This week, 3rd grade is starting their Amate Bark Paintings! This art form comes from Mexico, and the Otomi & Nahua people. They create the paper by hand, like their ancestors did long, long ago. Birds, animals, flowers, plants, and scenes from everyday life, make up the subject matter in their art, which is very bright and colorful! Here's how we created our own!
We create this project using:
9x12" Brown tru-ray construction paper
Sharpie markers
pencils
Crayola Oil Pastels
Day 1: Watch a short Power Point presentation about Amate bark painting, talk about the art, and practice drawing a bird and flowers with Mrs. Stacy
Day 2: Draw their final art on their brown paper. We typically draw with a pencil first, trace with a marker, on most of our art. After they trace, they'll crumple their paper up before they color with the oil pastels. I get them to crumple up their paper about 4 times. Don't let them crumple or unfold their too fast, or it will rip. I few tears around the edge are fine though, and are bound to happen.
After it's nice and wrinkled, they can start to color. I stress to them that they have to color dark, to cover up the brown spaces. I tell them we want this to look like we painted it!
After they finish coloring, they will trace with a black pastel.
Here's some awesome student art!
