Lesson Idea :: Mehndi Hand Sculptures **Updated with Student Work** :: World Art Study

I promised this to you last week when I presented the lesson project idea of Mehndi Hand Sculptures and today I have the completed student work for you! This has been one of the most successful project endeavors of the Interactive Art History class in the (now) four years that I taught the class and I am seriously proud of how the students have done with this even with it only being the first time trying it. And? This is the second major project idea that I have done with Plaster of Paris so perhaps I have a signature medium for myself? I mean... does that even exist? Well, whatever, here is one more art education idea where Plaster of Paris is quite handy. *pun intended*

I feel like this is a great way to do the art of Zen Doodling and making it that much more challenging and impressive since it applies designs to a three dimensional surface. Some of the most interesting of designs were students who really attempted to depart from the minimum of simply sculpting the hand and then applying designs. The hands that were gestural were incredibly impressive and the students who attempted to add color to their hands - which made them decidedly less Mehndi in style - were even more successful overall. There were creative risks that some of the students endeavored to take and I am very proud of them for that alone. 

This project held student interest from start to finish and I helped to keep them invested by encouraging them to make their design work as densely packed as possible. I did not discourage the use of color and while classic Mehndi designs have a sort of natural feminine flair to it that might have turned the guys off, I encouraged the guys to think of tribal design work instead of things that were floral in nature.

I will definitely be doing this project idea again and now that I have one round of experience with it I fully intend to try and raise the bar next year. I am already researching and working on how that will happen so watch out for me next Spring when it's time (again) for the Interactive Art History class. And if you do this project idea with your classes? Let me know! I love seeing how much better and different things look beyond my classroom.

Keep Calm and Paint Sumi-E

In addition to Spring bringing all of the studying of installation art with the 3D Design class, the other thing that Spring brings is the Interactive Art History's class unit of doing Sumi-E ink painting...

I have already shared the lesson/project idea HERE and it's quite popular as it's become a real mainstay in the popular posts list link in the right sidebar over there. ------------------------------>

This year I found a great instructional video on how to paint Sumi-E on youtube and I shared this in addition to showing them some quick demos. I think this particular video is really great for an introduction to Sumi-E painting...

Also, as I mentioned previously when I originally shared this lesson idea, I ban the listening of "personal music" (that is: music that the students listen to from their own music players with headphones) and everyone listens to nature sounds while they do their ink wash painting instead!

Here are two that I used this year and they were quite popular and it was amazing how calming it was for the otherwise hustle and bustle of the classroom...

I would turn either of the two videos above and just play the sounds through the speakers as I would quietly circulate the classroom in order to check on the students as they worked. Also? There were very few protests from the students! Well... at first a few kind of fussed about it but after just one class period of this - and we had four total - there wasn't a complaint that I remember because I think the students really appreciated it in the midst of their days.

I don't have finished pieces of work to show you right now because I am currently on Spring Break and I forgot to snap some pictures of them before I left campus but I hope to share them with you in the coming weeks when I am back to school and in the swing of things.

Lesson idea: Sumi-E painting

This is from the world art study from the interactive art history class I teach. We looked at four different areas of world art - Asian, African, Native American (to include South American), and some European. I chose to do Sumi-E style painting because it was a project idea that would be easiest to fit into the week we have in the schedule for this chunk of time. Sad, but that's how I sometimes have to decide on things.

We used the Holbein Bamboo Brush sets, Yasutomo Liquid Sumi ink, and Kozo paper rolls - all from Dick Blick. Each student was given the following portions or paper - (2) 15" lengths, and (1) 30" length - and they had to submit their best brushwork on a minimum of 15" of paper. They practiced on community sketchbook pages (leftovers from what past students didn't want to take with them) and experimented with the medium. Once they were confident enough with their brushwork and understanding of the way the ink bleeds itself, they developed design ideas from examples they found online as well as from the book Japanese Ink Painting.

Throughout the creative process, I stressed the importance of holding the brush in the proper way like this:

And I also banned "personal music" (from Ipods and such things) for the week and played streamed sounds of nature from Pandora while they painted. The environmental changes in the classroom yielded exceptional work despite the fact that they fussed about the process overall...

A few kids have even told me that they went and got Sumi-E painting supplies to have at home and have continued with this style of art independently! I think it's something that they are seeing is a nice change of pace that has added balance to their very busy and regimented lives.

Here are some more amazing examples of what they did. Last Spring's collection pales in comparison to what is shown here. This is not to say that last year's students are more talented but probably more than I was more  experienced at teaching this style of artwork.

Last Spring I tried to do lanterns made of balsa wood and tissue paper and then I tailed it with this project but  I believe I will stick with this and only this for this course. It's an easy winner and offers the students and experience that they wouldn't otherwise consider for themselves.