in different spaces on the paper (they can be upside down, or sideways to each other (see Totemic Kangaroos composition). In the space around your animals you can use the side of your dark brown chalks to lightly rub textures and your own symbols onto the background.
