Paper Paintings Lesson, Part 2

If you haven't read Part I about Paper Paintings yet, do that first.

Alright, at this point you and your students should have:

• A preliminary sketch
• Sketch/ Underpainting on cardboard, matboard, or other substrate
• Enough colored scraps of painted paper for the entire class (organized in some way)
• Elmers BLUE LABEL GLUE ALL glue (the black will reconstitute if it comes into contact with any water) and brushes that can be ruined (*Note: you don't have to plan to throw all brushes away with good clean-up procedures, just don't use your best brushes).

 Once students and supplies are ready, they can begin painting with paper! The concept here is simple, but should be modeled for younger students: the goal is to find similar colors and tones in the painted papers to their original underpainting. This is the reasoning behind having as many different tones within each color as possible.

When they apply the paper, they must coat both sides in the glue, or make sure to apply glue to the area they are covering on their underpainting. There should be enough glue for the paper to stick, but no large globs of glue left on the surface.They should then coat the top of the paper with glue as well.

A good rule of thumb when you begin to apply the painted paper is to follow the shape of the object- for example, if you were trying to "paint" a beach ball you would follow the curve of the sphere. This is the most important part of the technique to model to all students.

It is worth noting that this is a time-consuming project. Be sure to give students enough time to work, and help them not to rush. They should be using small pieces of painted paper to cover areas, and making sure to apply the glue to the front and back of the painted paper. Younger students could work more simply, either drawing larger, or working on a smaller substrate. Level of detail expected should be modeled for all students.

Once the pieces are finished, students should coat them in one final layer of the glue. Gel medium or varnish can also be used, but cost of these mediums is significantly higher. I would also assume you could use shellac, but you would have to keep the area well-ventilated (therefore its probably not worth the trouble).

As mentioned in part one, the media could very well cause the pieces to warp, so try painting a layer of glue on the back after they have dried. This may or may not work, though, so please send a comment my way if you try it!

 Well, that's all for this tutorial. Feel free to post additional ideas, questions, or anything else you like in the comments section! Hope you enjoyed it :)