Class #4: Imaginary Creatures
Project Description:
In this lesson, students learned about how artists and designers use their imaginations to create something that has not existed before. Students observed examples of how artists combined unfamiliar things and ideas to create an imaginary creature. This lesson focused on imagination and play, through which students created a clay sculpture representing their own imaginary creature.
Essential Understanding:
Artists and designers draw inspiration from their imagination and outside sources to create original works of art.
Objectives/Outcomes:
Students will be able to...
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Imagine their own imaginary friend
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Experiment with clay and others materials
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Reflect on their design
Skills:
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Envision ideas in a lesson menu
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Create a 3D sculpture that represents an imaginary creation
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Manipulate and transform clay
Before experimenting with model magic clay, our community connections students filled out a lesson menu that would help them envision their imaginary creature. The lesson menu included lists of choices of physical features, personality traits, special abilities and hobbies, allowing students to personalize their creature. Students used the menus to generate ideas and chose attributes they wanted their creature to have. Most students chose directly from the menu, but also added their own imagined attributes. In the image below to the left, a student decided, "Mine has all of the superpowers!"
Student making choices on their lesson menu.
After students made decisions about the characteristics of their creature on the lesson menus, they began to transfer their ideas using model magic to build their creatures. To shape their creatures, students molded and pressed the clay using both their hands and various tools. In the image on the right, one student uses a knife to precisely cut the clay into smaller pieces. The workable material allowed for all students to manipulate their figures quite easily. Students pressed, squeezed, and cut the clay. The middle photo below is a great example of the workability of the clay. This student got excited every time they got to squeeze the clay between their fingers to make their own shapes. After squeezing each piece, they guided their helper about where to attach the piece to the sculpture. (Hover over photos for captions)
This student used both hands for more pressure when flattening the clay.
Here the student is squeezing the clay between her fingers to make shapes.
"Now I'm going to make the antennas," this student explained while using a tool to cut the clay.
Here is an example of a student expanding their ideas during the sculpting process. As this student sculpted the clay, they pondered what superpower to give to the imaginary creature. They were very imaginative in their ideation and explained their thinking: "I just look at something and I scream, 'Laser vision!' and automatically lasers come out of my eyes. I imagine what that would look like..."
Imaginary Creatures
Following the sculpting of their creatures, students experimented with several tools to create textures. One student used a toothbrush to get tiny dotted marks because they wanted their creature to be hairy. The student in the left image was able to create the hairy texture by hovering the toothbrush above an area and having a helper push down with them. Another student a wooden dowel to create small dots.
Once students finished sculpting and texturing their creatures, they added paint to transform the white clay and bring their creatures to life. Students experimented with color mixing; some mixed on their palettes, while others mixed colors directly on their sculptures. The student on the left exclaimed, "Wow!," as he covered the white clay with layers of color. The sculpture on the right is getting detailed with zebra stripes, for which the student was slowly and precisely working with their paint.
(Hover over photos for captions)
This student is drawn to adding a lot of paint and mixing color in all of their creations.
This student was thinking of animal prints to add to their creature. They thought for a moment, then the decision was made. Their imaginary creature would be striped like a zebra!
The finished products were many variations of imaginary creatures that had all different kinds of physical features, personality traits like funny and excited, hobbies like making art, and superpowers like the ability to fly. Students combined clay sculpting with paint and multimedia materials. The image on the left shows the final sculpture of an imaginary creature that is a giant with big eyes, a funny personality, and the ability to fly with its huge ears. They couldn't stop smiling at their creation after they decided to add the yellow feather to finish the creature. The student in righthand image created two sculptures and finished their project with a painting.
