Wildflowers - Contemporary Aboriginal Art


 
   This is an artwork that I created for my students when I was still a permanent teacher in high school. The class was a Year 7 group, aged 12 -13 years. It was a long term project that took about 10 weeks to complete, about 30 hours. The students really enjoyed the process of putting together an artwork over an extended period of time and the results were fantastic (will show you student artworks later). My inspiration came from the aboriginal artist, Mary  Oliver. Her works is stunning.

 
   1. I painted large boards with black matt paint so that students worked outside the usual A3 size. We then drew Australian wildflowers onto the black boards using a white watercolour pencil or white coloured pencil. Students drew only outlines, no details, no shading. They also drew some leaves. I did not pressure the boys to use the flowers but they were ok with it.
I printed up a Resource Booklet full of outline drawings of Australian wildflowers, plants and trees. I used them with other projects within the school, so they came in very handy.

 
2. We painted the flowers, leaves, etc with acrylic paint. I showed my kids how to blend colours using the wet-on-wet technique and we reviewed colour schemes - cool colours, warm colours, etc.
 


3. When the paint was dry, more detail was added with Posca pens and metallic markers.

 
4. Dots were added to the background using different sized dowel. We used acrylic paint again. Posca pens and metallic markers were then used to fill in the entire background. This part of the artwork took a long time as the boards we used were big. It was good for the students to learn some patience!!
5. On the flowers, students could put some dots also. They had to consider which colour to use - warm against cool, cool again warm.
6. The leaves remained untouched.
7. Posca pens and metallic markers were then applied to the flowers.
 

8. Blackers markers were reapplied as many of the previous outlines were disappearing. The blacker markers created the illusion of a black outline around the objects.
9. The final step was to use white Posca pens next to the black outline around the flowers.
 
.......and now for the student's artworks. I think they are beautiful!!!!







 
 
 
 
   

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