2013: Silhouettes in the Sky

6th grade students created a mixed media art project that focused on a famous landmark. Students learned about warm, cool, complementary, and monochromatic color schemes and chose one to be the background for their project. They used the bleeding tissue paper technique to paint the sky on 12x 18 in watercolor paper.

Next, students chose a famous landmark (I provided photos of 30 different landmarks) and they drew the contour edge of the landmark on white 12 x18 drawing paper. They divided the paper into thirds and learned how to create asymmetrical symmetry by using the Rule of Thirds. Their goal was to draw the silhouette of the landmark large and located where a set of grid lines crossed. This step was a rough draft and I encouraged students not to Erase lines if they made a mistake.

 

 

Next students used an exacto knife to cut out the silhouette. This became a stencil to trace on black construction paper.  Students then cut out the black construction paper with an exacto knife. (Students are required to take a safety quiz before they're allowed to use the exacto knives).

 



 

 

Finally, students used rubber cement to glue down the the black silhouette on their painted sky.