King Tut

Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program

Ancient Egyptian Art Style

From the time of King Tut

Art vocabulary words:  hieroglyphs, cartouche

(Note:  the exhibits to show the kids are the picture of Tut’s mask, the picture of the couple standing together, and the shrink-wrapped pictures from the district.)

This month we are not going to learn about a particular artist.  Instead, we are going to learn a little bit about ancient Egyptian art, art that was created between 3000 BC and 30 AD, which is about 2000 to 5000 years ago.  Not much that people have made or built can last that long.  The only reasons we have any Egyptian art that old to look at is that Egypt is a desert country, with dry air that helps to preserve things, and because most of the art that we have comes from tombs, where it was buried many, many centuries ago, and that helped to preserve it for us to see now. 

Egyptians had a religion with many gods and goddesses, who controlled everything in the world.  They built huge temples to different gods, and performed rituals all the time to keep their gods happy.  Egyptians believed in an afterlife where spirits of people who died would stay alive, and they would want to have their own things around them to use.  They preserved important people as mummies, and filled their tombs with furniture, jewelry, containers of food, and all kinds of artwork.  Some items like furniture and containers had carved relief designs on them, often covered in hammered sheets of gold. Walls had designs painted on them.  The pictures were often stories, with ancient picture writing, called hieroglyphs, mixed in with the pictures to tell what was happening.  When the name of a pharaoh, or king, was written, it would be surrounded with an oval shape called a cartouche.  Only royal names were written inside a cartouche.

The most famous pharaoh of Ancient Egypt to us is Tutankhamun, or King Tut.  His tomb was discovered in 1922, and was the first tomb found that had not been robbed of most of its gold and precious jewels.  Tut was called “the boy king”, because he became king when he was only 10 years old, and died when he was 18.  The artifacts found in his tomb have been displayed around the world for people to see.  This is a picture of the mask over his mummy. 

His names are written in the cartouches below it. 

A really interesting thing about Ancient Egyptian art is that it changed very little for thousands of years.  It is famous for the way people are usually shown – their faces are shown from the side, their chests from the front, and their legs from the side, usually apart like they are walking.  

The art looks very flat.  When some figures are shown bigger than others, it is because they liked to show the most important people as the biggest, and the least important people as very small. 

How people were shown in ancient Egyptian art, surrounded by hieroglyphs.

Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program

Ancient Egypt / King Tut Embossing Project

This project is slightly simpler for kindergarten and 1^st grade vs. grades 2 to 5, so pay attention to the instructions.  All supplies will be on the carts, but youngest kids will not color with markers and have different pictures to work from.

Getting ready

Presenters, first thing, please sign onto the Art Lit cart sign-out sheet on the wall.  That way we know where the art carts are at any time.  Presenters should only be coming in at a time they have officially signed up for.  Next, please check the Art Lit cart for the supplies you will need.  The presentation folders and the tools should all be kept on the carts.  You will need to take a bag of foil sheets and a bag of pictures to trace from the counter.  Take the right pictures for your grade level.  These are the supplies you will need:

On the cart:                                                             Take from the counter:

Presentation folder and art samples                1 Bag of 28 cut foil sheets

Desk protector sheets (30)                                 1 Bag of Egyptian pictures to trace

Bag of ballpoint pens (30)

Roll of masking tape

6 bags of permanent markers

A bag of folded newsprint sheets (30)

In the classroom, set up the kids’ places for them.  Each student starts out with a desk protector, a folded piece of newsprint, a piece of embossing foil, and a ballpoint pen.  For grades 2 to 5, each table group gets a bag of permanent markers to share.  If you think your class is mature enough to wait for instruction, you could stick two short bits of tape loosely on each child’s place mat.  Otherwise you will need to go around the room handing out strips of tape.  (We have only limited tape – we cannot waste it.  Aim for no more than 6 inches per student at most.)  You can decide how to distribute the pictures kids will trace from.  You might fan them out in your hand and let kids pick, or however you think will work for your classroom.

We will keep an extra roll of tape or two on the counter for when the ones on the carts run out.

The Project

(Things you might want to say to the kids are in purple.) 

Try to think of questions to ask the kids as you go along.   Present the art style to the kids and show examples.  Then show them the samples of our project.  Put the sheet of hieroglyphics on the docucam.

If you have 2^nd to 5^th graders – have the kids write their names and their teacher’s name on the back (silver) side of the foil with a permanent marker, NOT with a ballpoint.  You don’t want to emboss the names into the pictures. 

If you have kindergartners or 1^st  graders – you will need to take a permanent marker around the room to put their names and their teacher’s name on the back (silver) side of their foil.  You can do this while they are working on their pictures.    

Introduction

Today we are going to make embossed pictures that look like golden artwork from King Tut’s tomb.    “Embossing” means making a raised picture by pressing into something, like metal or paper. We will tape a picture onto the back side of heavy foil, then use a ballpoint pen to draw over the lines and emboss the picture onto the foil.  After the pictures are done, we will add Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.  For grades 2-5  After you do your embossing, you can color parts of your designs with permanent markers if you like, to make it look like gold with jewels.

One important thing about this project – be careful how hard you press with the ballpoint pens.  If you press too hard you can poke a hole through the foil, and we don’t want holes in it.  If you don’t press hard enough, the lines will not show.  You can check how it is coming along as you go by carefully turning it over to the gold side. 

Step 1 – Hand out the pictures to trace from.    However you want to organize it, help the kids to tape the picture onto the back side of the foil.  The silver side is the back side.  It needs to be taped with a piece of tape at the top and one at the bottom so the picture will not move around while they work. 

We’re going to tape the pictures you are using onto the back of the foil – the silver side.  You want it to stay in place while you are working.  After you have the picture taped in place, put the foil on top of the folded newspaper.  The gold side should be facing down, and the picture should be facing up.  The newspaper gives you a little bit of padding under the foil so the lines will emboss better.  Use your ballpoint pen to draw over the lines.  Go over all of them until the whole picture is done.  You can turn the foil over from time to time to check on how it is coming, and to see if you missed some lines.  Don’t take the tape off until the whole picture is totally done. 

Step 2 – When the pictures are completely drawn, have the kids take off the tape and the used tracing pictures. 

When you are finished with your picture, you can draw some hieroglyphics like the Egyptians would have had in their artwork.  We are still working on the back side of the foil, the silver side.  (Note – whatever the kids draw on the back will come out backwards on the front, but it probably doesn’t matter with the hieroglyphs.)

Step 3 –

For Kinders and 1^st graders, it’s time to admire their work, they are done.

For grades 2 to 5 – Now you can think about whether you want to add some color to your picture or not.  Ancient Egyptians would use colored enamel or attach precious stones to their gold work sometimes, and leave it plain gold other times.  If you want to add some color, use the markers on the gold side of the picture.  Remember, these are permanent markers, so be careful not to get any ink on your clothes or the desks. 

Afterwards / Clean up

Please make sure to collect all the tools before you leave the room (place mats, bags of permanent markers, ballpoint pens, bag of folded newspaper pieces, and most important – the masking tape.)  Ask kids to look for missing items.  Please make sure the markers get pretty much back in their own bags.  We will be re-using the newspapers.  I’ll leave a few extra on the counter.  Let me know if some disappear so I can bring in more.

Put the finished art in a folder with your teacher’s name on it on the Art Lit counter.

Thank you!                                                                                                               November 2018

Laura Cox

Beatrix Potter

Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy 

Program

Beatrix Potter Bio Presentation

(Note:  as exhibits, show the kids the portrait of Beatrix Potter, the mushrooms on the back, and put the large page of characters on the docucam so they can see all of them.)

Beatrix Potter was an English author and illustrator who wrote 30 books, most of them children’s books about animal characters.  If you have ever seen Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck or Squirrel Nutkin, you have seen her work.

Beatrix Potter lived from 1866 to 1943.  She grew up in a wealthy family, with a governess, so she didn’t play with other children much.  Her family loved the outdoors, travelling often to Scotland and the beautiful Lakes District in England, and she loved to observe nature.  Landscapes, plants and animals all became the subjects of her study and her artwork.

Beatrix was very intelligent, and interested in almost all types of natural science.  She was also very talented at watercolor painting, and some of her first nature studies were done about different kinds of fungus and mushrooms.  She wrote books about them and was known as an expert. 

Beatrix Potter was also very interested in fairy tales and fantasy stories.  She began to make her own illustrations, often using her own pet rabbits and mice as subjects.  Her ability to combine very detailed and naturalistic pictures of animals with fantasy elements, like clothes and tiny houses, made her a perfect children’s book author and illustrator. 

During visits to the Lake District, Beatrix Potter wrote charming illustrated story letters to children of her friends.  In her thirties, Beatrix Potter published the Tale of Peter Rabbit on her own, and it was so successful that she began writing children’s books full time.

When Beatrix Potter made money from her books, she bought herself a farm in the Lake District of England, where she bred prize winning sheep and farmed even as she continued to write and illustrate books.  As she could afford to, she bought up as many surrounding farms as she could just so the land would be preserved and no one would ever build on it.  When she died, her land was donated to the British National Trust, and made into a national park so everyone could come and see it. 

Beatrix Potter, 1866 to 1943

 

Peter Rabbit

Jemima Puddle Duck  

 Pigling Bland

    

Squirrel Nutkin                           

Mr. Tod Fox

    

     

                 Mouse from Tailor of                

Gloucester

Town Mouse

Mushroom Illustration

Beatrix Potter Watercolor Pencil Project

Getting ready

Presenters, first thing, please sign onto the Art Lit cart sign-out sheet on the wall.  That way we know where the art carts are at any time.  Presenters should only be coming in at a time they have officially signed up for.  Next, please check the Art Lit cart for the supplies you will need.  The presentation folders and the tools should all be kept on the carts.  You will need to take paper and paper towels from the counter, unless the person before you put them on the cart. You will need to fill up two jugs with water if you are going to a portable classroom where there is no water.  These are the supplies you will need:

On the cart:

Presentation folder and art samples

Desk protector sheets (30)

Sets of watercolor pencils (28 bags)

Bag of animal stencils (18)

Paint brushes in container (28)

empty water jars

2 jugs for water (fill them if needed)

Bag of pencils and pencil sharpener

Take from the counter:

1 Bag of 28 little paper towels

1 stack of 28 sheets of white paper

1 drying rack with a garbage bag to cover it if it is rainy.

(If dry art is on already on the rack, please put it into a folder)

Take a moment to look at the bags of watercolor pencils.  Make sure none of them have broken points and sharpen whatever needs sharpening before handing them out to the kids.  It will save time later.

In the classroom, set up the kids’ places for them.  Each student starts out with a desk protector, a sheet of white paper, a pencil, a little paper towel, and a box of watercolor pencils.  Each table group gets a page of Beatrix Potter character pictures in a clear sleeve to share.  (There are 6.)  You can decide how to distribute the stencils.  Kids will have to share and take turns for the one they want to use, but drawing around the stencil only takes a moment. 

You should wait to hand out the brushes and water jars until most of the kids are done drawing with the colored pencils.   They don’t work well on wet paper, so the kids should draw first, then brush the water after.

The Project

(Things you might want to say to the kids are in purple.)  Try to think of questions to ask the kids as you go along.   Present the artist to the kids and show her work.  Then show them the samples of our project.  Put the Large Beatrix Potter prints and the project samples where the kids can see them.  Put the large page of animals on the docucam.  Have the kids start by writing their names AND their teacher’s name in pencil on the back of their paper. 

Introduction

Today we are going to make pictures of Beatrix Potter’s animal characters.  We will use stencils to draw an outline of the animals, and then draw the rest of the picture by hand.  If you want to draw a picture freehand without a stencil that’s great.  If you want to draw your own animal character different from these, that’s great too.  You will be the illustrator.  We will color the characters in with watercolor pencils, and after we finish our drawings, we’ll go over them with wet paintbrushes to blend the color and make it look like watercolor paint.

One important thing about this project – the watercolor pencils don’t work well on wet paper.   So we will do the pencil coloring first, and then move on to the paintbrush and water.

Step 1: Choose what character to use, or make one up

We need to start with regular pencils first to draw the characters and the backgrounds.  Choose which stencil you want to use if you are using a stencil.  You’ll need to take turns.  Be careful with the stencils – they have to last through lots and lots of kids using them.  Hold it down and be careful not to move it while you draw around it.

Step 2: Think about what your charter is doing, and where it is. 

Next you need to draw a little bit of background for your character.  Think like an illustrator.  Your picture will tell a little piece of a story about the character.  Think about where he is, what he is doing, what objects might be next to him.  Sketch a background in with regular pencil to tell the story about the character.

Step 3:  Color it in

Next you will use the watercolor pencils to color the picture.  Try to show the animal’s texture with the marks you make.  Feathers and fur have different textures. 

Step 4:  Use a wet paintbrush to blend the color

Hand out water jars with not too much water in them to groups of kids, and hand out paintbrushes. 

To use the brushes, get them wet and shake them off in the jar so you don’t get your papers too wet.  You can use the paper towel to dab extra water off of your brush.  When you go over your drawings with the water and brushes, try to do one color at a time and wash the brush off in the water in between.  You don’t want to smear all the colors together too much.

You don’t need to get the while paper wet – just the colors you drew.  If you have too much water on your paper, you can dab the paper with the paper towel too.

Afterwards / Clean up

Please make sure to collect all the tools before you leave the room (place mats, bags of watercolor pencils, paint brushes and pencils), and ask kids to look for missing items.  Please count the bags of watercolor pencils and make sure the sets have not gotten put into random bags.    If you are in a portable, dump out water jars outside the door.

Please save un-used sheets of white paper and paper towel for use later.  Put them into the box in the library.  Put the wet pictures in the drying rack and cover it with the large trash bag to keep it dry on the way back to the library if the weather is wet.  Leave wet items on the rack in the library.  The next person to use the rack can take them off and put them into a manila folder. 

Please wash the brushes in the sink and leave them upright in the plastic container on the cart.

If any of the stencils are damaged, please put them in the extra paper box and leave me a note.  Even email me if it needs to be replaced right away.  I hope the stencils will hold up.

Thank you!                                              

November 2018

Gustav Klimt ~ Mrs. Sutinen's Class

GREAT JOB!!! 

Mrs. Sutinen's 2nd grade class, Gustav Klimt inspired art!!