coats of arms

At the last art club we looked at some books about heraldry and discussed the concept of a family crest. We began creating coat of arms designs on graph paper. I encouraged them to think in terms of symbolism and geometric order. I have several rolls of gold leafed wall paper that is quite thick, like a stiff canvas, (they were discovered in a dumptster behind a local wall paper store I frequent) anyway, the golden canvas is perfect for the crest ground. I advised students to use masking tape for the boundary distinctions in their crest designs. Then we started to paint. When the paint was dry we peeled off the masking tape and had really nice backgrounds with perfect line and clarity. During the next art club we will go back into the project with a second layer of detail painting.

This is the first time I have turned my basement into a painting studio. I threw down big drop cloths and let the students work on the ground. We had to be careful not to walk on one anothers art, but overall it went okay. I want to allow the students to get messier and work bigger at times, which just can't happen in my kitchen. I'm too afraid of paint everywhere. When the weather is nice I can let them paint outside, but this winter I have to keep cleaning out my basement and carving out a mess room. I was surpirsed how candid the students were about the chaos. One student saw a mouse trap in the corner. Another asked why it was so dusty. Quite a few were looking out for centipedes. I need a few more bright lights, certainly, and a good scrub down, and less junk -- but most of the junk is for future art projects, and you just never know when the gold leafed wall paper will come in handy.