WEBELOS

Artist

Northwest Suburban Council

Ideas For Den Meetings:

1. Attend an art exhibit or visit a museum.

2. Hold an "Art Can Be Pun" night.

3. Have each boy prepare a color scheme for his own room.

4. Make drawings from nature - birds, animals, flowers, trees.

5. Start simple sculptures to be finished at home.

6. Study a color wheel and practice combining paints.

Ideas For Pack Meeting:

Exhibit: Drawings, painting, designs, mobiles.

Demonstrate: Mixing paints; beginning a sculpture; making a mobile.

Project Ideas:

Artist Badge Helps

It is suggested that you obtain some inexpensive water colors with brush included (K-Mart, Grand Central, Skaggs, etc.).  These will be easy for the boys to use, and will not create the hazard to clothes that other forms of paint might.  If you decide to use the string art for your design segment, you will need:

Hammer, small nails or brads, scrap wood, felt; colored thread.

For sculpturing, purchase the oil-base modeling clay, which will not dry out.

A simple construction consists of collected "garbage," from around the yard, put together to form a collage.

For this, you will need:

1/2 size poster paper, Elmer's glue; scissors.

For your mobile, you might use plastic straws as the supporting bars.

For the original painting, you might like to try water color blot pictures, made by folding a paper in 1/2, opening it out and applying small dots of paint, then quickly folding the paper and smoothing it together from the center out, then opening it up to dry. This could become a main object, or background for a pen or pencil line sketch.

LEAF SCAPES

Using leaves, paint and your pen or pencil, you can make an interesting landscape.

Diversification of leaf form is the key to the basic formation of these designs. Select many leaves and press until partially dry.  Place on a sheet of construction paper until the design and pattern fits the individual taste and need.

Hold various leaves in place with a straight pin. Lightly spray with various colors as your own individual creativity dictates.  Remove leaves that have provided a stencil effect for the leaf scapes. Additional artistic effects may be obtained by using a brush or pen and appropriate colors.  Mount and frame as desired.

This activity would be a good way to study complimentary colors or shading and blending from the color wheel.  It is also a way to make a design using both straight and curved lines.  Press and dry many leaves of various species of trees.  (Leaves can be dried between sheets of wax paper, weighted down with heavy books.)  These leaves are carefully glued to construction paper and are again pressed to insure their adhesion to the paper.  As leaves dry, their colors are frequently lost.  To bring back some of nature's greatness, the leaves are retouched with water color to resemble their natural state.  Or you can use the spray paint technique discussed on the previous page.  Add your originality and personal ideas for enhancement.

Heart of America Council

The Artist activity badge can be a fun and exciting experience for the boys. It is not designed to make him an artist, but to introduce him to some of the many different skills used by artists of all kinds and to help him understand how an artist works and what he is trying to express.  For many people art is a vocation, the way they make their living.  For others it is a recreational activity which may develop into a lifelong hobby.

Den Activities

·         Invite an art teacher to talk about the basics of art and answer questions about the re-quirements.

·         Visit an art museum or design layout shop._ Talk about design.

·         Try modeling clay.

·         Make mobiles.

·         Have an art show.

·         Make frames.

Slippery Finger Paint

Put on old clothes and cover your worktable well with old newspapers when you try this colorful project.

Materials:

1 envelope of flavored gelatin

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 cups hot water

A small bowl

A large spoon

A stove

Powdered or liquid clothing dye (if liquid dye is used, increase cornstarch to 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup cold water

3/4 cup cold water

1/2 cup mild soap flakes or detergent

A medium-size saucepan

Heavy paper to paint on (You might also use old bowls or jars.)

1. In a small bowl, soak gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water.  In saucepan, combine cornstarch and 3/4 cup cold water.  Stir 2 cups hot water into starch mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly till mixture comes to a boil.

2. When mixture becomes smooth and creamy-looking, remove from heat.  Blend in softened gelatin.  Add soap flakes or detergent and stir until mixture is thoroughly dissolved.

3. If you want different colors of paint, divide mixture into portions in jars or bowls before you add dyes.

4. Stir in about a teaspoon powdered dye or a tablespoon liquid dye for each cup of mixture.  Paint should be cooled before you use it.

5. Rub, smudge, or blend paint on paper.  To keep paper from curling, weigh edges down

while paint dries.

Rubbings

To make a rubbing, just place a piece of paper over any hard, raised surface and color over it.  Whenever it is possible, use masking tape to hold the paper in place while rubbing.

Another rubbing technique is done with aluminum foil.  Just place the foil over the particular object and press and mold the foil with your hand.  Some objects you can use for this technique are:

Wrought iron trivets

Bells

Coins

Jewelry

But regardless of which technique you decide to use (you may even want to experiment with both kinds), you will have fun!

Wire Sculpture Action People

Your boys will love this intricate but engrossing art project.  They can fill the hours spent inside on a rainy day creating a wire sculpture of a favorite sports figure or memorializing a treasured family member or activity.

Materials:

Old magazines

Telephone wire (or any flexible wire)

Cardboard base

Stapler

1. Look through the magazines for pictures of people in action.  (Examples: playing tennis, dancing,  running.)

2. Choose a picture to use as a model for a wire sculpture.

3. Form the head, body, and legs with long lengths of telephone wire in-groups of two to four strands.  Add arms and props such as a tennis racquet, bat, or baby.

4. Staple the figure onto the cardboard base.

Games

Motion Pictures

Everyone stands in one long row.  Give a piece of paper and a marker to each player.  The player holds his paper on the back of the person in front of him.  Explain that they are to draw a picture as soon as the music starts.  Have everyone draw the same thing (such as a horse, elephant, pig, etc.).  A leader stands at the front of the row and when music starts, he leads the group “Conga” style dancing around the room. (drawing begins.)  When the music stops, compare pictures.  The one most recognizable wins.