To the letter!

To the letter! It was the end of the school year and my watercolor class, mostlymade up of seniors, was finishing up a big, time-consuming assignment.Several students were completely finished and were at loose ends, so Iencouraged them to play with a few of the watercolor techniques they hadlearned at the beginning of the semester. I emphasized that this was a wonderful opportunity to experimentwith this fantastic medium, without the pressure of an actualassignment, by taking some of our techniques and approaching them in atotally different way than we had previously. For instance, when Itaught the technique of a resist, ! focused on its use as a way of"saving" an area by keeping it white or lighter, eventually tobe used as a highlight. Now for experimentation purposes, this techniqueand others could be played with, experiencing them in, perhaps, anunlikely way. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] My classroom was in use throughout the day for other art courses,one of which was my Art Staff group. Art Staffers are a small group ofhandpicked students chosen for their artistic skills, attitude andwillingness to do art-related jobs within the school. They were oftenresponsible for creating posters, fliers, bulletin boards and the moreglamorous possibility of planning and painting a mural in the school.Every year, I would teach the new Art Staff (or have returning studentsteach the newcomers) how to use the Ellison, a machine that die-cutsletters, so we'd be able to keep up with the demand of helpingfaculty and staff create legible signage or titles for their displayareas. Depending on the size or font style A typeface variation (normal, bold, italic, bold italic). of the letters, we would precut pre��cut?adj.Cut into size or shape before being marketed, assembled, or used: precut fillet of fish; precut construction materials.tr.v. rectangles of colorful construction paper, and a couple of stafferswould then go to the second floor of the library where the Ellison washoused to die-cut the letters we needed for the job. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After a while, I started saving extra letters and even a few of therectangles with the letters' negative shapes missing, as they weresuch a graphic example of positive and negative space. Occasionally, wehad to glue the backs of the letters to adhere them to poster board ordisplay areas. These sticky letters became the basis for this spin-offactivity for my watercolorists! We already had the necessary materials in the classroom: severalhalf-sheets of student-quality watercolor paper, tube watercolors,leftover letters (some still sticky with rubber cement), anunderstanding of watercolor techniques, and the time to experiment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I also created a technique sheet that I divided into 10 sections,which included examples of resist, lifting, wet into wet, graded wash,spattering, salt, alcohol, drybrush, scratching into and wet on dry.Within each section I used an appropriate subject for each technique(e.g. tree bark for drybrush). I then had my example sheet laminated sothe color would forever be luminous and brilliant. Students could lookat the sheet for review or bring it to their desks when needed. Each ofmy beginning Art Introduction (2-D) students and my intermediatewatercolor students learned these techniques and created their owntechnique sheet. Some students began by laying down a wash and then arranged thedie-cut letters on top of the color. One girl lifted the damp letters,rearranged them and then applied another slightly darker wash/glaze ontop of her previous placement of the letters. Some left the paper whiteand started from there; some added salt to their applied wet paint;others used rubber cement to tack down the letters and, you guessed it,resisted subsequent watercolor washes. It was exciting, exhilarating, made use of our unused materials andreinforced our understanding of the techniques we'd learned, usingthem in an unconventional way. Since there wasn't an actual "expected" outcome, theprocess in this case was more important than the results, and was funand enlightening. This quirky spin-off underscored, once again, that artcan be created in the most unlikely ways, and that one need not alwaysstrictly follow the rules in creating their art. We played with color, salt, washes, resists and the letters,allowing ourselves to be unconcerned with the rules of watercolor. Wefelt a sense of freedom with this experience and the results areinteresting, very attractive, even liberating. It was a happy experiment, giving us another opportunity to beproductive and have a little fun being creative with our time andmaterials labor and materials (time and materials)n. what some builders or repair people contract to provide and be paid for, rather than a fixed price or a percentage of the costs. . MATERIALS * Student-quality watercolor paper * Watercolor tubes or trays * Kosher salt kosher saltn.A refined, coarse-grained salt with no additives.[From its use in making meat kosher by drawing out the blood.] * Rubbing alcohol rub��bing alcoholn.A mixture usually consisting of 70 percent isopropyl or absolute alcohol, applied externally to relieve muscle and joint pain. * Rubber cement * Brushes * Paper towels * Technique sheet as an example * Letters cut from construction paper from die-cut or by stencil stencil,cutout device of oiled or shellacked tough and resistant paper, thin metal, or other material used in applying paint, dye, or ink to reproduce its design or lettering upon a surface. * Water [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LEARNING OBJECTIVES High-school students will ... * experiment and play with watercolors. * stretch their skills by using techniques in an unconventionalway. * adapt to what doesn't have a predictable outcome. * think outside the box, At the time of this lesson, Geri Greenman was the art departmentchair at Willowbrook High School Willowbrook High School, or WBHS, is a public four-year high school located approximately half a mile North of Illinois Route 38 on Ardmore Ave in Villa Park, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. in Villa Park Villa Park,village (1990 pop. 22,253), Du Page co., NE Ill.; inc. 1914. It is a residential suburb W of Chicago. , Ill. She is now retiredand is a Contributing Editor A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. to Arts & Activities.