Subway Art, OPI Style!

 OPI Subway Art

Medium:  Watercolor

Technique: Line and Space

Reason for Lesson:  This lesson will give the students an opportunity to reflect back on their experience at OPI.  This lesson provides each student with a keepsake from their experience at OPI.

Prep Time:  10-15 minutes

Preparation prior to lesson:  Collect materials…liquid watercolors, 8 ½ x 11 paper watercolor paper (no bigger). Students use their own ruler, black sharpies, pencil and clean erasers.  

Class Time:  1 ½   to 2 hours because of the two steps involved in the project.  Having an assistant in the class to help with watercolors will expedite the process. 

Materials:  Liquid Watercolors (multiple colors), watercolor paper, cups for holding watercolor, rinse cups/containers, black sharpie pens, pencil, ruler and clean eraser.

Instructions to Lead Lesson: 

Step 1:Show students several samples of modern day ‘Subway’ Art.  As a class,  discuss the characteristics of the art.   Point out large and small type…closeness of lettering…difference in print type, etc.  Show samples of the artwork they’ll be creating.  Emphasize that their art will look different because their experience was different.

Step 2: With the focus on their experience at OPI, help the students brainstorm words that described their experience.  Break the ‘list’ into two parts…what they experienced and what they learned. Write these words on the white board or on the overhead so they can reference them as they create their art.

Step 3: Instruct the students to ensure their paper is positioned in the vertical direction (short side on the bottom/top, long side of paper on the sides).  Using a pencil have the students draw two light lines (using a ruler) approximately 2 1/2 to 3  inches from each other in the center or off center on the page.   Instruct the students to draw capital letters… O P I using their pencil. For those students not attending OPI they can use the word ECOSYSTEM.

Step 4:  Instruct the students to draw light lines, using their ruler and pencil coming off of the focal word OPI (see below).  Instruct the students to select words (from the brainstormed words... their own) and place it on the line printing neatly. Then instruct the students to repeat the lines (vertical or horizontal) adding words until the entire page is filled with these brainstormed words.

Step 5: After the page is completed in pencil, instruct the students to trace over the words using black sharpies.   Once done, have the students erase any noticeable pencil lines (see below). 

Step 6: The final step, wash the paper with diluted watercolor paint.  Set a station in the classroom or in a pod outside the classroom where they can ‘wash’ their artwork with watercolors.  Using multiple colors let the students have complete artist freedom to add their watercolor.  Make some suggestions to get them started (i.e., vertical rainbow of colors, horizontal rainbow of colors, light ‘controlled’ splattering of paint, etc). 

Use the concept of LESS IS MORE and tell the students they have 2 minutes to ‘wash’ their art then place it in a location where the art can dry.

IMPORTANT TIP: The kids want to spend so much time blending and adding too much watercolor so it’s important to emphasis limited time and the LESS IS MORE concept. 

Credit:  Developed by Art Docent using the concept of subway art.