The Arts

In this lesson, students will be taking either their pop art or picasso portraits and printing them onto clay to produce their final art piece in this series. 

 

Firstly, students must choose either their pop art or picasso portrait. they are to take their photocopied versions (pre-colour) and with a watersoluble marker or gel pen, draw over the lines of the image that you want to transfer to the clay, see (A).

 

Next students will roll their block of clay to 1/4" thickness (using thickness strips as a guide). Their rolled out clay will be transitioned onto a piece of plywood for the remainder of the project. 

 

Students will now lay their image face down onto their clay slab, smoothing the image down gently with their fingers. After about 30 secconds student may lift the corner to see if their image has printed onto the clay. If not, apply a light spray of moisture over the image, see (B).

 

While the clay is still soft, use a ruler to cut it into a tile, leaving a border around the image. Wet fingers and smooth sides.

 

After the tile has dried slightly, carve or incise

the dark lines of the transfer by: — Using a triangular-shaped mini-ribbon tool or other small modeling tool. 

                                                             — Placing a clear plastic bag over the image and tracing the lines with a ballpoint pen. This results in a smooth line. Students may wish to experiment with a variety of depths and thicknesses of the carved lines on a scrap

piece of clay. 

 

Once finished carving, gently smooth over the rough edges with a sponge. The clay is now ready to dry. Allow to air dry between art sessions (1 week). 

 

Once the clay is dry, it is time to experiment with colour! Firstly apply black acrylic to the carved lines, sponging off excess from the tile surface. Students now finish their piece with a variety of acrylic colours. 

 

These instructions can be handed out to each student, read aloud and demonstrated by the teacher or viewed from the attched video.