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| Charli B (Year 2) |
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| Demi B (Year 2) |
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| Joe F (Year 7) |
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| Kira M (Year 2) |
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| Libby E (Year 2) |
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| Luka M (Year 2) |
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| Luke B (Year 2) |
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| Tasman S (Year 1) |
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| Chan N (Year 2) |
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| Charlize C (Year 2) |
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| Daniel O (Year 1) |
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| Jakobe C (Prep) |
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| Jordan O (Year 3) |
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| Madeleine M (Year 1) |
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| Sascha B (Prep) |
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| Sophie K (Year 2) |
I was looking for a different application for soft pastels - and a way to
creatively use all the little left over bits and pieces that seem to accumulate
at an astonishing rate! On Pinterest I stumbled upon
this great lesson from artisan des arts, using a technique I had never seen before
- using soft pastels almost like a marbling medium! I'm not really sure how to label this one - it's not exactly marbling, but it's not a painting either. Either way, it's great fun and very effective - these on-line photos really don't do them justice!
I set up a table with 2 water trays (I used biscuit baking trays), paddle pop sticks and two baskets of old soft pastels (sorted into warm and cool colors).
Everyone gathered around for a demonstration -
1. Use a paddle pop stick to scrape course dust from the soft pastels onto the
water, where it floats. Make sure you get a good layer of soft pastel on the water.
2. Hold the paper (I used quite a heavy weight 120gsm) in a U shape over the
water and lower gently
3. As soon as the paper touches the water, let the sides curl down onto the
water surface. This is pretty much the same technique used in traditional paper
marbling... by touching the center of the paper first it stops (most) bubbles
from forming between the paper and the water. Of course contact is needed for
the paper to 'lift' the soft pastel from the water, so wherever there are air
bubbles there will be no color.
4. Immediately lift the paper off the water and onto newspaper to dry flat.
(It still curls, but once dry can be rolled in the opposite direction to
re-flatten).
I set the class up at their desks with drawing materials and a sheet of A4
drawing paper folded into 4 rectangles. We talked about silhouettes, and the
importance of creating interesting shapes, as once cut out it will only be seen
as a solid shape with no inner detail. We brainstormed objects that would make
interesting silhouettes, but other-wise I left their silhouette design
completely open. They were asked to work on 4 different ideas, the best of
which they would later use in their finished piece.
While they worked on their designs, I rotated students in to
take their place the table to create their background.
Students then transferred their favourite design onto black paper, cut them out and
glued them onto their backgrounds. For these sorts of projects I use glue pots
made from small cylindrical screw-top plastic bottles and small skewers.
I've found this really helps them to remember the 'just a dot, not a lot' rule,
as each dip of the skewer only gives them 2 or 3 dots! I put less than a cm of
white student PVA glue in each pot which is
shared by 3 students. The pots are re-sealed at the end of each lesson (being careful to wipe the rim with a damp cloth so that it doesn't glue itself shut!) and
generally last a week (for me, that's 5 lessons) without being topped up (saves a lot
of wasted glue). I wash them out at the end of the week, so the pots never
become clogged with dried-up glue.
The results of this lesson are just amazing! I love the marbling effect and
silhouettes always look so dramatic! Best of all, it's easy and fun to do!
# An additional note: Each time I teach a lesson, it morphs a bit as I make changes to the delivery, content or process. Go to
my latest Silhouette post to see the
changes I've made to the marbling process of this activity!
