Assignment Hits it all with Wax Resist

The school has tripled the number of available display cases this fall, so that much of the work gets hung before I can properly photograph them. (sorry!) Here is a smattering of student work left in the room...
We had a parent's night last Thursday, and I realized that we have done A LOT in the 3 weeks we've started classes. We've used ink, acrylic, and wax, with sticks, forks and feathers to depict shells, skeletons, shapes, and flowers.

With this particular assignment the students watched a powerpoint about composition and did a sheet of 8 thumbnails of designs out of their head. Some looked at something in the room, some used only geometric shapes... After we conferred on the best compositions, they used forks to scratch into a larger waxed surface. Then they rubbed on and rubbed off a small puddle of black acrylic paint. It showed them how acrylic is water based and will resist wax areas. For a final touch they used the forks again to scratch further and create highlights. We talked about creating "value".

It was a successful lesson because it covered a lot of design issues, technical insights, and each work was unique to the artist. They are happy, and I am happy.