Designing with Teenagers

I’ve just started teaching an 8 week after-school art class to a group of teenagers.  We’ll be making glued fabric collages and also learning about some basic art principles.

Last week, I did a kick-off Show and Tell with an interactive demonstration.  Beforehand, I QUICKLY prepared a small background composition, with just sky and grass.  To make it portable, I worked on one of my travel (i.e. small) black design walls.  This is what it looked like when I took it in. 

Click on any image for a larger view2-Design-board-before-demo

(I was very happy with my quick sky, but I could see the grass would need some reworking.  No worries.  It suited my purposes.)

The students helped me make decisions about the addition of the first few pieces – only about 8 of them.

2-design-board-after-demo

I was quite happy with this start.  Those rough cut red/orange fabrics were definitely showing promise as flowers, and I think it was a good start to the composition.

But, I HAD to work on the grass.  It was a little awkward to work on a portable design wall, since I had it propped on a table.  This was my set up as I auditioned better grass fabrics.

2-design-board-in-studio---

I got rid of some of the darker and muddier fabrics, as well as some of the VERY yellowy greens.  Plus, I added some more high contrast fabrics and interesting patterns.  As you can see, I referenced two earlier pieces with grass in them.

And this is what it looks like now, with (I think ) all pieces pinned in place.  I’m very happy with it.

2-composition-complete

 

When stitching the flowers I’ll use black thread and turn them into poppies.  But it’ll be a while before I get to that:  I’ve got to plan next week’s lesson!

Ellen Lindner

Learn more about my collage process

4 Comments

  1. Chris says:

    That sound like fun teaching teenagers! Better you than me. Nice explanation of how you made different fabric choices.
    Chris

  2. ellen says:

    Hi Chris. It IS fun! (Although I had my doubts after the first two classes.) Now, we’re settling in though and I think it’s going to work out well.

    Also, I’m gaining a new respect for all the prep work that art teachers (and all teachers) do!

  3. Yoka says:

    Love your flower collage and you used such interesting fabrics. The sky is alive and it all blends so nice. Hope soon after more surgery that I will be able to do that too. Am still seeing double with my one eye. Am not giving up . Thank you for sharing how you made it. Love your work. Yoka

  4. ellen says:

    Thanks, Yoka, for your compliments and for noticing all the details. It IS fun to include a wide variety of fabrics and prints!

    I hope you’ll soon be back to creating quilts!