Saturday, January 26, 2013

Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module A, Lesson 6

My Family

This was the final lesson of Module A. I'm not exactly sure what this means other than that we are now one-third of the way through Level 1. I feel a small sense of accomplishment, as we kind of got off to a slow start with Atelier.

"My Family" is a lesson on media...the end goal is to use various forms of media to create a family portrait. It is divided into two parts to allow drying time for part one. During part one, Tessa used halved potatoes and tempera paint to create face prints for the members of her family. For part two, she used a black marker to draw in facial features and body parts. Then, she colored in those parts with oil pastels.

Of course, the use of paint and the possibility of smearing the oil pastels, set me on edge a bit. Aside from a few drawing mistakes that we had to figure out how to fix up a bit, the lesson went quite well and didn't take nearly as long as I expected...probably due to the small size of our family more than anything else. I had a hard time deciding what brand of oil pastels to buy for this project. In the end, I chose Crayola due to price, positive reviews on Amazon and color selection. I hadn't used oil pastels in a very long time, but I didn't feel like they glided across the page as smoothly as I thought they should have. They didn't feel soft enough...they felt a little too much like regular ole crayons to me. And, I thought the end result should have been a little more striking, but maybe it was just the way Tessa colored everything in. She has a tendency to rush when coloring.

After mixing up a suitable skin tone, Tessa painted halved potatoes.
After mixing up a suitable skin tone, Tessa painted halved potatoes.

Next, she stamped a potato print face for each member of our family.
Next, she stamped a potato print face for each member of our family. 

The following day, Tessa drew in facial features...
The following day, Tessa drew in facial features...

...and body parts. She thought about how to layer each family member as she drew.
...and body parts. She thought about how to layer each family member as she drew.

Finally, Tessa colored in her portrait with oil pastels.
Finally, Tessa colored in her portrait with oil pastels.

Tessa's completed family portrait!
Tessa's completed family portrait!

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