Large Scale Collaborative Backdrop

I am so proud of these students for tackling such an enormous project! We had a blast working on this (giant!) backdrop for the annual whole school music performance as part of our after school art club. 

The theme for this year's music performance was based on the book The Kapok Tree by Abigail Thomas. The students used the book for inspiration in order to start their design. They each chose which animals, plants, and rain forest flowers they would like to draw and set to work drawing and planning out their ideas. 

Each drawing was individually scanned and uploaded to PhotoShop so we could piece together the final image as a whole. (This was a very similar process to how another group of students took part in the Library Mural from a previous post) The students decided on the final scene below after copying, pasting, and rearranging their drawings on PhotoShop.  

Once the final scene was complete the image was projected onto large rolled canvas that I had previously cut and hung in the gym. The students then traced their original drawings on a larger scale. When the tracing was complete we laid out the canvas and started by painting the tree and background first. Details in the plants and animals were added last. 

This small group of students worked so hard, they even dedicated their lunch recess to come in to paint! Their enthusiasm, creativity, and effort was appreciated by all! 

Library Mural

Our school library mural is complete! I am so excited to share what my after school art club has been up to since the beginning of the term.

Last year the school library was in need of some love, so our parent community volunteered their time and created some wonderful decor to make our library more inviting for our students. One such decoration was a paper mache tree with hand sewn leaves (as seen above). The students loved it and were wanting to add some of their own ideas too. I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to share their creativity with the whole school!

We started the ball rolling by voting on a theme. The students decided they wanted to create a jungle scene that would match the tree that had been created previously. Each student drew an animal or plant that they wanted to add to the mural and planned out the colors they wanted to use.

Once their designs were complete, we scanned the images and used Photoshop to create one complete scene by duplicating and re-sizing the student's drawings. The finished jungle images were then printed out and the students labeled the colors appropriately. 

After colors were planned, the final scenes were projected on the wall so the students could trace their drawings on a larger scale. 

The tracing did not take much time at all and then the best part could begin- paint! We started by painting the large area of background first as seen below:

When the background was finished, the students began painting the animal or plant they had designed. 

The final step was outlining to give the scene a more finished look. The students are very proud of their work and were excited to see their vision come to life. I couldn't be a happier art teacher!!