LESSON PLAN Essential Information for Educators

Grade Level 9-12

Experimenting with Liquitex Professional Acrylic ink! The goal of this lesson is to help students overcome the fear that often accompanies working with ink. Instead of worrying about mistakes, students will learn to embrace spon-taneity and chance while working with this versatile medium. To reach this goal each student will create a series of four drawings using acrylic ink! as a medium. Students will utilize line, wash, color and other elements of art and principles of design to create gestural drawings that depict mood and atmosphere.

Possible Topics of Discussion 1. What are the differences that are noticeable in the use of ink by Eastern and Western con-temporary artists Tao Chi and Rembrandt van Rijn? 2. What similarities do you see in the work of each artist? 3. What possibilities do you have as modern artists that they did not possess? 4. How is value as an art element used differ-ently by each artist? 5. Describe how value, color and brushwork convey mood and movement.

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Rembrandt van Rijn, Young Woman Sleeping

Tao Chi, Bamboo and Plum Blossoms

Briefly discuss the history of ink

Approximately 5000 years ago, an ink for blacking the raised surfaces of pictures and texts carved in stone was developed in China. This early ink was a mixture of soot from pine smoke, lamp oil, and gelatin from animal skins and musk. Other early cultures also developed many colors of ink from available berries, plants and minerals. The India ink used in ancient India since at least the 4th century BC was called masi which was made of burnt bones, tar, pitch, and other substances. Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Chinese Turkestan. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink

Discuss the biographies of Rembrandt and Tao Chi

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669 Dutch baroque artist who ranks as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art. His full name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and he possessed a profound understanding of hu-man nature that was matched by a brilliant tech-nique- not only in painting but in drawing and etch-ing. His work made an enormous impact on his contemporaries and influenced the style of many later artists. Perhaps no painter has ever equaled Rembrandt's chiaroscuro effects or his bold im-pasto.For more information on the life of Rem-brandt visit: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/biographies/MainBiographies/R/rembrandt/2.html Tao Chi or Shih-T'ao, 1641–c. 1670, Chinese painter of the late Ming-early Ch'ing pe-riod. One of the major figures in 17th-century paint-ing. A descendant of the imperial Ming family, he escaped persecution from the invading Manchusby ( Manchu people) becoming a Buddhist monk with the name Tao-chi. Settling in Yangchow, he sev-ered his ties to the Buddhist church and became a professional painter and a landscape architect. For more information on the life of Tao Chi visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitao

Rembrand van Rijn, Study of a Lion

Tao Chi, Landscape

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This project will consist of sketchbook studies followed by four

drawings introducing students to artists who were Eastern and Western contempo-raries.

Step 1 Have students get used to brush & Liquitex Acrylic ink! by practicing mark-making. Without making a particular object they should attempt thick and thin marks, light and dark marks, straight and curving lines and washes from light to dark. See Figure 1 for example.

Step 2 Once comfortable, students will then prepare water-color paper by laying down a light wash of Liquitex Acrylic ink! in Transparent Raw Umber to allow for the use of white high-lights on top of this ground.

Step 3 While that is drying students can look up and print a larger version of the Tao Chi Image found in this plan or some-thing similar by another Chinese master. Students should start

with a very lightly and quickly drawn pencil sketch to aid with composition. Using only Carbon Black or Transparent Raw Umber they can begin their own copy of Tao’s image or another, not worrying about being exact but rather paying attention to tone, amount of ink! used and pressure of the brush to pro-duce thin or thick strokes. See Figure 2 for example.

Step 4 When completed students can begin their second drawing this time using colors of their choice. The goal is to complete a Tao-inspired image that expresses mood and atmosphere through opaque and transparent washes of varying color intensity. Students may choose to use photos as a ref-erence but should limit the imagery to a simple landscape composition similar in form to the first draw-ing. The third and fourth drawings should be made this time using Rembrandt for inspiration.

Step 5 Rather than copy Rembrandt’s images students should be required to make studies of seated friends and animals such as pets to be used as their subjects. The figure drawing should be made using only Carbon Black or Transparent Raw Umber with Titanium White for highlights while the colors in the animal drawing will once again be the students choice with emphasis again on mood and atmosphere.

PROJECT

Figure 2

Figu

re 1

National Content Standards Content Standard #1 Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes Content Standard #2 Using knowledge of structures and functions Contents Standard #3 Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas Contents Standard #4 Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Vocabulary List •Value •Wash •Opaque •Masi – Early name for ink •Color Intensity •Gestural •Composition •Chiaroscuro effects •Principles of Design •Ground •Sutra – distinct type of literary composition in Hin-duism •Jain or Jainism – One of the oldest religions that originated in India.

Materials List Liquitex Professional Acrylic ink! Titanium White Carbon Black Cerulean Blue Hue Naphthol Crimson Phthalocyanine Blue (Green Shade) Sap Green Permanent Transparent Raw Umber Yellow Medium Azo Iridescent Bright Gold Iridescent Bright Silver Iridescent Rich Copper Iridescent Rich Bronze

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS •140 lb. 11 x 14” Watercolor Paper •Variety of Synthetic Brushes •Containers for Water •Paper Towels •2H Pencils

Re-think acrylic ink Liquitex Professional Acrylic ink! is a range of 30 ex-tremely fluid acrylics that use super fine pigments sus-pended in a state-of-the-art acrylic emulsion. They dry quickly, are permanent, water resistant and non-clogging, which makes them ideal for a variety of tech-niques from watercolor to stamping.

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