Stencilled Underwater Scenes

Trace Stencils for an Underwater Composition in Microsoft Paint

Sep 12, 2007
Jo Murphy

Negative Shape of a Shark - Jo Murphy

Students will learn to scan shapes using stencils. They will be fashioned into an underwater composition in MSPaint.

This project will extend the way your students are able to use the programme MSPaint. By introducing another technology - stencilling - they are able to think in a very simple way whilst extending the boundaries and possibilities.

Materials

cardboard stencils of under water and water creatures
some scanners enough so that there will not be a bottleneck while waiting for their images
a computer per one or two students (management of class sizes)
MSPaint on each computer

Method

Buy some very cheap cardboard stencils from a Two Dollar Store. This way you will be able to afford two or three stencils per student and they will be small enough to fit two or three to a page.
Ask the students to trace around them on a sheet of A4 paper.
Ask them to darken the outlines very clearly with a black felt tipped pen
Teach them how to scan by demonstrating and have them scan until they are all capable.
Organise with them until they have their stencilled shapes in a folder on the computer
Because you are asking them to scan three shapes at a time, you will need to show them how to save the first page with the three images as the first resource page
Ask them to reopen and crop each stencil so that you have three stencils labelled 1,2 and 3
Now open MSPaint and create a new page for the drawing stage at its maximum capacity
Paste each stencil onto the drawing stage and position them so that they are in the appropriate place.

They can be:

swimming
on the sea floor
or floating
or hanging from the sealine as a jelly fish would
on the beach
on the bottom of a boat
on the end of a hook
through the window of a scuba vessel

Now that you have the basic shapes on the drawing stage have the students:

Colour the stencils
Ask them to put a lot of time and effort into giving the critters features. The students can choose to realism or they can make them into funny cartoon characters
When they have created their characters they may need to go back and rescue the outlines with the Paint Brush Tool
Once this has been done ask the students to create a back ground so that these sea critters have a context within which to swim
To compose the picture students may need to create seaweed or coral.
In the background the students might create a context by freehand copying the stencils so that they create a school of fish or a swarm of soldier crabs.

Once the work is finished have a

Silent Walk Around
Appreciative Dialogue
Sliding presentation in digital frame as a semi permanent exhibition in the office or front reception area of your community centre

The students will have learned these skills.