Mini "Monets"

Impressionism

Today we made "mini Monets" as we tried our hand at Impressionism. We discussed how Impressionists made small marks of color next to each other and instead of blending colors on the canvas, the viewer's eye blends the colors.

We used chalk pastels on roughly 4" x 5" pieces of shrink film. Students chose a landscape photo that they wanted to reproduce in an impressionist style. They really had to work hard to build up layers of color on the glossy surface. Not only did they have to use multiple colors, but were thinking about contrasting colors and value as well. True impressionists did not use black, but rather contrasting colors to create the impression of darker areas.

They all did a great job at this initial step, but the real fun was just starting! We fired up the toaster oven to around 325 or 350 degrees and placed the art inside on a sheet of tin foil. In moments the shrink film came alive - twisting and bubbling as it got smaller and smaller! It flattened out (sometimes with a bit of help) within a minute or two and was ready to come out and cool off. It never gets old to watch this process and the final art is tiny, hard, and so much more vibrant and beautiful than when it went into the oven. 

This is a video of my shrink film in the oven. I did stop part way and flatten it out a bit as it was curling over onto itself. Supposedly it will straighten out on its own, but I get too worried!

Here are the students' original landscape photos, pastel covered shrink film before, and after baking:

I sent everyone home with a couple of blank sheets to play with. This can be done in your oven on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil. They can draw on it with marker, pastels, whatever! Part of the fun is experimenting. If you want more, you can order Grafix shrink film from dickblick.com in different colors and surfaces (I found this idea for Mini Monets on their website, if you want to check it out). It costs roughly $5 for 6 letter sized sheets.

I was curious how this would work with different mediums, so below you can see my different versions. I think the chalk pastels work best of those I tried. Sharpie was my least favorite.