Making a painted collage

When I teach new classes I often make a sample piece of work so that the students have a sort of guide to look at. I sometimes make the pieces along side the students, just one step ahead at a time. Other times I will make the whole artwork prior to starting teaching the lessons.

The artwork below relates to the student artwork in my previous post. The class started off by doing blind contour drawings and continuous line drawings of teapots and teacups. Realistic drawing was then taught next. A lesson on composition followed the drawing so that students could decide on an image for their final work.

I realised that I don't have the photos of all the steps for this work unfortunately. Below are the only photos I could find.

Above is the initial collage.

Above Image: As I didn't want to paint over the collage (so students could still view the first parts) I photocopied it before adding paint. Sorry about the reflection from the flash.

The image above has now had some black pen added to show shadows and the start of some detail. The shadows have come out darker in the photo than the actual work. If I wasn't so tired I would have gone to good old Photoshop. 

Teacup and teapot collages

A few weeks ago my gorgeous Year 9 girls finished off their teacup/teapot collages. The year 9's were also working on the Alice in Wonderland idea of the mad hatters tea party.

The class started off by doing blind contour and continuous line drawings of teacups and teapots. We then moved on to learning about realistic drawing of teacups and teapots. Students then worked out a composition they liked and set about collaging on top of their drawing. Paints were then applied and black pen for final details. Some of the results are below. I will post detailed step by step photos of the process in a future post.

I love the one above for its creativity.

I know I shouldn't have favourites but the one above is absolutely divine.

Tea cup and teapot drawings and paintings

Below are some year 8 artworks based on the same principles as listed in my previous post. The main difference is that these students chose to work in colour using watercolour paint.

Teacup and teapot drawings

As I mentioned some time ago on here, my year 7,8,9 and 10 students have all been working  to an Alice in Wonderland theme.

In particular, my year 8's focussed on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. First of all we studied the elements and principles of design and then moved on to still life drawings. The culmination of these things led to students producing an image of a teacup or teapot that employed the use of pattern, line, shape and positive and negative space.

Some pretty good work if I do say so myself.

Different uses for teacups

Below are some more images I found in my Alice in Wonderland search. I love the different uses for teacups.

Incredible use of teacups, etc.

I first saw this artists work quite a while back. I fell in love with it and found it purely awe inspiring. I'm sure some of you have seen images of the work already.

The name of the artist is Li Xiaofeng. I've pasted images below of his work along with a statement about his work. I have also included the link to a website that has a really great interview with the artist.

Who knew what could be achieve with broken teacups and plates...

http://www.yatzer.com/feed_2254_porcelain_polo_shirt_by_li_xiaofeng

Li Xiaofeng trained as a muralist but  turned to sculpture to explore a new concept and expression of Chinese landscapes. His choice of material is unexpected; instead of marble, wood or even glass, he  prefers buying shards of broken porcelain recovered from ancient archeological digs, some dating from the Ming Dynasty, and then shaping and polishing them, drilling holes into each corner and linking them together with silver wire to create ’rearranged landscapes’. It is fitting that these poetic pieces, which have been perhaps best described as ‘post-orientalism’, usually take the form of clothing, including traditional Chinese dresses and jackets as well as neckties and military uniforms. They are ultimately ‘wearable’ although certainly promise to be as heavy as any armour and would require a strong retinue of dressers to don and doff.

Alice in Wonderland themed student work

I decided all my art students would work to a set theme this semester. It allows students to become fully immersed in the topic, as they see what other classes are doing and feel a connection to the work.

The theme is Alice in Wonderland. The students absolutely love it.

My year 7's are making paper mache hats and then teapot/teacup clay mobiles.
My year 8's are  making patterned teacups/teapots in watercolour and pen and ink. They are then making clay mushrooms.
My other year 8's are making 'Alice' clay characters plants that have their own facial characteristics.
My year 9s are making teacup/teapot collages and then 3D teacups/teapots.
My year 10's are painting an Alice in Wonderland theme mural and then making giant concrete painted teacups.

During the course writing I have done lots and lots of reserach. I have found some really great images along the way and want to share some with you. I'm also hoping to get permission from my school to be able to post photos of students artwork on here as well.

Below are some images of the fantastic teacups I've discovered in my searching.