Things that Grow
Art Making Activities
Activity 1:Trees
Go for a walk outside and find a grove of trees with interesting trunk shapes. Take a low viewpoint by sitting on the ground. Lay a large sheet of paper (A3 or bigger) horizontally on a strong support board. Rule the paper into equal thirds horizontally. Now, only looking at the trunks, try drawing them. You can block out the branches and leaves from your view with your hand or a cardboard viewfinder. Alternatively find a tree with interesting branch shapes (this is easier in winter when the leaves have fallen).Look at the patterns they form. Use either a wax crayon or the end of a candle stick to draw the tree and its branches. Don’t worry about trying to draw any leaves or flowers. Back in the classroom take your drawing and using watered down ink, black or coloured, take a large paintbrush and brush the ink over the drawing. Notice how your drawing will emerge from the background as the ink soaks into the paper.
Activity 2: Flowers
Make a mosaic bunch of flowers. Look at various flowers observing their colours and petal shapes . Find sheets of coloured paper in several tones of the same colours . For example you will need at least 3 different tones or shades of pink, yellow, red, orange, purple and green ranging from light to dark . Cut each sheet into small squares about 2 cms square . Depending on how big you draw your petals and leaves you may have to cut the squares smaller. Keep the same tones of colours in separate containers so they don’t get mixed up. On a large sheet of paper draw an outline of a large bunch of flowers with a pencil. Draw lots of petals and leaves. Fill each petal by gluing down squares of your chosen colour using all three shades of one colour so that they gradually blend into each other. Repeat on all the petals making flowers of different colours. Repeat with the process on the leaves, using different toned squares of green. Attempt to make at least 3 to 5 flowers to make a bunch.
Activity 3: Fruit
Make a paper mache fruit bowl. Bring in several pieces of fruit of different shapes, textures and colours. Begin by tearing up newspaper into lots of small strips and shapes. Next mix up some flour and water in a large bowl to the consistency of a sloppy paste. Use your hands to start mixing the newspaper with the paste and while the paper is still wet you can keep adding more newspaper. Begin to shape the newspaper into the shapes of the real fruit. Try making each piece of paper mache fruit larger or smaller than the real ones . Changing the scale of objects is common in artistic practices and it add sa bit of humour to your work. Leave them to completely dry. Next find a bowl large enough to hold all your fruit and turn it upside down. Lay a larger sheet of gladwrap over the upturned bowl leaving it to overhang . Begin coating the bowl with newspaper stripes and your glue. To make it strong repeat several times until the bowl has some thickness. Let it dry on the bowl. When the paper is completely dry (make take a few days) pick up the edges of the glad wrap and turn out your bowl.
Now you can begin to paint your fruit in the colours of the real ones and remember to include some variation in colours and textures to make them look like real fruit. You can paint your bowl or leave it plain to show the newspaper. When the paint is very dry you can put your ‘fruit’ in your very own fruit bowl. Do they look good enough to eat!
