Saturday, November 3, 2007

Sail Away...Sailboat and Ocean Acrylic Painting Lesson

Every now and again I get the opportunity to teach an art lesson at Brandon School where my children attend. This past month, 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. DeVore, invited me in to lead a lesson in creating a piece of art for Mother's Day. I chose sailboats which tend to be colorful, easy to draw and very frame-able!

Supplies needed per student: canvas (I use the pull-off canvas that can be found in tablets), acrylic paints, stiff brush (very important for acrylic paint), small tub of water, waxed paper.

We used acrylic paints; a paint many children have never used before. They loved being able to mix colors right on the canvas, creating waves and clouds.
Tip: When setting up for a lesson in acrylics, you need to have one palette per student. I used a piece of waxed paper and added the acrylics just before getting started. Acrylic paint air dries very quickly so do this step last in your set-up routine.
Also, the wax paper is an easy thing to drop in the trash when you're done.

The kids were wonderful to teach...listening to my every word (an art teacher's dream!). The results were fanastic as many mothers will soon discover!
Thanks Mrs. DeVore for a fun day!


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am looking for "art" help and stumbled upon your site. What a treat! I'm a classroom teacher who loves to sprinkle the three rs with art!

Right now, I have a deadline( daughter's school auction in one week) and a problem(I'm in charge of class auction project and don't know how to finish).

Students have decorated 4x4 white bathroom tile with an stamped " peace" image in acylic glossies. Students then decorated over dried paint and rest of tile using sharpies.

Now, I aim to affix tiles to a tray that I've decoupaged with oragami paper. The problem is sealing the tiles so that the images won't run. The sharpies were not a good choice and are running!

Do you have any ideas for me? Perhaps a spray? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

In any case, I'll be back to this wonderful site again. Thanks for the inspiration!!

Patty Palmer said...

Oh, I can relate! Once, a very long time ago, I did the very same thing as you. I didn't use sharpies but I used "ceramic" paint that I bought a Michael's. The paint was fine, but the accompanying "glaze" or "sealer" peeled away and made the tiles look horrible.
I'm afraid there is not much you can do as far as painting a gloss over the surface. As you mentioned, you'll need to use a spray acrylic gloss. But I'm not sure how well it will adhere to the painted tiles. Maybe someone at a craft store could recommend a product.

Good luck!

Red Hen (dette) said...

Thanks for the inspiraiton your blog has given me- I've been an art teecher for 15 years but it is nice to get some fresh ideas. Here is a tip for you.
If you put acrylic pain out in egg cartons with lids you can set them all out for the entire day just close up the lid. I've even been able to use these egg carton paints a couple of days later if it's not too hot and dry (I'm in Australia so it is a good place to put this to the test!)

Red Hen (dette) said...

Thanks for the inspiraiton your blog has given me- I've been an art teecher for 15 years but it is nice to get some fresh ideas. Here is a tip for you.
If you put acrylic pain out in egg cartons with lids you can set them all out for the entire day just close up the lid. I've even been able to use these egg carton paints a couple of days later if it's not too hot and dry (I'm in Australia so it is a good place to put this to the test!)

Patty Palmer said...

You know, I've been wanting to try that. I'm surprised the paint actually still stays dry, especially since you are using acrylic. Only problem is that we use mostly cardboard egg cartons in our town. Need to start collecting the foam ones.
Thanks for the tip!

Red Hen (dette) said...

The cardboard ones are the ones I use and they work perfectly! Although I guess the foam ones would be even better (we don't have foam ones here in Western Australia so I can't compare>)

Patty Palmer said...

Doesn't the paint soak into the cardboard? It seems so porous.
Anxious to try this because I do save all my egg cartons.

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