5th Grade Media Lesson

Our first field trip to the Blanton was on Friday, October 15th. The main idea of the lessons was artistic media - the specific materials and processes used by artists to create works of art. Before our field trip, students explored two different types of media in art class: pencil and watercolor. We discussed two artworks that had landscapes as subject matter, but were different in terms of media: one was an oil painting, and the other a print. After discussing the similarities and differences of the two landscapes, students looked at a photo of a small tree on our Zilker campus. They first drew the tree using only pencil, then painted the tree again using watercolor paints and brush. We then had a lively discussion about which medium each student liked best and why. This lesson set the stage for our first field trip that included a artwork media scavenger hunt as well as looking at different types of media in the museum's permanent collection.