Paolo Uccello lived from 1396 or 1397 to December 10, 1475 in Florence, Italy. There is very little biographical information about his early life; but we do know that his father was a barber and sugeon. (Historically, it was common to mix these two professions.) His mother was nobility and was born in Florence. Uccello is actually a nickname, which references his love of painting birds (it translates loosely as “Paul of the birds”).

He apprenticed under the master sculpture Ghiberti (whom we studied a few years ago!) You can see Ghibetri’s style of storytelling within a work reflected in Uccello’s art. Uccello’s work falls into the Late Gothic movement. However he emphasized color and pageantry rather than classical realism, which was the focus at the time. He loved painting animals. While the bulk of art at this time was commissioned for the Catholic Church to decorate cathedrals; he did get to create several pieces featuring animals (which he was passionate about) for the Medici family (who were the ruling noble family at the time.) His most notable contribution to art was his passion for perspective. He wrote extensively about vanishing points and foreshortening. At this time in art, size was used to note importance rather than actual physical scale. A fellow artist commented in his journal that Paolo was known to stay up all night looking for the vanishing point in a scene. His work did not always look natural, but had a meticulously calculated, almost draftsman-like feel. He was also a scientist, as many painters were in 1400 and 1500s. He is reported to have said that he wanted to create a scene through scientifically structured space; and “if the scene ended up looking less natural or unrealistic, so much the worse for nature and history.” (this is a disputed quote, but definitely gives a feel for Uccello’s beliefs.

He also was a master of creating multi-figure, elaborate scenes that tell a story. His most famous work was a series of three murals to depict the battle of San Romano. He had a successful career and was sought after for commissions for civic and religious pieces during his lifetime. As he got older and his eyesight failed, he struggled financially, eventually passing away of old-age related ailments around 79 years old. His influence changed art dramatically, especially concerning perspective. Many famous artists were highly influenced by him, including Leonardo DaVinci.

Today we will create our own multifigure works to tell a story.

1. First you need to think about what story you want to tell. Think about how you can show what happened in one scene.

2. Take a look at the picture with the perspective lines drawn in. Show the students the vanishing point and explain how you can show that things are farther away by drawing them smaller as the get closer to the vanishing point.

**For third grade and above, include step 3. For younger students, omit the perspective work.**
3. Ask the students to pick a horizon line (where the sky meets the ground) and lightly draw it on the paper. Choose where you want the vanishing point to be and make a little dot there. Any larger structures, roads, etc. will get smaller as they go back to the horizon line. You can easily find which way to show the receding sides of a structure, by lightly drawing in those lines with a ruler. (See the video for a better explanation of this.) ie. The receding sides of a house will fall within the ruler lines.

4. Use the colored to put in the details of the scene, then use the chalk over the top to fill in larger areas and create highlights and shadows where desired.

Mark Rothko was born on September 25, 1903 in what is Latvia today (then it was part of the Russian Empire). His family immigrated to Portland, Oregon in 1913 when Mark was 10 years old. His father was a pharmacist and passionate about education. While he excelled, Mark tended to chaff under the strictures of educational life. He dropped out after his sophomore year at Yale and went to work in New York in a garment factory. While visiting a friend, he saw a group of students sketching and was immediately intrigued. Luckily, New York was the perfect place to begin his study. Rothko saw art as a tool of emotional and religious expression. His early work was often moody and dark and he enjoyed moderately success. He taught to supplement his income and continued to teach throughout his career.

As he gained experience, Rothko began to move away from figurative painting (with a recognizable subject.) Rather than painting a picture of a thing, he tried to create a purely emotional experience with each painting. Rothko was very intense about the spiritual aspect of his paintings; for him as the artist as well as for the viewer. He used color as a tool to convey emotion and felt what he was trying to convey was more than words could describe. He said they contained a “breath of life” he found lacking in most figurative painting of the era.

Rothko’s method was to apply a thin layer of binder mixed with pigment directly onto uncoated canvas and to paint very thinned oil paint directly onto this layer, creating a dense mixture of overlapping colors he called multiforms. The drama is created not in the scene portrayed, but in the colors and textures. When describing his work, Rothko said “This isn’t painting about nothing, it’s painting about everything.”

As he became more famous, he felt more isolated, frustrated that many critics and viewers didn’t understand his intentions. He hated thinking of his art as merely decorative. He wanted to the viewer to immerse themselves in the experience, to focus closely on one piece and become part of it. Later in his life, he began work on a chapel where people could come and do exactly that. Unfortunately, declining health and crippling depression led to his death before the chapel was completed. However, the building is still a place where people can come and meditate and experience in a personal way.

Today we will experiment with color like Mark Rothko did!
1. Use the tape to create different color field areas on your watercolor paper.
2. Try some different techniques to blend colors and create interesting texture in the different fields of your mutliform painting.
Wet on wet: Get your brush very wet and lay down a layer of one color. Now load a different color onto your brush and lightly touch your brush into the first color. (This usually works best if you stick to similar colors. There is a color wheel on the art cart. Show it to the students and point out the warm colors and cool colors. Ask the students to look at the Rothko paintings again, notice how he mixes fiery reds with bright yellows and cool blues and moody plums and purples. These colors, while different will harmonize with each other.)
Dry brushing: lay down a field of color and move to another area to give it time to dry. Next load your brush with color, but keep it dry. Do not get too much water on the brush. Use firm quick strokes to lay down a more jagged textured brush stroke.
Salt: Load your brush with a lot of water and paint and lay it down on the paper, then sprinkle with salt and leave it to dry overnight. When you brush the salt away, it will leave kind of a sandy texture.
Lifting: After laying down a section of color, you can take the cling wrap and wad it up a little, gently press it into the paint and pull it up to create ridges of color in the field.
3. When your painting is dry, you can carefully remove the tape. Make sure to lift slowly so that it doesn’t tear the paper.

*Because watercolor paper is expensive, please encourage the students to only use one piece of paper. I like to let students know that this is the same artist quality paper that professional water color artists use.

*Remind students that they can control the saturation of the paint by wetting the brush and either swirling the brush in the paint for just a little bit or for a longer time.

James Audubon was born on April 26, 1785 on a sugarcane plantation in a French province in Haiti. His mother died only a few month after his birth and he was raised for his first few years by the housekeeper. In 1791, his father moved back to France to escape the unrest of the slave situation in the Caribbean. From an early age, James had a passionate love of birds. His father wrote of him “He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons.”

When he was eighteen years old, Audubon boarded a ship for America to escape being conscripted into the Napoleonic Wars. He described New England as paradise; loving to spend his time wandering in the woods, hunting, drawing and observing the wildlife. It was this careful observation that gave his drawings a photo-realistic quality. During these early years in New England, he met and eventually married Lucy Bakewell, who loved to explore and shared many of the same interests. During this time, he honed his artistic skills as well as learning how to collect specimens and taxidermy. He studied the patterns and habits of various birds and other wildlife and eventually opened his own museum with preserved animals set in natural scenes. James and Lucy moved all over the country, often just barely scraping by financially as James chased his dream of compiling a complete anthology which he titled “The birds of America”. Along the way, he painted portraits and had a succession of different jobs. Lucy was a trained teacher and became the family’s more stable provider. After 14 years of fieldwork and with Lucy’s support, Audubon took his work to England where he was enthusiastically received and able to publish a his work with 435 hand colored plates depicting over 700 species of birds, with pages that measured an impressive 2×3 feet in size. The English press dubbed him “the American Woodsman”.

Audubon’s techniques for painting birds was radically different from common practices at the time. He would first hunt a specimen, killing it with fine shot. Then spend hours preserving and posing it with wire in a natural position. Then he would paint, with layers of watercolor and sometimes gauche or oil paint and pastels. The resulting natural pictures were much more exciting than the typically stiff posed pieces that were common at that time. His “Birds of America” book featured life size birds, with large species crouched onto a page and small ones shown in multiples on a branch or in a natural scene. This gave the reader an intimate feel for what the bird really looked like. James Audubon continued to explore up until he was in his eighties. He died of natural causes on January 27, 1851 at his home in New York.

Today we will use Audubon’s realistic style to create our own natural scenes. Use some of the large paper to create individual pieces. Each child will also receive their own “Field book” which they can keep in their pocket and sketch things they find when they are exploring outside this summer. If they would like to, they can draw in them now or save them for later. Ask students to use the colored pencils to give more detail and interest to their work. Remind them to carefully observe the details in Audubon’s paintings and record them in their own piece.

Louise Berliawsky Nevelson was born on September 23, 1899 in what is now Ukraine. Her family immigrated to the United States, settling in Maine when she was six. Her father was a woodcutter and owned a lumberyard. This influence is definitely seen her heavy use of wood in her sculptures. Though her family flourished and was financially successful within a decade, there was a strong prejudice against Jewish immigrants in the community and life wasn’t perfect. Her Mother struggled with severe depression. Perhaps as a cure or compensation, her Mother would dress herself and her daughters in ornate costume like dresses and heavy makeup that belonged in an old world palace more than everyday Maine. Again, this influence would show up in her life.

At age nine, she saw a plaster cast of Joan of Arc in the public library and “was entranced by it.” Soon after, she decided to study art. In high school, she painted and drew. Soon after high school she married Charles Nevelson, a wealthy ship-owner. He was supportive of her artistic pursuits, but only to a limit. She felt stifled in the conservative upper class society and ultimately left Charles to study art in Germany.

Louise was strongly influenced by the cubists, especially Picasso; as well as Native American and Mayan art. She called herself “the original recycler.” She often combed the streets of New York for debris; such as a broken chair leg, pieces of wood or railings and tin cans, which were arranged into “Assemblage boxes” (Assemblage means that you create or assemble the art from objects found in everyday life.) She then spray painted them a single color so that the item’s identity was lost and only the form was visible. Pieces of wood and random garbage became sunflowers and dancing girls.

Nevelson felt that color was a vital aspect of art. She had three phases of color for her sculpture. The first and biggest was black, which she described as the “total color” that “it contains all color. It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors; black is the most aristocratic color of all.” In the 1960s she began incorporating white and gold into her works. Nevelson said that white was the color that “summoned the early morning and emotional promise.” She described her gold phase as the “baroque phase”, inspired by the idea being told as a child that America’s streets would be “paved with gold” Her installations were created with highly detailed boxes that could be assembled then taken apart to create a new piece of art.

Her works often explored her difficult past and the tumultuous times of the 1960s and 70s. As well feminism. The bride is a frequent symbol in her work, which she said represented her escape from the expectation to marry and have children. She also cultivated a distinct and eccentric public persona with flamboyant outfits. Although she was a key figure in the feminist movement, she said “I’m not a feminist. I’m an artist who happens to be a woman.” Nevelson died of natural causes at age 87 on April 17, 1988.

Today we will make our own assemblage boxes. Use the box as a base and up to 3 charms, gears or cutouts and as much dried pasta as you’d like. You can also cut other shapes or designs out of white or natural card stock. Mix the items together to make an interesting picture or design.

You can give the objects different depths by making a pop-up tab (accordion fold a strip of paper or fold it into fourths to make a box) that can be glued to the back of the object. Then you can glue it to the box to secure it. You can also use pieces of the fluff to give texture or depth to a shape.

Try to make the shapes tell a story. Think about what you are using not as what you already know it to be, but how it can be a part of something new. Make sure everything is secure in the box.

Edvard Munch was a forerunner of Expressionism and a pioneer in Modern art. He was born on December 12, 1863 on a farm in Loten, Norway. When he was only 5 years old, his mother died of Tuberculosis, which also claimed the life of one of his sisters a few years later. (There were 5 siblings, total.) Edvard was a sickly child and was homeschooled, by his pious father who was strict and often cold with the children. His family was tight-knit, staying close to home. He loved to draw from an early age and also loved the vivid ghost stories told by his father and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. These things combined with a young exposure to mortality, gave him a preoccupation with death that can be seen in his artwork.

He studied art as a young adult, but his chronic illness kept him from finding much success in school. His father felt art was an “unholy pursuit” but Edvard was driven to express himself. In his journal, he wrote “…in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself.” He experimented with many different styles of art art as a student, and was often subject to harsh criticism from family, neighbors, and critics alike. His media is widely varied, he painted, used oil pastels, and drew and later added photography and printmaking to his skill set. As he grew more mature, he aimed to show the tension and emotions felt within rather than the external reality that can be seen by others. He did this by simplifying forms, using heavy lines and sharp contrast and colors and symbols to convey specific emotions.

The Scream is his most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in art. Munch made a handful of variations on the picture in pastel and paint. He recounted a night when he was walking with 2 friends and was suddenly filled with anxiety. Too tired to continue, he stopped and leaned against a nearby fence. As he did, the sky seamed to turn red and he felt nature scream around him. He later said that he felt himself “going mad” and knew he would never love again. Much of his art was biographical, as The Scream is. Mental illness was common in Edvard’s family and that turmoil is evident in his work.

Happily, in later life, Edvard sought treatment for depression and alcohol abuse. He greatly improved in spirit and his work took on a much more optimistic quality. At this point, he was also widely winning critics approval and was even given the title of Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav “for services in art”. He died in his house at Ekely near Oslo on 23 January 1944, about a month after his 80th birthday.

*As you show the students Munch’s work, here are some conversation starters you can use to help them explore:

~Munch’s work is the perfect style for Halloween! Notice how even though the scenes are depicted with bright colors and happy subjects, there is a slightly eerie quality?

~What do you think about the faces? Edvard Munch said that he was more interested in depicting what was happening inside a person than showing a beautiful, flattering exterior. What do you think he was trying to show us?

~What do you think about the scream? Have you felt that way? (Generally one of the best questions to ask students about a picture is “How does this make you feel?”)

Today we are going to make our own pastel inspired by Edvard Munch’s style. You can do a landscape like Starry Night or a Portrait; but include some details to give the viewer an idea of your emotions like Munch did.

• Pastels look a lot like crayons, but they are actually paint that is rolled into sticks. They are soft and have a rich color. They are easy to break, so hold them gently. It is fine to press firmly, but don’t press too hard.
• Use your pencil to very lightly sketch where you want things, but try not to press to hard. The graphite can smear into the pastel and look muddy. Keep it simple, it’s best not to get too detailed.
• Pastels blend a little bit differently than other media (Media is the art term for what you are using: paint, pencil, crayons, etc.) You can blend several colors together to create a more interesting texture. Layer blues and greens or purples together will look very nice, but you can even combine opposing colors, like red and purple or blue and yellow.
• Generally you don’t want to blend with your fingers. Color with small strokes with your darker color, then layer the lighter color over the top and it will blend together. You can also color over the top with white to blend.

Miquel Barceló, was born in Felanitx on the island of Majorca, Spain on January 8, 1957. He studied art there briefly in the Arts and Crafts School of Palma de Majorca before enrolling at the Fine Arts School of Barcelona in 1974. After a year in Barcelona he would return to Majorca to protest with “Taller Lunátic”, a conceptual vanguardist group that fought against (in the arts, not actual fighting) the notion that “painting is dead” and the move to more contemporary practices like art installations and performance art.

In the 1980’s he traveled extensively throughout Europe, United States and West Africa and would eventually set up studios in both Paris and Segou, Mali. These cultural influences can be seen in his work. After a series of exhibitions in the early and mid 1980s, Barceló’s popularity grew to the point that his work was shown in the most prestigious galleries and museums including the National Gallery of Modern Art Pompidou Center in Paris.

As homage to his homeland, Miquel Barceló crafted a mural of approximately 300m² for Majorca´s San Pedro Cathedral Chapel in 2004. He covered the walls of the chapel with terra-cotta and painted them with images related to the miracle of the loaves and fish from John in the Bible. Also in 2004 a series of watercolors, illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy, were shown at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Barcelo was 47 years old and the youngest living artist ever to have their work shown in the Louvre.

His biggest commission was the domed ceiling of the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Chamber in the UN’s Palace of Nations in Geneva. It features multicolored stalactite forms figuratively dripping from the ceiling. Barceló explained that the dome represented “a sea and a cave, in absolute and apposing union” He said the idea came to him “on a day of immense heat in the middle of the Sahel desert” in Africa in where “the mirage of an image of the world was dripping towards the sky…. flowing drop by drop”

Now in his sixties, Miquel Barceló continues to split his time working in Paris, Spain, and Mali today. His work includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and cast iron.

Today we will try some sculptural painting of our own. Show the students the different materials we have to add texture to their paintings. Tell them to lightly sketch out the design you want to make on your canvas board. You will want to keep your design somewhat simple and add one or two of the materials to give it a different texture. You may want to do something representational (a picture of something, made to look realistic) or abstract (a picture that is not of anything recognizable). You may want to paint the background first or you may want to add the joint compound to build up ridges or shapes and then carefully paint on top of that.

Some hints to help make these paintings more successful:
-Give the joint compound some time to dry by working on other areas before painting it.
-Paint very lightly over the compound. If you press into it, it will make marks. I often tell my students to just lightly tickle it with the brush.
-Lightly press the yarn or fabric into the compound or wet paint to help it adhere to the board.

*When setting up, I recommend getting there a few minutes early to fill water cups. (I usually do a cup per pair of students–it is less to clean up.) After I have given the discussion part of the lesson, I pass out the boards and while students are sketching their design, I pass out the water, brushes napkins and plates. Then I go around with the paint and give them small (dime sized) dabs of paint. I tell them they can always have more, but often this is all they need so we start with this much. Give the students that want it a spoonful of joint compound (they can have more if they need it, but it’s best to start small) and let them come get the other items off the cart as needed.

*Please wash the brushes very thoroughly with a small amount of dish soap and put them in the container with the brush tip up. (If you put the brushes down, it bends the bristles and they loose their shape and don’t work well.)

Gustav Klimt was born on July 14, 1862 near Vienna, Austria. He was the second of seven children in an artistic family. His mother loved music and his father was a gold engraver. His brothers were also artistic and they were encouraged to develop their skill as children. In his teens, Gustav went to art school with his brothers and formed a group called the “Company of Artists” with another friend and the 4 teens had great success doing murals in public buildings and aiding better known artists in their work.
In 1892, Gustav’s father and brother both died, which had a great effect on his work. He became the chief support for his family. His turned to the much more stylized look that he would become famous for. This is also the time that he met Emilie Louise Flöge, who was his life-long love and companion. (The painting “The Kiss” is of them.) Emilie was a fashion designer and they would work closely together, influencing each other’s art for the rest of their lives. He would help design her costumes. If you look at his paintings with this in mind, you can see the influence of fashion, as well as the textural quality—almost like fabric on the clothing. Gustav had 14 children.
Gustav Klimt enjoyed mush success and notoriety in his life. The government in Vienna was nurturing to the arts and he was appointed the as the president of a government supported group that encouraged the arts and sought to bring new artists to Vienna. Interestingly, there was no manifesto—this wasn’t an art movement, per se. They encouraged all of the different styles and everyone worked and exhibited together. While Klimt’s work was often in limelight, he himself was a quiet and reclusive figure. He painted deliberately with great attention to detail and worked hard. While he collaborated with many other artists on projects, he did not like to socialize with many people. He worked day and night and rarely spent time with people outside of his family.
Just like his personality, Gustav Klimt’s work can seem contradictory. His figure paintings are boldly geometrical and patterned contrasted with ethereal highly detailed brushwork on the people themselves. His landscapes have a similar, very refined quality and did not include the use of gold leaf like his figure paintings did.

Today we are going to try our hand at incorporating metallic elements into a painting. Since this project could get a little complicated, there will be a simple example and a more detailed example. For grades kindergarten-second, just show the simple example.

1. Very lightly, sketch out your design.
2. Decide where to put the foil and cut out the basic shape, then lay it down on the paper and trim as needed.
3. Carefully, glue the back of the foil with the glue stick. Hold the top with your finger and move in one direction. Press lightly, it is easy to tear the foil.
4. Put the foil on the paper and smooth down. Glue any edges that need it.
5. Water color the rest of the picture.

Anna Mary Moses was born on September 7, 1860 on a farm in Greenwich, NY. She was one of 10 children and she left home to work on a nearby farm at age 12. She showed an interest in art at an early age and was even given a set of chalk and crayons by one of the families she worked for who noticed her interest. During her limited time at school she relished art classes. However, she never spent much time with art. One can imagine that earlier American farming life was a lot of difficult work and didn’t leave much time for pursuing hobbies.

At age 27, she married Thomas Moses and began a farm and family of her own, having 5 children that survived infancy (10 pregnancies total). Anna Mary was known for adding an artist touch to everyday life. She painted items in their home and embroidered and quilted. After Thomas died of a heart attack, she passed the farm onto one of her sons and began to paint with her spare time. A local grocery store hung her paintings. An art collector noticed them one day and bought them, leading to her first solo showing when she was 80 years old. People loved the vibrant depictions of “old time” country life. She was called Grandma or Mother Moses by those who knew her and soon the press also picked up this name. Over the next three decades, she would produce over 1500 canvases and her work would be reproduced and printed on tiles, fabrics, ceramic and used to advertise various household products. Grandma Moses painted crowded and busy panoramas in vivd colors that gave a happy view of a simpler time. She never received any formal education and is a great example of how anyone can become an artist, no matter your education or age. Anna Mary Moses died at the age of 101.

Look over the prints with the students (there are explanations of what each scene is showing printed on the back of the pictures to help with this). Point out the busy and detailed scenes. It is these details that make her paintings so interesting. They draw the viewer into a scene that they might have no experience with, but make them feel at home like they belong there. Notice perspective isn’t super important here. The lack of training gave her paintings a stylized look. Today we are going to make our scenes like Grandma Moses. Think of something your family likes to do, a time of year or holiday and all of the things that go on during that time or maybe a vacation you have taken and enjoyed. Now map out all of the activities in your picture. Use the colored pencils to make it vibrant and interesting and don’t forget to add the details that will make your viewer feel like they are there!

Peter Paul Reubens was born on June 28, 1577 in a city near Antwerp, Belgium. His father was a leader in the Calvinist (Protestant) faith and his mother was strongly Catholic in a time of great religious upheaval in Europe. Growing up in such a religious environment led Reubens to be a deeply religious man. He became a voice in the Catholic church and many of his paintings depict religious subjects. Reubens entered an apprenticeship at age 14, where he learned primarily by copying works of the masters. He graduated and gained master status, then moved to Italy to continue his studies. After eight years, he returned to Antwerp and set up a thriving studio with several artists working under him. Reubens became a leading Flemish painter for altar-pieces and religious scenes as well as portraits done for noble families.

His work was quite stylized and illustrates a lot of the popular opinions of the day. He favored using robust and curvy women (usually nudes) for scenes to show his views of women as lesser to men in social standing, as well as virtuous, fertile and beautiful. Men on the other hand, were shown as extremely muscular and usually in athletic, aggressive poses, showing his views of men as capable, forceful and powerful. He included a lot of symbolism in his paintings as well as religious references, even in his portraits. (This style preference has lead to the term Reubenesque to describe someone who is chubby.) Reubens is also known for his luminous style to painting. The faces almost seem to shine, he did this show the spiritual light coming from within.

Today we will try creating a portrait in a style like Reubens. By using chalk on a darker background, we can get a similar luminescence (or the look of light shining) from the face you will draw.  Have the students pair up to draw portraits of each other. Teach these tips to get a realistic portrait.

1. Make a large oval and draw a light line down the center or slightly to the left or right with your pencil. (From forehead to chin.) You can do it however your partner is sitting, but it will look more natural if the person is looking a bit to the side rather than straight on.
2. Now lightly draw another line across (ear to ear) about halfway down the face. It is best to give it a little bit of curve as well.
3. Now draw the eyes with the base on the line.
4. Divide the lower half evenly into thirds (it doesn’t have to be perfect!) make the bottom of the nose on the first line. You can do this by making a shallow “u” and then upside down “u”s on each side.
5. Finally sketch in the lips on the bottom line.
6. Now take the chalk and shade and fill in the face and the features, including hair.
7. When the portrait is complete, let the students bring them to you or the teacher and spray them very lightly with a bit of hairspray from about 6 inches away. This will help set the chalk so it doesn’t smear.

Katsushika Hokusai was believed to be born on October 30, 1760 in Edo Japan (which is now Tokyo, Japan). The records from this period are scarce and not very clear, but he is thought to be the son of an artisan that made mirrors for the Shogun, who is a local military leader. At age 12, Hokusai was sent to apprentice with a bookmaker and he became very skilled at the woodblock carvings which were used to make illustrated books for the upper classes. His master, Shunshō was an artist of ukiyo-e, one of many different styles of woodblock prints that were used at this time. Often the prints were of Kabuki actors or Courtesan and generally used for entertainment. Hokusai eagerly searched for new techniques from other schools in the area and even studied works from as far away as France and Denmark. He was expelled from Shunsho’s school after the master died and it was taken over by a rival student. He said later that this was the cataylist for his artistic growth. “What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at Shunkō’s hands.” Hokusai went on to take his skill above the general artisan level to that of a true master, developing new techniques and creating images that are still reproduced and popular today. He moved away from the popular subject matter of courtesans and Kabuki actors to landscapes and images of daily life for people of different classes. Throughout this time, Hokusai changed his name several times, which was a common practice for artisans in Japan in the 1700-1800s.
By the time Hokusai was in his early 50s, he enjoyed fame and success. He took this time to write a serious of art instruction books. As well as cartoon-like books which he called Manga. These would heavily influence comic books as they are today. (Anime is also known as Manga today.) After this period, he changed his name to “Gakyō Rōjin Manji” (The Old Man Mad About Art) and did many of the works that are famous today, including “One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji”. Hokusai was constantly seeking to produce better work, it is said that on his deathbed he exclaimed: “If only Heaven will give me just another ten years… Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter.” He died on May 10, 1849 at the age of 89.

Today we will make our own carvings. It takes so many hours and a lot of skill and practice to carve wood. We will try out cork which is a lot softer, but still a bit tricky. Please really emphasize the need to be careful with the nails to the students. I have done this in an after-school program and the kids loved it, but we will need to keep a close eye to make sure everyone is safe. We will be using nails, please emphasize how sharp they are and how important it is to be very careful with them.

1. Lightly draw your initial or a very basic design with pencil on the top of the cork. Keep it simple! Remember straight lines are easier than curved ones.

2. Next you will carefully use the nail to press into the area and indent the initial or design. I find it easiest to use the nail to make dots along the line, then scrape to connect them.

3. Finally, press your stamp onto the stamp pads to load them with ink and press onto the paper.