Wang Yani (1975 - ) Painting since she was 3.

When you pick up a brush, don’t ever ask anyone for help. Because the most wonderful thing about painting is being left alonewith your own imagination. I do not paint to get praise from others, but to play a game of endless joy. —Wang Yani

Wang Shiqiang couldn’t believe his eyes—his painting was ruined! And the culprit? His two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Yani. She had gotten into his oil paints while he was gone and used them to create her own “masterpiece”—right over her father’s careful brush strokes. Wang Shiqiang was angry at first, but Yani explained, “Papa, I was helping you paint. I want to paint and paint.” At that moment, Wang Shiqiang knew that his daughter’s talent and desire would make her an amazing artist.  MORE >>

This is our artist of the month.

PDF lesson plan here including my pedestrian test sheets (not production instructions).
Link to a student project who chose Wang Yani as one of her heroes.

Read the rest of this post for the production instructions

The production for this piece is fun.  We used Sumi-E brushes and regular construction paper.  The expense of the rice paper wasn't justified because we don't have the time to thoroughly learn the technique, the rice paper ended up bumpy with puddles of ink.

These are my quickie experiments with one brush to have an idea how to show the children various strokes.  I'm sure ANY of you would be able to do better than I have here.  We also used the tempra cakes in a plastic cup. Each child will have a cake cup, brush and a water cup.  The key is to not have them wipe off their brushes, but rather use all of the color on the brush up before reloading the brush.  Have them notice the difference from the initial intense colors and the later lighter grays through the gray water as they dip back and forth. 

The students will learn how the brush angle, amount of ink and pressure affect their strokes.  Try to have them go in one smooth direction rather than back and forth as they usually do with painting.  The bamboo technique impressed all of the parent volunteers because we could actually achieve the affect. I left a bit early. Those who remained behind were creating great monkeys, roosters and fish.

We also made a "chop" in red ink and then used a red thin marker to make our unique "chop" or signature on each piece.  This is a fast project. Let them have several pieces of the white construction paper to give it a try and test techniques.  Remember, before Yani was 11 she had created over 10,000 paintings.  They go fast!

Look for the out-of-print book - Yahi's Monkeys.

BASIC PRODUCTION:
Project is to get them to create their own brush piece using one size brush and the black block of tempra ink.
They get one cup with the block, one with water.
They are supposed to load up the brush and paint with it at different angles until it is used up, then reapply water and ink.
The more ink, the more intense (duh).
As the water gets inky, they can dab a bit of water only and see how that brushes on.
They get 4 practice sheets and then a final - so basically 5 pieces of art.
They can take them home.

There are books with her style, animals, etc.  They can do what they want.

Comments

[leandra]

this pantings are worderful

[LillianHerrera35]

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