This week we did come creative play in the art classes of The Renaissance Art Gallery. Without warning or preparation, the classes were invited to simply play with media.
Using the December 2011 creative project of mixed media-line on about.com/paintings site Marion's Painting Blog, each person was to choose at least 2 mediums to use, one wet, one dry. Mixed Media Project
Among the wet medium to choose from was watercolor, acrylics and coffee. Mixing in some dark coffee added a lot to the experience.
Loading the table with papers, pens, paints, charcoal, etc. each student was able to pick and choose things, to simply play with media.
Interesting, none of my students did anything like what I expected.
The resulting pieces were extremely interesting.
One student took me at my word to explore the paper itself.
After using watercolor pencils to draw a tree, she then took textured pastel paper, tearing it to bits to cover the tree trunk with texture.
Unhappy with the over color, she used coffee on a cotton swap to add shading and character to the drawing. Then used the cotton swap to add bushes and distant hills. Watercolor and ink added twigs to the branches as well as a few brown leaves, and grasses.Another sketched out a classic nude, then used watercolor to suggest background, adding texture and shading to the figure with conte’.
Even crayons were used, as both color and a resist for watercolor washes.
