http://artasticartists.blogspot.com/2011/03/going-greek-scratch-into-history-with.html

3rd graders are moving on in history and reached Greek and Roman art. We learned all about Black Figure Scriffito Greek pottery. We discovered these Black Figure vases/pots come different shapes and each shape had a certain purpose for what it held. By clicking on the link above you can see the past post on this.

Roman Columns, Coins, Mosaics, Oh my!

3rd grade is studying ancient art history in ancient Roman times! We learned about temple architecture, mosics and ancient ruler coins....all in one day....maybe Rome WAS built in a day (joking about the saying , "Rome wasn't built in a day" har har har). I made some hand outs with labeled architecture including parts of a temple and then detailed and labeled. It also had at the bottom easy picture/step by step directions for what to draw with pencil and then trace over with permanent sharpies.
I cut pieces of poster board, and black construction paper strips and had bought mosic paper squares. Students spaced out the two black strips and glued them down and then began looking at the step by step drawing details at the bottom of the worksheet. Then they traced over the pencil with marker and simply glued in mosaics. Before we dug into our projects I showed visuals and explained the history behind these artifacts and artforms.



yes yes, I know I spelled 'column' wrong! whoops!



ancient Roman coin and ruler Julius Caesar



'Roma' is Italian for the city of  Rome



Then when students were finished with their Roman Ionic mosaic columns, they could design a Roman Coin. I had bought some tooling foil and cut it into many small squares. Using a sharp pencil, wooden stylus, or toothpick, you can easy push into and draw a roman ruler's head and decorate the edges with pattern, line or olive branches. I used a sharp pencil. To have raised designs seen better, I recommend brushing the whole top of the coin with black acrylic or tempera paint, let dry and take a paper towel and lightly brush off the paint to reveal that the black paint has sunken in the relief areas where you've drawn to show detail. Cut out around the coin's round edge (tooling foil is soft gauge metal easily cut) .Then glue coin or coins down on a sheet of white paper for safe keeping and display.

Going GREEK! Scratch into history with Greek Vases/Pots

Miss Oetken's scratchtastic Greek Vase with Achilles from Greek Mythology

We've moved on in our art history time line to Greek and Roman art and we're concentrating on Black Figure Greek pots and vases! We learned about some of the popular basic shapes of pottery and their functions for what they were used for back in Greek and Roman times. I made two types of hand outs and worksheets for students. One that explained the basic shape of the popular vases we were looking at and another that show different examples of popular patterns found on Greek pottery. I also found the link to this website (http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm ) a wonderful tool for showing students via projector the types of pottery that existed, how it was made, and ancient history. They also had amazing, easy, and fun printable worksheets I photocopied on the back of the 'how to draw vases' hand out! I also explained that they would apply pigmented/colored slips to decorate with pattern and to create scenes of daily life events or scences from greek mythology. They would also use a 'sgrafitto' 'SCRah-Feet-oh' or scratch with a fine sharp tool to draw detail in the painted on slip. We also learned what 'slip' was, clay mixed with water and minerals to color it. We also wanted to scratch into art history so we made our own scratch board vases to draw into.

I painted my vase with  black acrylic paint after I
 colored it in and coated it with warm colored oil pastels.
Ready to scratch a design into!



Example of an ancient Greek Black figure Hydra vase

We also talked how important patterns were in the culture and the process of making the vase and looked at where it was usually applied, around the neck, handles, and base of the vase. 

Our first step after drawing the vase/pot was to choose a warm colors or cool colors oil pastels and totally COAT the entire vase, pressing hard. If you don't, the black paint will stick and absorb to those areas and won't easily be scratched away. 

Then after oil pastel fully colored and coated the entire vase, I had students use black acrylic paint to paint over wherever they colored in oil pastel. Next time it would be ready for scratching!



We used paper clip ends and wooden styluses to scratch away gently into vases and just remove the black paint exposing the colored oil pastel underneath.

Check out some of the finished products!

Greek Mythology scene

scenes from daily life from our civilization for another civilization to discover!

Soldiers resting

Popular patterns

soldiers in battle