Van Eyck is the first artist we have studied from the renaissance period, albeit the Northern renaissance. I was looking forward to this study because he is often called the father of oil paint, being one of the first to perfect their use, and I haven’t had the chance to paint with oils since I was at school. We started off the study by leisurely flicking through a few books:
The writing in the actual Van Eyck book, I think, was written for serious adult art enthusiasts and was in very small print. This did not endear either the children or myself to perusing any more than the pictures. And there were many to peruse, in fact I would be surprised if we weren’t exposed to all of Van Eyck’s paintings.
I printed out the following lesson from this website. This is a seriously informative website which offers lessons in many of the famous artists. Erin, from The Usual Mayhem, recommended it when she did a Vermeer study with her daughter. Her study was simple yet effective and so beautiful I felt I needed to check it out for myself. I was not disappointed!
Obviously, with any study one does, one could go mad very, very easily. Especially art studies (I can get a bit carried away). So in an attempt to rein myself in I jotted down a couple of ideas I wanted to focus on.
- Oil Paint
Although Van Eyck has been credited as being the first to invent oil paint, in fact it is more accurate to say he was a perfecter of their use. Whatever the case, I felt it might be fun to attempt to make our own oil paints using linseed oil, egg yolks and colour pigment. We have tried crushed chalk before but the softer artists chalk pastels work much better as a colour pigment. The finer you crush them the better:
Having made the paint, I photocopied a picture, thought to be a self-portrait of Van Eyck, Man with Turban, for them to use their home-made paints on. The children went over the outline with a soft pencil, turned it over and placed onto an oil painting sheet of paper. They then rubbed over the page using the pencil until the image over leaf was transferred. It would be this image they would be painting:
I have found that if an outline is given, the children (especially the one who finds art hard) enjoy their paintings much more than if I had given them a blank page to fill. And here are the beautiful end products:
- Picture study of the Arnolfini Portrait
We used the following websites for this study:
Jan Van Eyck | Homeschool Art Lesson Resources
http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art29.htm
http://artmastershouston.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Van%20Eyck
The children also had a short time on their computers to research on their own about this picture. We had a chat afterwards about the symbolism found within the painting and I encouraged the children to share their opinions.
This time we managed to make a copy of the colouring-in sheet on the canvas and it was the right way round! (the first picture we did was flipped):
T12 hated using these oil paints. In fact, no one except for me enjoyed using them, and although the girls and I were painting for well over an hour (T having given up almost at the start) none of us actually finished our painting. We learnt that to do an oil painting properly it needs to be done over a matter of days rather than in one sitting. If we ever use them again, I will prepare the children much better, and maybe even find a how-to book or video to teach us how to use them successfully. As a first try, I thought (almost) everyone did really well. T12 called his the ‘Unfinished Arnolfini Portrait’, I thought maybe ‘The barely started Arnolfini Portrait’ was more apt, or maybe even ‘the blink and you’ll miss it Arnolfini Portrait’….
Our next art study will be on Leonardo Da Vinci.
So cool that you made your own oil paints, and very clever way of getting a photocopy image onto canvas, I don’t think I would ever have thought of it – so glad you did and shared! You always impress me with your art studies 🙂
Thank you! The children were very unimpressed with oil paint though, so it wasn’t a hugely successful attempt at replicating a famous artist!
This is fantastic! I love it. You are so inspiring. Every time I get in a homeschool teaching slump, all I have to do is see a post from you and I get all excited about teaching again. You have such a gift.
Thank you Phyllis, That’s such a lovely thing to say and I appreciate it very much!
What a fun study. I have downloaded the lessons from the same site you found and they are such a great tool. Thanks for sharing your idea of transferring the image to the canvas. We may try that one day.
Have a lovely weekend, Claire.
We are back from vacation and had such fun. I read through all your posts on my phone, but waited until I could get to the computer to comment. Looks like you are as busy as ever. Hope your days are filled with warmth and sunshine. Blessings to you, my friend.
Welcome back Donna!! I’ve missed you and your encouraging comments each day, so imagine my utter joy when I saw you were back with multiple comments. You made my weekend!
I’m so pleased you had a lovely time. I hope you post some photos!
There’s an art company that does lessons on painting, and now I’m trying to remember the name of the group, I think it’s called “See the Light Shine.” They’ve been on my to order list forever.
I’ll have to google them and see what they do!
I love all your half finished art!! And what a great idea to make the paints yourself- they were more successful than the real deal!
Yes, we did a great line in unfinished art this week! The home made paints were definitely a bigger hit with the children, but I preferred the real ones.
You do such lovely projects. We are trying to add more projects to our lessons and your ideas have been such a great resource. I’m always inspired when II read your posts. Thanks so much for sharing with us.
Thank you so much Christy. We love all the hands on stuff and so tend to do more of that than any actual work!
I love your projects. The kids did a great job.
Thanks Beth!
What a great lesson. My kids would really like the idea of making their own paints…keeping this in mind for a summer project! Thanks for sharing at the Finishing Strong Link-up!
The home made paints this time round were fabulous and the children preferred them to the real ones. Have a great summer making some of your own!
This is a great post with lots of great info! I’m going to refer back to this when we start art up again! Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom with us at FF! Very inspiring!
My pleasure, Sylvia. Thank you for hosting each week.
I had to pin this one for later, Claire, because we’re needing more artist study in our schooling! I love the way you used the window to trace the picture onto the canvas. It’s so simple, and yet I never thought of it 🙂 My grandmother painted with oils for most of my childhood so the smell and the feel of them are ingrained on me, but it’s been a while since I’ve used them. They’re definitely very difficult to get adjusted too if you’ve never used them before!
Thanks Rebecca. I enjoyed the oils but really after about 30 minutes my guys couldn’t understand why they weren’t done yet!
Thank you so much! I realize this is an older post, but I was wondering if you still the website with the lesson plans on it? I clicked the other link but it looks as though she’s no longer there. Thanyou so much, loved this!
If my memory serves me correctly, I think the lesson plans which were free are now not free. I have vague recollections of trying to find a different artist and the lessons not being available to the general public anymore. Sorry I can’t help more x