For this weeks Wonderlab we introduced chalk pastel and provided students the opportunity the explore and play with the materials. Similar to our tissue paper exploration, this allotted time is all about allowing students to discover the mediums abilities through their own creative processes. It's important to give students these opportunities to get to know a medium before tying a prompt to a lesson as it deepens understanding. We grabbed student interest by comparing chalk pastel to a medium they're most likely familiar with- sidewalk chalk. The students were able to use both in their sketchbooks to explore their similarities and differences and how drawing with chalk on paper differs from a rough patch of sidewalk. We also introduced some simple tools to help students manipulate the pastels, paper towels as well as erasers that could be used to pull pigment away from their papers.
Students took very well to the messy medium right away, covering their sketchbook pages with different colors and using their hands to blend the colors together. Soon students were discovering the different colors they could mix, seeing how far they could spread the medium and how when it transferred to their hands, they could use their fingers as drawing tools. Students noted how strong the pigment of chalk pastel was compared to sidewalk chalk and in most cases preferred the more saturated colors. This explorative approach to introducing new mediums was once again very successful and resulted in a lot of exciting learning moments!
Students took very well to the messy medium right away, covering their sketchbook pages with different colors and using their hands to blend the colors together. Soon students were discovering the different colors they could mix, seeing how far they could spread the medium and how when it transferred to their hands, they could use their fingers as drawing tools. Students noted how strong the pigment of chalk pastel was compared to sidewalk chalk and in most cases preferred the more saturated colors. This explorative approach to introducing new mediums was once again very successful and resulted in a lot of exciting learning moments!
Inquiry/Learning Target:
Key Concepts:
Essential Understandings: Artists and designers experiment with mediums to discover the unique qualities and manipulate them in different ways to yield different visual effects.
Skills:
- How do artists and designers use different methods to manipulate different mediums?
Key Concepts:
- Utilizing other materials creates new possibilities for making
- Similar mediums can sometimes be combined to new ways of making
Essential Understandings: Artists and designers experiment with mediums to discover the unique qualities and manipulate them in different ways to yield different visual effects.
Skills:
- Listening to instructions
- Sharing
- Creative problem solving
- Respecting others
- Cleaning materials
- Taking care of materials
- Keeping items separate from each other
- Keeping area clean
- Keeping selves clean
- Taking risks
- Community harmony maintenance
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While exploring with chalk pastels, this student discovered that through blending two different colors she could, "create another color". By merging the pink and blue together she created purple which she observed had also mixed onto her hands, "My hands are turning purple!". She then used her fingers to make purple marks on a white section of paper, using her fingers as a drawing tool.
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Other students took a drawing approach to using the pastel. This student drew, "football plays with green grass, the circles are the player and the lines are what route they'll take" while he spread the green pigment across two sketchbook pages. He commented on how the chalk pastel was easy to spread quickly to create a "large football field" using the nature of the medium to his advantage.
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A recent trip to the Monet exhibit at Denver Art Museum inspired this students version of The Water Lily Pond in chalk pastel. When asked if she had to choose between marker or the chalk pastel when drawing this piece she replied, "The chalk because it blends better". She also said she felt that chalk looks more like his paintings than marker" making an aesthetic connection between the two mediums. |
This student was interested in color mixing and allowing the results to develop as she layered more and more color to the paper. "I used blue, pink, navy blue, white and magenta". She referred to the color she created as, "a galaxy or cotton candy" making a connection between the color she created and things she has seen out in the real world. |
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Other students focused on the chalk and the effects it could create on it's own. This students used the edge of his chalk with heavy pressure to, "have controlled strokes" using the medium in a very thoughtful way he was able to quickly draw, "books sitting on a bookshelf". He made a great discovery of how simple lines can become intentional and mean something to a visual audience.