Australian x-ray and dot style animals

All artwork done by 6th grade students with no previous art classes! class of 35 students for this group
(if you "Pin" please, please link back to this post or at least my website....)

The next part of our Australia unit was a x-ray style animal mixed media project. We once again looked at examples of x-ray style rock art and modern day Aboriginal style art that incorporates x-ray style. Last year I learned about the wonderful work of Australian children's author and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft (you can visit her website here). I try to get several of her books to show the kids how she uses Aboriginal symbols, dot painting and x-ray style to make modern day art. We particularly love her animal ABC book because of all the new animals we learn about.

Next students practice drawing 8 different Australian animals using some worksheets I got from a class years ago. The kids can also look at images from Bancroft's book and try to draw additional animals.

I have tried so many versions of this lesson over the last 8 years from scratch art to paint to oil pastel. With this years combo I am 90% happy and I think next year I will have finally settled on the official lesson.

The kids then choose the animal they want to draw for their final work of art and receive a square 12 inch by 12 inch sheet of light brown construction paper. They use a ruler to make a boarder and then in pencil draw a pattern in the boarder, their animal in the middle and two symbols that would correlate with that animal. So for the platypus above the student added the symbol for river and sun and the emu below has sun and the symbol for emu tracks.

Student's went over all pencil lines with black crayon or sharpie then colored their animal and symbols using colored pencils and paying attention to correct use of material to get vibrant color.

Next came the dotting. I asked the students to find 3/4 colors they used in their animal and symbols and dot around the animal using radiating lines of those colors. Practicing our doting in the previous lesson really helped with the quality of dots in this lesson.

Then came the boarder. I had the kids use black glue to outline the boarder and then set it to dry overnight. 

Then, and this is the part that I still don't love, I had the kids use chalk pastel in two or three colors to color in the boarders. While I think the colors turned out nice and the kids enjoyed using the chalk...even after spraying the colors smudged and started to get messy.  I still suspect that this is an side effect of the super junky chalk pastels I have.

Yet as I have mentioned before, chalk pastel is my least used media in my classroom so I don't want to waste any of my tinny budget buying nice sets. Next year I think I will simply have the kids use oil pastel instead of chalk.

This student convinced me to let her add two baby dingoes instead of two symbols

and this young man choose to draw a Numbat (yes that is a real animal) along with another type of small rodent who's name I don't remember.
 I'm quiet happy with the evolution of this lesson and the quality of artwork this year's student's produced.

Next up: this years Australia unit "wild card" lesson.

Australia dot style mini paintings

Time for 6th grade's yearly study of Australian Aboriginal art. We always learn about dot painting and x-ray style drawing and then throw in something a little different for fun. Last year we made the x-ray style stuffies...I'll post this year's wild card in a few days.  We start our unit learning a bit about the Aboriginal Dream time stories, symbols and dot painting. We talk about why Dream time stories and symbols differ from region to region and most are not to be shared with non Aboriginal people. We also talk about how traditionally dot paintings were not to be shared with non Aboriginals and look at how modern day Australian artists are creating dot paintings that do not revel sacred stories.

After our day of learning about Australian Aboriginal art we looked at a set of Aboriginal symbols and played matching and story building games...I got my set of symbols from a class I took but we also use this set from Aboriginal art online

and this set from this site http://www.aboriginalartshop.com/assets/Artlandish_Symbols_completed_-_footer2.jpg

After practicing using the symbols for storytelling each student chooses one to three symbols for their mini paintings that are about 3x5 inches and done on scrap matt board.

Students paint their matt board a solid base color with acrylic and set it to dry. When dry they sketch their symbol(s) and paint them in solid black.  Then using either the back of a crayon, the back of a paintbrush or the back or point of a bamboo skewer each student radiates the outline of their symbol in dots using a 2-3 colors.

Doing "mini" paintings makes these novel and keeps the kids from getting burnt out on dotting so the lesson gets done in two days instead of dragging on forever. Plus is gives the kids good dotting practice for their next x-ray and dot style animal lesson.

Great work from this year's group of 6th graders....I wish I had time to post all 35 of them !

x-ray style stuffies

Well I may not be posting much but my classroom is creating like crazy. Part of why I haven't posted is because I am in mourning  the loss of Picknik photo editing. I can not find a program I like as much, or find easy enough to use while also playing with my son. I am not pleased with the editing of these photos but they will have to do.

 So onto the project. During our Australia unit this year I wanted to try something different with x-ray and dot style art. I had the students do dot paintings and x-ray style animal drawings as always but then I wanted to see how our drawings would translate into 3-D. I gave the students several Australian animal shapes to choose from and taught them how to sew and embroider. They got really into this lesson and begged to work on them before school even started. Each student learned to straight stitch, back stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch, blanket stitch and some student's learned to make french knots. Other students used puffy paint to add the dot aspect of their design. These took quite a while and I didn't really find a good way to display them but the kids sure loved them and were very proud. Good work 6th grade!

5th grade Koru paintings

I found this lesson last December when looking for Australian/New Zealand art projects. I saw photos of these on the homepage of an elementary school in New Zealand and while there were no lesson plans I really thought they were beautiful. (In the year sense the original author of this lesson has put the project on kinder art here is her lesson) The label said they were Koru paintings. What the heck is a Koru I though. It turn out it is the Maori word for a baby fern, which represents new life and rebirth. Anyway I did my version of this on large 12"x14" paper and lead my students though a guided drawing of the Koru using the idea of parallel lines. ( I had my students do a small practice drawing first and look at photos of baby ferns). My 5th grade students had no problem with the DRAWING part. I had them draw some double lines inside their basic shapes to make the layers of design. Then I had students choose two to three colors plus white tempera paint. Students carefully painted in their drawings. The next class the students went over the pencil lines with black paint. I love how these turned out. In the photos these are accompanied by 4th grade dot paintings of aboriginal symbols.

aboriginal dot/scratch board animals

done by 6th -8th grade for our Australia unit

aboriginal dot animals

Several months ago I wrote about this lesson and about a month ago I did it with my 4-8th graders as part of their unit on Australian art. I now have some photos of 6th-8th grade samples.
I did a demo on making a snake, lizard or turtle shape using model magic. Students used a golf ball size of clay and choose their own animal. We let them dry over the weekend, then gave them a solid coat of acrylic craft paint, let dry overnight and then dot painted them with toothpicks. The results were very nice all around. I did ask students to dot in either a star, cross, horizontal, parallel or concentric circle pattern. This guideline helped produce a better finished project. Students were allowed to use any color of their choosing, however I have noticed this year they are starting to think about complementary and analogous color themes. Score one for me.



not sure why this keeps loading as a sideways image.

one of my advanced students

a "ridge back lizard" according to the 6th grade artist


darn you blogger! The "sister" turtles

done by one of my students with Auspburgers (sp) who really latched onto the Australian aboriginal symbology and did a lot of out of class research. I was very proud of him.

named "speedy" due to his racing stripes on his back.

Model magic made this a high success rate project. I've become a convert to the stuff. When working with the large number of 4th and 5th grade students model magic was a life saver. I no longer have to fire and glaze and fire the work. If a leg falls off you just glue it back on with Elmer's. Have a kid who is behind? Have them make it and paint it in just one sitting. At first I thought it was pricey, but when I figure in the cost of glaze and electricity for firing I think it works out to cost about the same as traditional clay projects. At least for smaller projects that is.

Australia Art ideas

great link to a all about Australia art worksheet
no here is a unit I have done many times before so I already have a bevy of projects.
1. "bark" paintings of Australian animal dot or x-ray style
2. dot painting with special symbols
3. x-ray prints or scratchcards of animals

New ideas:
1. dot painting ATC do three of the same symbol or 3 different. Be ready to trade two away!
2. boomerang with dot painting on it
3. clay tile and then draw a animal in the middle x-ray style and then dots around it with a pencil eraser
4. koru art
The koru is the Māori name given to the new unfurling fern frond and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori carving and tattoos.

the art works
use french curves, colleagued painted paper on the background and cut out black krou shapes on the top
younger kids all started with same basic design and added radiating outlines. choose two colors aside from white. in this example the "black" lines are drawn with chalk and then the color is done in oil pastel. then the chalk is brushed off and black ink is washed over it to color the lines black. done by kids in New Zealand
I think we will draw our design, paint it or oil pastel it in and then paint over the lines with black paint on a medium size brush.

from art projects for kids. I like this snake for the 2nd-3rd great for the x-ray style and pattern. will make s shaped template and then have each kid make their head and tail. will be done on black paper with colored pencils and maybe crayons.

TONS of samples of 4th grade and 8th grade examples of aboriginal art with a combo of dot and x-ray style. Done on black paper and I believe tempera paint.
younger kids. I like the idea of using fish, turtle and snake
our word for this unit will be Pattern and for big kids implied texture
hum...cave art should be color, tints and shade, neutral colors, monochromatic
India for sure will be shape...organic and geometric
whoo baby. superior example of 8th grade/early high school

this is a fun dot painting idea for the youngest ones. Dot painting on Emu eggs (large rocks)
These eggs (known as Rainbow Serpent eggs) were in evidence during most of the ritual ceremonies, of most groups throughout Australia. At times they were carefully stored in a secret place. They were accepted as being the eggs of the great Rainbow serpent, which had, in the Dreaming, assisted in the creation of all areas of Australia.
day one look at samples, choose a rock and paint it black with acrylic. day two paint thick lines or shapes let dry a few min then add white dots.

would't it be something to have the middle school students blow and paint their own egg. chicken egg of course. I'm sure this would never fly because of salmonella and such. I guess I could blow the eggs for them...but that would take forever.





lets not forget the hand prints that help the aborigines sign their work there is the kind of cheesy but ok for 2-3rd kids project

then a nice link to some photos of the real deal from the rocks and caves of Australia