Visual Arts: Fish and Sea Creatures
Description of activity
Students create an artwork depicting an underwater scene.
- Students create their own underwater scene using some of the techniques and the effects used when creating the class mural. For example, water and movement of the sea can be represented using foam rollers, sponges, paint and ink washes and different colours, lines, shapes and patterns.
- They can collect shells and trace over these using crayons, inks, or watercolours. Students can cut these out and add them to their scene.
- Students select different fish shapes and draw/trace these onto foamboard. They press firmly onto the foamboard with a pen to create line and pattern details. Using a roller and ink they print fish shapes, let these dry, cut them out and add them to their underwater scene, considering the arrangement and scale.
- Students consider their artwork and add any further details to their underwater scene.
Suggested materials
Wild, Margaret, There’s a Sea in My Bedroom
illustrations of the sea and sea creatures, paper, cardboard, crayons, paint, brushes, sponges, combs, foam rollers, textas
Prior learning
The students have observed a variety of artworks of water and seascapes. They have discussed the colours and techniques the artists used to depict the movement of water and the qualities of the sea. The students have also read There’s a Sea in My Bedroom by Margaret Wild and discussed the story and illustrations by Jane Tanner. They have discussed the sights, sounds and smells of the sea, and described how the surfaces would feel. The students have observed a variety of tropical fish and have been guided in how to make large drawings or paintings of sea creatures, considering their shape, colour and repetition of lines. They have experimented with using wax crayons, inks and paints. The students have created a class mural based on the sea.
Board of Studies NSW, Creative Arts K–6 Units of Work, pp 20–25
Outcomes
Making (VAS1.1)
Makes artworks in a particular way about experiences of real and imaginary things.
Making (VAS1.2)
Uses the forms to make artworks according to varying requirements.
Criteria for assessing learning
Students will be assessed on their:
- experimentation with the properties of different drawing and painting materials and techniques in an attempt to capture likenesses of sea creatures in an underwater scene
- representation of the features of sea creatures and underwater life (eg fins, eyes, patterns, stripes, gills, scales) using line, scale, repetition, shape and colour