Mr. MintArt: Blacklight projects

Friday, December 5, 2014

Blacklight projects

Again, the sun has gone down in my lassroom, and time for some night time fun. 8 four ft. bulbs are illuminating my students radial designs.

Get a square paper and fold from corners and sides to find center.

Use ruler to go over the fold lines.

Use a compass to draw a large circle.

The grid formed will aid in repeatedly tracing using the French curves.

Pick a French curve and a location.

Draw the center x or the circle x on the tool. You also need at least one line as reference.

Copy section.

Move the tool to the next position and realign the marks to the next location.

Copy section. If there is overlap or missing section, adjust.

Continue until it is repeated 8 times.

Repeat the process with different French curves until paper has a completed radial design.

Paint.

Blacklight Unit ( 2007)

Materials:

Fluorescent fixtures ($10 at Wal-Mart suggest getting 2)

Blacklight bulbs (4ft ones at WM cost $12 each. For two fixtures, need 4 bulbs)

Highlighters

White colored Pencils

Reams of colored office paper (they end up nonreactive to UV light)

Ream of yellow/goldenrod office paper

Reams of regular office paper (they are reactive)

Fluorescent paints (can now get from many art suppliers like Blick)

Pens

Day one.

Review classroom expectations.

Turn on backlights and let the students explore and look at their belongings.

Talk about blacklight properties, wavelengths, (science component) etc.

Studio- Invisible Drawing

Pass out drawing paper that is reactive to the light. Pass out white colored pencils and students draw on the glowing paper. The white colored pencils show up dark on the glowing paper. Turn off the blacklight and on the regular lights. The drawing disappears!

Highlighter drawings

Have any students who have highlighters bring them out. Trade out the paper for one that does not glow in blacklight…. Draw with highlighters to get a neon sign effect… students really like this one.

Day two

Keith Haring Installation

Discuss his life briefly, his short career and his estate being worth 25 million dollars at his death in 1990. He did an installation in 1982 at a gallery using blacklight paints. Show image. Distribute the small packet that has 10 of his artworks. Each student pick one and draw it using highlighters on non reactive paper… put on the walls to make an installation of his work. Any time remaining allow students to draw their own work on the paper using highlighters.

Day three

Highlighter Tattoos

You can try Highlighter tattoos. On most skin, the tattoo will blend in with skin tone in regular light, as long as you only use yellow. 5-10 Minutes.

Before and after drawings

Have students brainstorm over different situations that would best be described with two pictures, such as Bruce Wayne turning into Batman, or leaves on then falling off a tree, day vs. night, etc. They should pick one scenario, and on goldenrod office paper, draw the first scene in pen in regular light. Then, when all are finished, turn the black light on, and the second drawing is made directly on top of the first using yellow highlighter. In the regular light the yellow highlighter is hard to see, and in the blacklight, the pen is hard to see. Talk about filling up all the space with loose crosshatching or objects. This masks the highlighter drawing better. Do not completely darken any areas, since the highlighter will not work on that. When all are finished, turn on the lights and pass the paper to a neighbor. Turn on the blacklight and the image will change! Turn on the regular lights again and the blacklight off, and pass papers again... Repeat until everyone has seen everyone else’s drawing.

Day four, five

Prep day for glow in the dark radial designs. Hand out non-reactive paper and have students create a simple radial design using pencil. By folding the paper it is easy to recreate exact copies by rubbing the back and transferring the image across. When all are done, pass out the fluorescent paint and paint in the designs. Hang in the room for display.

Before and after Project NAME_____________________________

Pick one before and after set from below, or pick your own before and after pictures that you think would work well as a picture. Draw “Thumbnail sketches”, sketches that are smaller and thus quicker and easier to plan out how the drawings of before and after should look.

BEFORE AND AFTER LIST

Driving/ crash

Riding bike or skateboard/ crash

Spiderman swinging/ landing on a building

Clark Kent/ superman

Bruce Wayne/ Batman

Bruce Banner/ Hulk

Lake/ Lock Ness or Swampthing shows up

Man turning into Wolfman

Dracula turn into bat

Cake, cake gone

Apple, apple core