Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Nadia, and I will be teaching you an art lesson today.

I hope you really enjoy it.

I'm really looking forward to the lesson we have planned today.

The outcome of your lesson today is to be able to create a simple clay animal sculpture.

Our lesson today is going to be split into two learning cycles.

The first section of our lesson is called Creating the Clay Animal Shape using a Template.

We will begin with this now.

You've got two keywords today, and our first keyword is perforate or perforations, and this is a line of tiny holes that helps you to cut or tear something more easily.

Your second keyword today is texture, and this is the feel or appearance of a surface.

So your keywords today are perforate, or perforations, and texture.

I'd like you now to have a little think, and then you can speak to a partner about what is the same and what is different between the images that you can see on the board now.

Did you notice that they were both foxes? Did you see that they were both made of different materials? The one on the right is made out of clay, and the one on the left is made out of playdough.

Did you spot that they are different colours, and did you notice the different textural markings in each? The one on the left has textural markings that are mostly quite circular and scrunched up in shape, and the one on the right has really accurate fur-like texture that is almost moving in the direction of how the hair would grow on the fox.

And also it has a clear eye, and I can see a snout or a nose detail, and the ears are quite neat.

And can you see all those tiny little circular textures that are around the face? Well done for spotting lots of similarities and differences.

And in today's lesson, you are going to be learning how to make this using clay.

The techniques used to make an animal plaque with playdough will help you when you make a plaque with clay.

What did you do with playdough that will help you with clay? Izzy starts by making her clay tile.

This is a clay slab.

Izzy says, "I am going to use a rolling pin to make a slab for my tile.

It needs to be smooth to start with." People who use clay in their work, such as a clay artist, a potter, or a ceramicist, like to begin by using a clay slab.

By creating a clay slab, they can turn that into a wide range of different forms, from simple plates to boxes to sculptural pieces.

She places her template onto her clay slab.

Do you remember what a template is used for? Izzy is using her fox template to make sure that she creates an accurate shape of her fox.

She only needs to use the template to create the fox outline, which you'll see in a moment how she does that.

She then perforates around the edges.

One by one, whilst placing the fox template on the clay slab, she marks out with tiny little perforations, one dot at a time.

She's very careful around the areas that are quite small, like the front foot and the ear, and around the fox's nose, because she wants to make sure that those little perforations are as neat as possible, which means that they must be as close to the template as she can get them.

Can you see on the final image how neatly she's managed to do that? She then uses a plastic knife to cut out the shape, which is much easier to do now that these perforations have been created.

"I had to cut slowly with the tip of the knife.

Next, I need to remove the clay that I don't need." Let's now have a go at a true or false question.

You should cut the clay straight away before joining the dots.

Is this true, or is this false? The answer is false.

First, you need to perforate around the edges, and connect the dots carefully, then you can cut the clay.

Sofia has carefully perforated around her turtle shape template, and she's cut out the shape, but when she tries to lift it off the table with her hands, it starts to bend and stick to the surface.

Poor Sofia.

What advice would you give to Sofia? You can gently loosen the edges using a flat clay tool to carefully slide under them.

After loosening, slide your hand or a flat board under the whole slab, lift slowly, keeping the shape flat to avoid bending or cracking.

Which clay slab shows a perforated outline of a fox? Is it A, B, or C? The answer is C.

This is the perforated outline of a fox, because it has the tiny little traced holes going around the template shape.

Picture A shows a template, and picture B shows a clay slab that has been rolled out to make it very smooth, with the templates placed carefully in the middle of the clay slab.

And what that means is that it's ready to be perforated, just like in image C.

Right, we are gonna get ready now for Task A, which is to create a clay animal using a template.

First of all, I'd like you to roll out your clay on a fabric mat, until it's about one centimetre thick.

And then I'd like you to place the card template on your clay slab.

Use a blunt pencil or a stick to perforate around the edge of the template.

And then you're going to carefully cut out your animal shape, and then you are going to smooth the edges with a little water on your fingers.

I hope you enjoy completing this task.

Good luck with it and enjoy it.

Please pause the video here, and I'll check in with you once you've completed the task.

How did you get on with your clay animal? Your clay animal might look something like this.

Did you run into any difficulties along the way? How did you find holding the templates carefully in place, and perforating those little holes around the edges? Were you able to get the holes really close to the template? And did you manage to easily cut out your shape by guiding your knife from one hole to the next? I hope you did.

I hope you're really happy with the shape of your clay animal.

Now we're going to move on to the second part of our lesson today, which is adding texture and detail.

What is the same, and what is different in the images on the screen? Well, both images show texture that have been added to the surface.

Tools or objects have been used to press or mark the patterns.

Also, one is made with play-dough, but the other is made with clay.

I can see lots of different types of textures here.

I can see dots and lines and semi circles, and something that looks a bit like fur.

I can see crosshatching where there are diagonal lines going in both directions, and they overlap.

And I can see these little lines that look a bit like waves in the ocean.

Isn't it incredible all the different types of textures that you can create? Jacob says, "We can use different textures to show what the fox's fur might feel like." Adding texture can help an artwork to look bumpy, or smooth, or soft, or rust, just like in real life.

Here are some special clay tools that can be used to create some of these textures.

Artists can also use everyday objects to create different textures, such as scissors.

Jacob says, "I could carefully snip at the clay to create small spikes." Or a clothes peg.

Jacob says, "I could pinch the clay with a peg to create a wobbly texture." What kind of textures could this clay tool make? A plastic knife can make short lines for furry textures, or it could make zigzags and crosshatching for rougher textures.

You can add detail to your clay animal, such as facial features, eyes for instance.

To create an eye, you can press gently with the end of a pencil or ball tool to make a little dent.

Can you see this ball tool here? It's just going to be placed into the clay to create that eye effect.

The texture of a snout or a nose can be crated by using a rounded stick, or your finger, to smooth and shape the nose area.

You can then gently press nostrils with a blunt pencil tip.

And to create the ears, you can pinch and shape the ears to make them pointy.

And then you can add light lines inside to show fur or depth.

Can you complete the sentence? Texture is the.

Is it A, the fail or appearance of a surface, B, the sound or appearance of a surface, or is it C, the feel or appearance of a surface? And the answer is C, the feel or appearance of a surface.

How can you use tools to show your animals fur? Now this video shows very clearly how you can achieve the fur effect.

You can use a toothpick or a fork to gently scratch short lines into the clay to look like fur.

The lines should go in the same direction the fur grows, from the head to towards the tail.

For Task B, I would like you to add texture to your plaque.

You might think about using clay tools, a peg, scissors, pencils, or brushes.

I hope you create the desired texture for your clay animal.

Enjoy your task.

You can pause the video here, and I will see you when you complete the task.

You might have used a peg to pinch the clay, a traditional clay tool, a pencil for making small holes or circles, scissors for making careful snips, or a brush for soft textures.

And you may have also created the features, such as the eyes, the nose, and the ears using some of these tools or using your fingers.

I hope your finished clay animal is looking really great.

Did you plan how your texture was going to be before you created it, or did you just experiment, and try out these different materials to see what you could achieve? I'd be really excited to see what you've managed to achieve today.

Does your simple clay animal look like the animal that you intended it to be? What advice would you give to somebody else that is about to create a simple clay animal? We are now coming to the end of our lesson today.

So today's lesson was a sculpture lesson to make a simple clay animal.

So you should now understand how to use a card template to create a basic animal shape in clay.

You, today, should have explored texture by using tools and objects to create patterns on clay surface.

I hope you enjoyed working with clay today.

It is quite different from working with playdough, even though it feels quite similar right now.

Once your clay is either air dried, or placed in a kiln to firm, it will become very sturdy and very firm.

Once the clay is dried, you'll really be able to see the details in those textures, and it will last hopefully for a long while.

I really hope to see you again soon.

I thoroughly enjoyed our lesson today.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.