Wax Resist Ink Drawings

People with low vision need high contrast images more than those of us who can see subtle value shifts.  Ideally, this "wax resist" assignment would be done starting with only white crayon, or white oil pastel, but we also have liquid wax that is used for ceramics to block glaze from the bottoms of cups and bowls. There is dye in this wax to make it easier to see for those who need the some contrast to start with. So my students drew and painted with waxy or oily medium, and then brushed ink on top. The ink only stuck to the paper (although we did have to dab the tops of the oil pastel with a paper towel, to be able to see it better), to create a black and white (or black and green) image, with enough value contrast for my low vision students.

High Contrast Compositions

Value subtleties are often lost for people who are visually impaired. The higher the contrast, the easier it is to discern shapes. I thought it would be good to teach about contrast in art by having students limit themselves to white paper and black or a dark color. I had them draw or trace shapes that overlapped. X's were drawn on every other shape to give the composition a checkerboard affect. This process only works as long as 3 lines don't intersect (as in the letter "Y").  It has to be an even number of lines coming together at intersections. Then the students were asked to paint or color the shapes with the X's.

A Visio Book (closed circuit TV) was used by some students to magnify their drawings so they could color in the lines. One of my students sees better when the Visio Book reverses the values so that the dark lines he colors look white on the screen.

Students with almost no vision, used Wikisticks to trace stencils. The student who made the piece to the right, chose water color as his medium.