Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about reclaimed materials and finalising your mixed-media piece.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking and exploring together.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create and evaluate a mixed-media animal artwork.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords words we'll be using today are background, sculpture, evaluate.

I'm going to say those words again and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Background, sculpture, evaluate.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

Background is the part of the artwork that appears furthest from the viewer.

Sculpture is a three dimensional piece of art made by shaping or combining materials.

Evaluate is when we think about our artwork to understand how good it is and how we can make it better.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we working through together in today's lesson.

Adding detail and planning your composition and evaluating your final piece.

In this first learning cycle, let's look at adding detail and planning your composition.

How did the artist complete this mixed-media composition? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? How did the artist complete it? Well a mixed-media art piece combines different artistic materials, for example, paint, collage and sculpture in a single artwork.

So taking a look at this artwork here, what can we see? So which media have been used in this artwork? Pause video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

Well, this artwork was made using collage and sculpture.

Can you remember that the background is collage? Can you see all of the different bits of paper, some torn and some cut to create that collage background.

And darker colours have been used so that the sculpture stands out.

We've got that moon made of that tinfoil.

So we have the different versions of green and some of the magazine cuttings for the grass and for the darker sky we've got black, dark blue and purple.

And for the sculpture that's made of clay, this has been painted in some nice bright colours like orange and white to stand out against that background.

So well done If you could see those.

You may remember creating a sculpture using clay.

Today you'll paint this and then complete your mixed-media composition.

How might you select the colours to paint your animal sculpture? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

How might you choose those colours? Well you can use images or photographs to select your colours.

Taking a look at this fox here, there are different colours that we can pick out from this image.

We've got these browns and orangey colours, the pinks and some black here.

How will your sculpture and background work together? Pause the video here and discuss this with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

So how could they work together? Well, the darker collage background will help your fox look brighter in front and painting using warm colours like orange, red, or brown on the fox will make it stand out against the dark background.

So we can see for the fox that we can pick out colours like browns and orange and some pink tones, and even black for the paws there and even the nose and eyes.

And then for the collage background, what kind of dark colours can you see? We've got some green, black, purple, and maybe even dark blue.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What should you think about when painting your fox sculpture? Using colours that help the fox stand out against the darker background.

Painting the fox and background the same colour so they blend in or using up as much paint as possible, even if it drips.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that using colours that help the fox stand out against the darker background, then you are absolutely right.

That's what you should think about when painting your fox sculpture.

Painting clay is similar to painting on paper.

You use the same brush skills.

What do you notice about the strokes? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What do you notice? Well, the artist uses steady strokes and follows the shape or outline of what they are painting.

Can you see the artist there following the outline of the leaf? When painting your clay sculpture, hold the brush like a pencil to stay in control.

Dip only the tip of the brush into the paint so it doesn't drip or get messy.

Use steady strokes and follow the shape or outline of what you are painting and use the thin tip of the brush for small areas like the eyes or the patterns or lines.

Can you see how this artist is holding the brush like a pencil and they only have a small amount of paint on the tip of their brush to keep in control of how much they put onto their paper there.

And that will be the same for your clay sculpture.

It allows you to keep steady if you do your strokes really carefully on the shape or outline of your sculpture.

And make sure to use the thin tip of the brush for those really small areas like any eyes that you might have on the fox or maybe some pause that you have on your animal.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

You should hold the brush like a pencil to stay in control.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's true, you are absolutely right, but why is that true? Well, holding the brush like a pencil helps you stay steady and neat.

If you hold it too loosely or like a stick, the paint might go outside the lines.

When placing your sculpture, it's important to think about putting your animal where it can be clearly seen, placing it against darker parts of the collage, so the colours stand out and where you want people to look first, make sure that your sculpture looks like it belongs in the scene.

For example, near the trees or on the ground not floating in the sky.

Let's take a moment to pause here and check our understanding.

Why is it important to plan the placement of your sculpture on the collage? To avoid painting details? To make sure it stands out from the background? Or to use up all the paint? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said to make sure it stands out from the background, you are absolutely right.

That's why you need to plan the placement of your sculpture on the collage.

This now brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to paint your animal sculpture.

Think about which colours will make it look best, and when it's dry, choose the best place to put it on your collage background.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at that learning task and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you find that? Were you able to paint the colours nice and bright so they stand out against your background? Well, looking at this example here, the sculpture is painted with attention to detail and stands out against this collage background.

The orange, the white, and the black really stand out and the fox is placed on the grass at the bottom, so it looks like it's on the ground and not floating in the sky.

So well done for adding the paint detail to your clay sculpture and placing it on your collage background.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to look at evaluating your final piece.

Evaluation means thinking about our work and talking about the choices we made.

Artists can help other people to understand their work by explaining their artistic choices.

How do we evaluate? Well, we can tell others why we picked colours, shapes, or materials, and we can talk about what we like in our work.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What does evaluation mean in art? When we copy someone else's work? When we think about our artwork to understand how good it is and how we can make it better? When we put our artwork in a drawer? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said, it's when we think about our artwork to understand how good it is and how we can make it better.

You are absolutely right.

That's what evaluation means in art.

So Izzy is explaining her artistic choices to Alex and Andeep.

They ask, what processes did you use in your artwork? And Izzy says, I used collage and sculpture to create my mixed-media piece.

Then they asked, what artistic choices did you make about colours and shapes? So here she's got, I used the colours and I use these colours because, so you could explain yours in this way.

Izzy says, I used the colours grey, dark green and dark blue.

I used these colours because my animal is nocturnal.

So I wanted to show a darker background.

Did you change any of your ideas as you made your artwork, they ask.

Izzy says, I decided to change my background by adding bits from the magazine to make it a little more interesting.

So maybe you made a change to your artwork too.

What media did you use to make your artwork? I used mixed-media in my artwork.

This included my clay sculpture and a collaged background.

And finally they ask, were you influenced by the work of any artists? Izzy says, I was influenced by the work of El Anatsui.

I used bottle tops because I wanted to recycle materials like he does.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Artistic choices never change during the creative process.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when You are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's false, you are right, but can you explain why it might be false? Pause video here and have a discussion with your partner to see if you can explain why this statement is false and press play when you are ready to continue.

Well, maybe you said something like, artists often make creative adjustments as they work changing their ideas, materials, or processes based on how the artwork is developing.

So, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to evaluate your own artwork.

You could write on a sticky note or write on paper.

Here are some sentence starters you could use.

I am proud of my artwork because.

Next time I will try to to make my artwork even better.

I think my artwork shows because.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at evaluating your own artwork and use these sentence starters to help you and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, let's have a look at some examples.

Maybe you evaluated your design by saying, I am proud of my artwork because I painted my clay fox bright orange, so it stands out against the dark collage background.

I think my artwork shows how I used texture and colour carefully, and next time I will try to use different materials such as buttons to make my artwork even better.

So well done.

Hopefully we're able to evaluate your design, thinking about maybe what you did with your clay sculpture and your collage background, how maybe you used colour and texture, and maybe what different materials you could use next time.

Maybe you would prefer to use some other types of paper to collage in your background, or maybe you would choose a different colour to paint your sculpture.

So well done for having a go at evaluating your final piece.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about finalising a mixed-media piece.

You can plan the placement of a sculpture within a mixed-media piece using a collaged background.

You can use paint to enhance the appearance of a sculpture, and you can also evaluate and improve an artwork using feedback.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope you enjoyed learning about reclaimed materials.

I certainly did.

I hope to see you for another unit of learning soon.

See you then.