PREP NOTES FOR LESSON 2
For the art project, each child should have a set of paints. Your child will be asked to observe and paint the people or pets around them. This activity works well in a home environment. Engaged learning, focus, and perseverance are more likely to happen when children select a subject that is of interest to them. ABOUT GOUACHE PAINT Gouache paint is also called opaque watercolor paint. We use it in much the same manner as any watercolor paint. It does have some added benefits. Gouache is more opaque. This means that light colors can be layered over dark colors. Light colors used in this technique are even more effective when they’ve been mixed with white. The colors in the suggested set are brighter and will give your child a different look overall from that of watercolors. We use gouache in a cake or pan. This type often comes with a palette built into the lid. You may use gouache in tubes. If so, you will need a separate plastic palette to squeeze the paint into. Squeeze out small amounts and rinse the palette when finished. We find that young students have less waste when working from cakes, rather than tubes.
OUTSIDE THE HOME ENVIRONMENT
When instructing a group outside the home environment, you will need to decide if students will be painting their own portraits, painting a fellow student, or working from their memories and imagination. If referencing their own faces, you will need a portable mirror for each child. Plastic stand alone mirrors are available at BlickArtMaterials. If the students are painting pictures of fellow students, pair up two students across a table from each other. Each can paint as they observe the other student. This works quite well for young children because they focus on details such as colors of the face, hair, and clothing rather than focusing on form which would require the model to hold still. If working from imagination, ask students to think about a pet at home or imagine a type of pet that they would like to be with and then paint a picture of themselves and that pet. When children paint from imagination we can expect to see fewer details in their work. This is acceptable because memory provides fewer details. The shortage of information is one reason that most of the assignments in the book encourage children to work by directly observing a subject.
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