Let me begin by apologizing to any parents of fourth graders who realized they were suddenly out of aluminum foil... I encouraged practicing at home :)
This lesson is such a hit year after year, and it is a great sculpture lesson because it only takes one day - no storage issues! We begin with a few live gesture drawings, about 30 seconds each, to warm up and get posing ideas, then we create the sculptures using about a foot of aluminum foil. I also run through some famous figural sculptures by Giacometti, Degas, and Henry Moore on the whiteboard projector to get in the sculpting spirit!
Start the scrunching slowly, to keep from tearing the foil, and then once it's starting to take shape, you can refine te pose. If a limb gets torn off, it is easily repaired at the end with the hot glue gun.
Next, we trace the figure on the mat board base and shade it in. I attach them myself with a spot of hot glue.
This would be a great tie-in to the upcoming Olympics - doesn't this look like a figure skater? I have seen several Olympics inspired projects floating around out there recently that were cool.
Get your free handout right here on my Teachers Pay Teachers store to try it out: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Foil-Figure-Sculpture-art-lesson-2796822
Thank you for this detailed demo. I would love to do this outside and see an actual shadow but darn it, it just wont stop snowing and being freezing cold!
ReplyDeleteMaybe in the spring, which I am SO ready for, we can do some chalk shadows. I think the kids would be excited to do gestures for each other every week, they love it!
Deletei like how you sectioned off the sheet. impressed that you didn't have to use any armatures
ReplyDeleteThe diagram for the cuts is a big help for the kids, and I think an armature would definitely be needed if they were a larger scale. But honestly the size they are is very manageable and easy to work with, and a tiny dot of hot glue holds them in place beautifully.
Deletegood to know! hey, i tried to nominate you for the art of ed thing, but i don't know if it actually went through:( i can't believe i didn't see your site up there!
Deleteaw, i appreciate the effort anyway! i saw yours up there a couple of times and will vote for you for sure. i missed the deadline to nominate - i have a couple of coworkers with outstanding blogs, as is yours. nice to see some fresh names in there and some good new reads!
DeleteWhat a wonderful , great idea!!!! The diagram is so helpful- I learned a lot!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Neomi
I was looking up how to do tin foil art for an upcoming art masterpiece in my child's class and came across your site. Funny, small world, I went to Dolvin Elementary years ago!
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering how to do this with my students with learning disabilities and had the idea ... how about using a stencil made of cardboard with slits cut out for the lines. I like this very simple sculpture idea, thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHello! Love your blog. I was wondering, after creating the foil figures have you tried adding a layer of papier mache (perhaps paper towels and watered down elmer's glue) on top and then painting them? If so, how did it turn out?
ReplyDeleteI have not tried that, but it sounds like a fun idea! Wonder what will stick to foil?
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