Painted Paper Collages

We're not Eric Carle, but we wish we were.  With an upcoming student show, and the need for a few large collaborative pieces, I thought it might be time to resurrect last year's lesson about illustrator, Eric Carle, and his technique of painting paper and then using that to later collage. Only this time the instead of small individual pieces, we would make much larger, group projects. So I discussed color mixing, and students covered large pieces of paper with tempera. Then they painted glue on the back of the shapes I had cut out of the paper, and attached  them onto 2'X3' pieces of paper.

Here are a couple of our finished products. They make me feel happy.

Gingerbread Themed Christmas Sets

This year, I was given the green light to take the sets for our school winter concert sets any direction I wanted, so I directed myself towards a gingerbread theme. Yum! I had two high school students help me hone the idea, transfer my drawings on to 4 8'X4' panels, and paint the large areas.

Part of this theme came from wondering if there was a way to transform our giant (6 foot tall) Snoopy dog house from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" into a gingerbread house. The top had been flat, for Snoopy to use as a singing platform then; but I talked the set builders (horticulture teacher and two other students) to raise the roof, and close the front and back triangle shaped hole. The wood didn't fit exactly, but a little masking tape was used to cover the gaps, and with enough brown paint, no one can tell from a distance.

It was strange to see our spring musical images covered up little by little and gratifying to see a whole new look.



We also got to paint a Santa Sleigh for a student Christmas party photo op.

The day we took the panels out of my classroom to go to the stage and lobby was a bitter sweet day. My classroom feels like my house the day on January 2nd: almost naked and stark without all the holiday cheer, but also cleaner and bigger. The program today was wonderful, and I'm so glad I got to help.