Product Review: Sargent Metallic Paint

I'm pleased to introduce another feature onto Deep Space Sparkle:
Product reviews!

When I first became an art teacher, I had no idea where or how to get art supplies. Do I go to my local craft store or order online? Luckily, the art teacher before me left a few catalogs. Through them, I have discovered a world of art supplies designed for classroom use. (I have listed them to the left of the blog.)
Every year, the companies come up with new products. Last year, the metallic tempera paint was my favorite.
What is it? Metallic paint comes in many mediums: watercolor, acrylic and tempera. I opted for tempera since it is widely know to be washable and have great coverage. The catalog featured a set from Sargent and came in a pack of six, 8-ounce bottles. You can purchase them separately for $5.50 or $21.90 for the six-pack (Nasco catalog)
The paint glides onto any surface, especially desks, and produces a wonderful metallic color, rich and opaque. I've used it mostly in the upper grades where I can control the amount a bit better. The bottles aren't that big but a little does go a long way.
You can use it like any other tempera paint, except I feel that it's best treated as an embellishment to the art, similar to glitter.

Here are some projects using the paint:

Fall Leaves: 1st grade. The metallic paint is one of six colors offered for this project. The paint "stamped" beautifully.

Lady Liberty: 5th grade. Not every student chose to go with metallic colors, but Caroline did. She brushed bronze paint over lady liberty's face and crown.

Klimt Women: 6th grade. Metallic paint was a big component of this project. I mix the metallic paint with white glue to create metallic glue used for teh background. Also, the students were encouraged to paint the dresses with metalliuc paint and then embellish over the paint, when dried.

Gustav Klimt Art Lesson for Sixth Grade

Sometimes inspiration comes in many forms. I was perusing one of the many art supplies catalogs that happen upon my desk and I saw metallic paint for sale. Gold, bronze, copper, silver...rich, showy colors. I immediately thought about Gustav Klimt. Having been to the Museum of Modern Art in New York this past winter, I picked up a copy of "Klimt and his Cat" by Berenice Capatti. The story was great but it was the illustrations by Octavia Monaco that drew me in and had me devising an art lesson for my sixth graders.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate my old profession as a fashion designer, into my new one, an art teacher. I had a variety of collage type materials on hand...sequins, buttons, fabric scraps, and now metallic paint! I was ready to go.
I photocopied some of the illustrations from the book to serve as inspiration but challenged the kids to come up with their own Klimt woman. We talked about how Klimt drew stylistically; small heads atop long, graceful (and often distorted) necks. I was in heaven. It was fun watching the children draw in such proportions; small heads with large bodies, but they did it.

After our first session, most of the children got to this stage:

Step one: Draw figure with pencil. Small head, dress flowing off the page, hair sweeping off to the side.

Step two: Color deeply with oil pastels. Decorate with collage materials (buttons, fabrics, etc.)

For the second session, we will continue to decorate the dress with geometric designs, focusing on layering our patterns. We will add faces and then do the background...stayed tuned!

UPDATE! The sixth graders at Foothill finished their beautiful Klimt Women. I was so impressed by how carefully they selected their embellishments. Each student had a specific idea of how they wanted their dress to look.

First, though, we had to make our background. Using watercolor paper, we smeared two chalk pastels (use rich, earth tone colors) over the entire surface. Then, using glue bottles mixed with white glue and metallic paint, we created designs in swirly curly-ques, geometric patterns, etc. After the paint dried and set slightly, the students cut out their "women" and glued it onto the watercolor paper (carefully!). Most students didn't get the chance to complete the faces, but this can be done during other art classes. Awesome job, Foothill kids!!!