Lucky Leprechauns - Plasticine Art

Now that it's March I wanted to do a St. Patrick's Day themed activity. 

Normally around this time of year I do a little mini unit on illustrator Barbara Reid, whose amazing illustrations are made entirely of plasticine.  Unfortunately this term seems to have escaped me.  Due to mutiple skating sessions, holidays, special days in February (Valentine's day, 100 day, Chinese New Year, etc), illnesses and report cards, I only had the opportunty to read one book and show a few others before starting this activity.

Here are a few of Barbar Reid's books:

             

               

Here is how we did them:

1. Spread a thin layer of plasticine on your cardboard so that your pieces will easily stick to the board.

2. Take a small piece of flesh coloured plasticine and roll into a ball.  Then squishing between your palms, gently flatten like a pancake.  Use your fingers to carefully make the pancake thinner, retaining the round circular shape.

3. Lay the pancake on the prepared board and using a toothpick or skewer, trace the pancake gently into the background.

4. Remove the pancake.  Using the circle as a guide, roll and flatten down small orange balls of plasticine around the bottom of the circle, creating the beard. 



Ignore the green in this photo.  This was my practice one and I decided that adding the shoulders would be too difficult.



5. After the beard is finished, carefully lay the face down.  When you have it centered press it down a little to secure it.

6. Use green plasticine and create a "worm" that would create the brim of the hat.  Use more green to create a longer, skinnier worm to create the outline for the hat.  Use more green to fill in the rest of the hat.

7. Use small pieces of white, black and orange to create the rest of the facial features.

8. Use more black to create a ribbon for the hat.

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS' DAY!!!!!