Mummy Grid Art

Ancient civilization, a big part of 6th grade social studies standards. I was a special student then. I lacked the ability to figure out grammar and spelling rules. I'm sorry if you come across any of those today. My teachers always said I would catch up when I was in elementary school.

In 6th grade my teachers pulled me out of social studies to put me in a special class to refine these skills. I think it was a waste of time but they were trying. Unfortunately for me, I missed most of social studies that year. Thus, I can't tell you much about ancient civilizations. Sad, I know.

So Little Brother was in 6th grade last year and I was trying to give him a head start and more knowledge on ancient civilizations. A little hard to do when you yourself have no background knowledge.

Around the University's Education department halls are work student teachers did with students. Actually there are only two different projects hanging in the hallways. One was this project. Students used grid art to create a mummy mask. They are so cool looking so I took what I read from the samples I saw and expanded on it for LB.

I modified a lot for LB because we only meet two hours a week but I'm going to tell you what I would do in the classroom if I did this project.

I would have students research mummy masks for homework or during computer time. They will find a mask they like that has a picture from the front and has an identified mummy they can later research. Students will print a picture in black and white and write down the name of their mummy.

In class we will add grid lines to the picture. There's math involved now. Students need to calculate how many evenly spaced out lines they need to make and create a square grid on the picture.

Next, students will be given white paper, I like ledger size, and will add the same number of lines as the picture to create a larger grid.

I'm sure you've done grid drawing before, they are often found in coloring books in the activity section. You simply focus on one box at a time drawing the image larger. I strongly suggest using a ruler for strait lines.

When the drawing is done you need to copy the image onto black paper. This can be done one of two ways that I know of. For LB we put carbon paper between the drawing and the black paper and Little Brother traced his whole drawing. I like this way because it's so much easier and the same piece of carbon paper can be used a couple times. LB liked looking at the carbon paper and seeing his drawing on that too.

The other way is to have the students use a pencil and color the backside of the whole drawing paper. It's a long process and my least favorite part of middle school art, aside from actually doing the drawing. My teacher once asked me why I couldn't draw like the girl next to me. Really?

Once the back is colored, place the drawing paper onto the black paper and trace the drawing just like you would with the carbon paper.

You should now have transposed the drawing onto the black paper. I had LB go over the tracing again so that it would be darker and he'd bee able to see it.

Next he used chalk pastels to color the whole mask in. I didn't want him to see a colored picture because I like bright colors and I wanted him to make it his own. If you want it more realistic, have the students research the actual colors, but after looking at mummy masks, some are lacking a little in color variations.

Last step for the art, use puffy paint to go over all the lines in the drawing. I told LB not to do anything in the face but it's up to you. The pictures hanging in the University went over all the lines. I kinda like the face without it because I think it makes it really busy to do the face too.

Last step, which really makes this a learning opportunity is for students to research and write about their mummy. I had LB add a picture of his mummy, not the mask but what his actual mummy looked like (do the best you can, sometimes the mask is all there is and that's ok), and write about the mummy's life before he became a mummy. It was great when we were done because people loved the picture and wanted to read what he wrote to learn more about his mummy.

Here's the final product. He ended up bring it to school because he was so proud of what he made and presented his work to the class. I think he did a great job and even my middle school art teacher would praise him on his work.