Just as an added extra I thought I would give you my impressions about materials to use in Art lessons that make life a little easier.
Painting – Having used all the different types of paint, these are my conclusions and recommendations.
There are 3 basic types of paint that you will find in Primary schools.
Powder paint – this is quite old fashioned and may not be in your school. It can be used if you are an artistic type of person but generally it is messy to mix and use. NOT RECOMMENDED
Squeezy paint – comes in these squeezy bottles and all sorts of colours and effects (glitter etc) the paints are quite expensive but are very colourful. Put straight into a palette and use.
Paint Blocks – these are watercolour and can be used straight from the palette. Blocks must be kept clean to get the best colours.
So which in my opinion is the best.
Well I would certainly not recommend using powder paint as its messy and gets everywhere. Plus if the paint you have mixed for the lesson runs out then you have to start spooning more powder about and mixing ! YUK !
In my opinion there is a problem with the use of Squeezy paint. The paint is usually quite thick and is painted straight onto the paper etc so quite a lot is used very easily. The colours are bright but against this the costs are quite high. But the biggest problems with this sort of paint are these……
Here we can see that red paint has got into the yellow paint and contaminated the colour. It is not possible to get the pure yellow back without throwing the mixed colour away and replacing the yellow.
These are the palettes at the end of an Art lesson – as you can see there is still quite a bit of paint left. We cannot stack the palettes or the paint will go all over the palette bases and make a real mess. THIS PAINT NOW HAS TO BE THROWN AWAY !…..what a waste.
This is a palette full of paint blocks. To paint – the children wet their brushes and simply take some colour off the block. Teach the children to keep the blocks clean and the colours will be true. Paint mixing can be done on a separate palette.
Once the lesson is finished the block palettes can be stacked and put away….no waste at all. Ready for the next lesson…..
In my opinion the Perfect solution and stress and mess free…..(oh and they are pretty cheap) if your school doesn’t buy them then perhaps you can get some sets (block mix set of 6) with your class budget – and they last for ages.
Colouring
On every table in your classroom should be a general point where things like rulers, rubbers, pencils and crayons are kept. I used to go to Tesco and buy a cutlery tray for about 99p and put one on each table (2 if the group is big)
So what sort of colouring equipment should we have. Again there are 3 choices (could be more but I am only going to consider 3 here)
- Felt Pens – do these still exist? The most horrible things for colouring you could find. Absolutely no use for smaller children and very difficult to use for children below year 5. Coverage is poor and more often than not the ink soaks into the paper and it ends up either going through or the paper rips. Not recommended
- Pencil crayons – The jury is out on this one. The problem with pencil crayons is that the coverage is poor. Pencil crayons are ideal for detailed colouring work and small areas, however most children like to colour large areas and for this they are not suitable and larger areas often end in a mess as the children have coloured in all different directions.
This is not a bad piece of work but suffers from the use of pencil crayon…poor coverage and mixed direction colouring. I would suggest that the use of pencil crayons is a taught skill for years 5 and 6.
- Wax crayons – I like wax crayons. In Rec and Y1 they come in jumbo sizes and the colours and coverage are great for the younger children. From Y2 the smaller wax crayons can be introduced and the children taught that low pressure on the crayons and set direction colouring give great results. Packs are cheap and can be easily put into group storage trays.
Here’s a nice example of wax crayon colouring with low pressure… the colours are good and the end result excellent. Note how the child has used directional colouring for each object in the picture.
Additionally wax crayons are very versatile and can be used for other Art work
So there we are – an added bonus post with my thoughts on media use in Art….of course if you are more “arty ” than me I am sure you will be able to think and apply many more exciting features than mentioned here. But for the rest of us – well maybe these hints and tips have been a help.
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Charles