Gold and Black Greek Vases

My quest for multi-cultural art continues, which has led me to a new media combo that I really like. It’s using food wrap paper like this, markers and tempera paint. I actually ran out of drawing paper and tried out this food wrap that was left over from an old project. It makes for a very “breezy” painting that doesn't wrinkle like the others. More tests to continue...

1. I had the students fold their 12" x 12" food wrap paper in half and crease. With a pencil, they could draw half of a large vase, preferably using up as much of the paper as possible. When complete, they traced it with a large, chisel-tip black Sharpie. With the paper still folded, they turned it over to see the lines showing through and traced again. When complete, the opened vase drawing should be symmetrical.

2. They students filled in their vases with decorations of the country, with either figures or plants. I asked them to draw lots of images, trace them carefully with the black Sharpie. Once completed, the negative space around them could be filled in black. The tops, handles and base could be colored or not at their discretion. Care needed to be taken to not rub hands through the marker while it was still wet as smears could occur.

3. When the vase was all colored in, gold tempera paint was spread over the entire vase, but not the background. I had thirty 5th graders do this today in 45 minutes, all with really bold and shimmery finishes. Can’t wait to see them hanging on a line outside the classroom tomorrow.

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