E.Q.: How does working with traditional and iconic Art teach modern art students to appreciate another culture, while learning about symbolism and abstract design?
Aboriginal Art Lesson Plan – Dot Art
Aboriginal Art Lesson Plan – Dot Art is inspired by the indigenous peoples of Australia. Dot Art is a form of art usually done in acrylic paint to represent native tales of creation. The colors used are yellow, brown, red and white. These colors represent the sun, soil, red desert and the white clouds. The stories and images represented in the Dot Art style were made in a way to retain the secrets within the legends. Symbols were used to represent individual clan mysteries.
This Aboriginal Art Lesson Plan adapts the traditional and iconic aboriginal Dot Art to teach modern young students to appreciate another culture, while learning about symbolism and abstract design.
The students are expected to represent the symbols used by the Australian Aboriginal people in their art and to appreciate how they are used and the power of their communication. In this Art Lesson Plan the students are asked to personalize the style of the Aboriginal people. To represent themselves and their ideas with their own animal and perhaps their own myths.
Students are to choose an animal that represents themselves. Their animal can be chosen from a list of native spirit animals or from their own imaginations. A fun way for student to get inspired is to have them take an online test to find their spirit animal. This will help to vary the types of animals the student represent as a class.
The students draw a picture of their spirit animal in the center of their paper.
Using a paint brush, paint the design and the spirit animal using mostly earth tone colors.
Using wooden dowels (broken bamboo skewers), students paint dots along the lines of their design and their spirit animal. They should use contrasting paint colors that they have not used in their under painting.
Presentation and Grade: Students should present their finished painting to the class in a round table discussion group. They should be able to explain why they choose their animal and what their symbols represent.
A successful painting should have a pattern that uses the whole composition with lines going off the edge of the page, an explanation of their symbols, the appropriate use of warm earth colors and Dot Art techniques. A painting that goes above and beyond expectations would be a painting that has directional lines and symmetry. Discuss E.Q.
1. Draw examples of Aboriginal symbols in your sketchbook.
2. Rough draft idea for subject animal in sketchbook
3. Break up background into abstract shapes. Use colored pencil.
4. Incorporate 3 or more symbols into your design
5. Paint in flat color first, then add 3D dots in an all over fashion.