Light projection is great fun for students to do, it provides them the opportunity to create transparencies involving elements, like shapes, colours, lines and textures to be projected using an overhead projector and to use computers to manipulate the images they have created. This project also deals with the idea of an imaginary or abstract composition which makes students to think, to plan, to be creative, to discover and to use principles of design like balance, repetitions and contrast in their art works.
The project should be approached in an open way allowing students to use their imagination to interpret the work of Artists in order to create a surreal landscape.
For visual references teachers will find images of abstract landscapes created by artists like Paul Klee, Roy Jackson and John Peart in the following links.
What you need:
- 2 A4 size clear plastic sheets – from stationary shops or recycled from home, normally used in A4 size folders.
- 1 medium size # 6 paint brush per student
- PVA glue enough for a class of 25
- 1 pair of scissors per student
- 1 piece of rag to clean
Small clean jars or plastic containers with lids for coloured glue - Coloured cellophane papers cut up in A5 size, enough for 25 students
- Student quality coloured inks to mix with PVA glue, inks can be replaced by the cheaper option of food colouring
- An overhead projector
What to do
Teacher:
Source the cellophane papers and the A4 plastic sheets – easy to find in stationary shops or from home.
Prepare the glue by mixing the colour ink with the glue in different jars so that each group of students will have at least 3 jars with colourful glue to glue the shapes and to create lines by dripping the coloured glue with their paint brushes.
Students:
Using one sheet of plastic as a base
- Cut shapes of cellophane paper
- Plan your composition using different shapes, you should have different size shapes, like big – small – long – short – fat – skinny and repetitions of shapes – see samples.
- when all the shapes are ready and decisions have been made about the composition – the way you arrange shapes, lines and textures on the plastic sheet – start gluing the shapes.
As you glue, the cellophane paper will shrink creating very interesting textures. The coloured PVA glue can be also applied with brushes directly on the A4 plastic sheet as a background colour.
When gluing is done, apply the second sheet on top of the base sheet of plastic, press the two pieces together with your hands and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
When light collages are ready, project the landscapes using the OHP or display on windows.
Extension: for older students
The light collage can be scanned digitize and manipulate using a computer program like Adobe Photoshop Elements or similar.
