mural project in book

As a little project to learn how to use some basic InDesign and to practice some book binding I've put together a simple book about the mural projects I made with the school kids at Sandeklevsskolan in spring 2010 and 2011. Today I did those last things like binding it. I thought it was fun to use the same kind paper for the cover as we had used for cutting shapes when sketching for the murals. The art teacher will probably make the connection.

The glass kiln was ready to open today in the afternoon, but I didn't have the time to go and check the results. Tomorrow I will ... Cross your fingers!

the kids' murals 3 & 4

the kids' murals 1 & 2

I must say I'm very happy with the results of this pedagogic mural project - especially considering that the kids are just 15 years old. It worked even better this year than last year. I think the explanation is both that they school kids had seen what was made last year and therefore grasped the idea faster  - and because I improved my teaching and especially the organisation of the painting day. I wouldn't mind doing this kind of project every year - and keep improving! I love the challenge to get people to understand the power of simplifying; clean shapes and limited colours. The idea becomes so much more important ... They were just given some specific colours to use - and not allowed to use the red, green and yellow you can see in the first mural with the traffic light. But I told the boys that of course you can break the rules if you have a very good idea and reason (one of them had secretly gotten the coloured papers that they really wanted to use ... I think that shows initiative!). I told them to make their suggestion both with the subtle colours they were supposed to use - and with the strong colours they wanted to have. And present both suggestions ... [tomorrow: mural 3 & 4]

a long day painting

We achieved great results today, but I'm a bit too tired (I worked 11,5 hours non-stop) to share more than this right now - so you will have to wait to see the fantastic paintings in their completed versions!

Tomorrow: painting murals

one of the chosen suggestions made by the school kids Tomorrow we'll paint 4 murals. 11 school kids (age 15), their art teacher and me. Cross your fingers for us. I'll have to be there really early (07:00) so I better go to bed now - goodnight! [I'll share some more photos from KKV next week]

pedagogical mural project: more

whole suggestion (with the wolves) and details from what the school kids did today

pedagogical mural project - year 2

This spring I've been working with a mural project within Creative School again - same school and based on the same idea (we're continuing so to say).These are the suggestions  finished today with one of the classes (they've been working in groups). Tomorrow I'll have a long and (hopefully) concentrated day with the rest of the kids and then I'll show you some more results. The actual painting of the murals will happen next week (Friday). Here you can see photos from last year's pedagogical mural project.

pedagogical mural project III

It has been a long day, the kids were absolutely great and now it is done.
Tomorrow I will rest.

pedagogical mural project II

The kids came up with several very different and really good suggestions per class, but unfortunately we could only choose a few of them for execution. This one wasn't chosen.

Last week we used an overhead projector to make masks to help us paint the murals (because of several practical reasons we couldn't use the projectors to sketch directly on the walls)

and then we cut out the masks

Tomorrow is the DAY: we will paint the 5 murals. Cross your fingers!

pedagogical mural project

detail

On Tuesday I will paint the 5 murals together with the schoolchildren. This was how I worked with them to come up with the suggestions.

The limitations for this project was as always time and money. We could just get ONE day to paint the murals, and as the budget was limited the materials had to be kind of cheap and I could just get 5 occasions per school-class to help them develop the ideas. (in addition they got 2 times with their art teacher).

So I gave the kids some limitations:
- figurative based on cut out silhouettes from magazines and newspaper (this way everyone would have a fair chance; the idea was the main thing). Then they could add other elements to bind the scenes together.
- the choice of 4 out of 7 subtle colour-tones for the silhouettes.
- the white wall should not be covered but be the base of the images.
- work in groups of 2-3 kids (initially everyone had to work this way individually before teaming up)