Fourth grade studied the flag artwork of Jasper Johns and created their own version of encaustic artwork with a sense of identity.
This project was done in two parts:
Step 1
The students cut out words from magazines that described themselves and collaged them onto white paper. They then added a white wash over the collage so that we could still read the words, but everything was unified by the white.
Step 2
Next, the students used a sheet of fine grit sandpaper and drew a flag in reverse. They were to leave the white stripes uncolored. I didn't require them to draw stars because of the melting process in the next step.
Once the students layered up enough color on the newspaper, I flipped their sandpaper upside down on top of their white-washed collages and pressed a hot iron to the back of the sandpaper. The crayon melted onto the collage to create a very textured flag.
Make sure that you use a fine grit sandpaper because we found the a courser grit won't release the melted crayon when heated.
