BAD hair day

It seems like many classes have been painting lately. We talk a lot about the projects and color choices etc... but I have a few terms/techniques I like to use to help my students learn about taking care of our materials. First, water tubs are called "Hot tubs" and we fill them half full of cold water.  This hopefully prevents overflowing waters and most spills.  When we paint we try and do Five laps around the hot tub and carefully wipe our brushes. We don't knock them on the side or we will splatter water dots on our friend's artwork.  Now brush care has always been a problem. I talk about the gentle way we should treat our brushes by painting on the top of my hand softly as if petting a baby chick. This is a good reminder that I am just demonstrating and we DO NOT paint on our hands (seems like there is one in every class) Also, we don't smash our brushes into the paint...we are gentle so our brushes don't have a BAD HAIR DAY!  I'd love to hear any other tips.

Comments

  1. Ms NovakJanuary 8, 2012 at 5:34 PM

    I always tell them to "tickle" the paint -- this helps with the little kids especially.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mrs. FritzJanuary 9, 2012 at 4:21 PM

    I tell them no "chicken foot" brushes. It's a funny name, but they remember it well with minimal reminders.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PhylJanuary 9, 2012 at 6:44 PM

    I have the Mr. Brush posters (from Royal's "big kid" paintbrushes). The posters were handed out by a distributor at my state conference, and the kids think they are great. One deals with brush care (don't chew on my handle, etc..) and one has his whole family and introduces flats, filberts, rounds, fans etc.

    I have these oval sponges that we call the "ugly sponges". We use them to wipe excess paint or water off brushes. It helps keep the water clean. So my mantra is "wipe, wash, wipe" and it works quite well. We also talk about using a brush like petting a kitten. It's not a good idea to pet it in the wrong direction or ruffle its fur or it might scratch or bite!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2012 at 3:23 PM

    Don't you love this sharing of knowledge. I used the "Tickle" the paint yesterday and Chicken foot today. Phyl, how do you keep them from using the sponges to wipe the tables? My students are sponge crazy and love to squeeze the water out

    ReplyDelete
  5. ArtMuseJanuary 11, 2012 at 6:32 PM

    Your brush picture had me laughing out loud! I have about 600 students and I'm swamped so I have no idea how you teach almost double that! Great blog, I'm glad I found it :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. PaintedpaperFebruary 5, 2012 at 10:40 AM

    I say "pet" the dog or cat. Gently go back and forth! :)

    ReplyDelete

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