Monday, June 27, 2022

Williams Middle School - Practicum Teaching: Motion sculpture

One of the major lessons I taught to both of the 7th grade classes, during my Practicum, was a multi-stage motion sculpture project.  This was a lesson created by my supervising practitioner Ed O’Gilvie and the purpose of said lesson was to motivate students to begin thinking about how still art, like sculptures, can still create a sense of movement.  Students started out by creating a colorful brainstorming drawing of a figure in motion; this could be something simple like a person walking (legs stretched, arms swinging) or complex like a Quarterback leaping through the air to catch a football.  Once their idea was set they could begin to build the internal structure of their sculpture (an armature); which consisted of aluminum foil sheets that were twisted into long thin coils.
 

This skeleton and it's cardboard base were then covered in a layer of plaster strips.  Students were encouraged to use extra water and their fingers to smooth out the plaster so that it would better adhere to the skeleton.  After the sculpture was completely covered (no gaps) and dry, the students then painted their personal creations with acrylic paint.
 




These two classes showed great creativity and extra effort by adding many additional details to their expressive projects. 
 











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