Clay Creatures

Art I Clay Project

For this project my students studied medieval art. We explored Medieval bestiaries and some of the mythical medieval creatures that appeared in them. Then we compared that to the fictional creatures created for movies. I played a YouTube video of a model monster being sculpted for the students to understand the process a bit better. The assignment was for the students to create their own clay creature of their own design. Their creatures had to be completely original and be able to stand on its own without falling over. It also had to have arms and legs of some form.



Materials:

• Clay
• A variety of clay tools
• water
• paper towels
• plastic bags to store the clay projects in while they are still in progress
• A kiln
• acrylic paint

Student Examples

Illumination

Art I Project - Manuscript Illumination

This was a project where students studied Medieval manuscript illumination. The assignment was to create a design which showcased one of the initials from their name in a font of their choice. Around the letter they had to create a border design which illustrated their personality, interests, and hobbies. They also had to incorporate some gold tempera paint somewhere in their design. The gold paint looks really cool when you see these in person. 

Materials:

• Drawing paper
• Rulers (for the border)
• Colored pencils
• Gold tempera paint
• Example fonts for students to choose from 

Process:

1. First students created a one and a half inch border
2. Then students choose a font to illustrate 
3. From there they begin sketching out their designs on their paper
4. Next they begin coloring with colored pencils
5. Lastly, they add their gold tempera paint somewhere in their design.

My example

Student Examples