Pointillism

We worked on a pointillism project a few weeks ago. Several years ago I did a unit on ethnic art and we studied some Aboriginal art. I used some of the ideas from that lesson for this one.

Students were to choose one word and then illustrate it with the colors they used to layer around it. We used painter's tape on watercolor paper to mask in large letters the word each one chose. We used washable tempera paint on paper plates and Q-tips as "brushes."

We looked at examples of some famous artists who used pointillism, and also at some modern and amateur pointillism art. (see Chuck Close etc.)

Be sure there are plenty of the paint dots overlapping the edges of the painter's tape letters. I found that the kids tended to go around the letters without "hitting" them. If they do not cover the edges of the tape, their letters will not be defined when they peel off the tape at the end.

Viper picture is by Daughter W.