Two Types of Taniwha
Today I stepped out of my art room and visited Manaia hub. It was fantastic to work in a different space, particularly a space that is so inviting and is filled with eager little artists! I worked with Kerry’s class of New Entrant students to learn about taniwha and create two artworks. Throughout the day we read picture books about taniwha and sung One Day a Taniwha with accompanying musical instruments.
The first piece of art was a variation on the pottery technique, sgraffito. Sgraffito means ‘to scratch’ in Italian. It is the process of adding glazes to pottery and then scratching them off to reveal contrasting colours, patterns and textures underneath.
The students prepared their work by colouring their paper with pastels, working hard to fill in the white spaces. Next they painted black acrylic paint over top. I like to add a drop of dishwashing liquid to the black paint to help it scratch off easier.
When the black paint was dry the students created their artwork of taniwha. They used the end of a paintbrush to scratch back the black paint to reveal the beautiful pastel colours underneath. I encouraged them to use line and pattern to show movement and emotion in their artworks.
The second artwork the students made was a tonne of fun to create! Using acrylic paints with junior students is one of my favourite things to teach. I love how uninhibited they are when presented with new paint techniques.
Today I taught the students how to mix colours to create tints. The students mixed two tints of their chosen base colour. They used the lighter one to paint the head of their taniwha and the darker tint for the body. They then added facial features and patterns using the original (untinted) colour plus black and white. The students had a fantastic time experimenting with the paint and I am so pleased with their colour mixing skills.
