Aboriginal Dot Painting

Day 1 and 2: Students learned about aboriginal art and how it is influenced by the dream time. Students then learned about Uluru, a large rock in central Australia that is sacred to the aboriginal people. They then began writing a surreal story about an Australian animals adventure to Uluru. They could pick from a sea turtle, kangaroo, koala, or dingo as their main characters. Once the story was written they drew an illustration   

Day 3 and 4: students used their illustration as a sort of sketch for their final painting. First drawn out with pencil, students used the end of a paint brush handle to create dots along their pencils lines. Once the outlines were made students followed inside their shapes.  

If I were to do this project again I would make the final painting paper half the size. Students got burnt out quick from making dots. I tried motivating them by saying if you sold this painting you would get a dollar a dot. The more dots the more money! But the holiday break coming up definitely clouded their determination. I had some awesomely impressive results mixed with students who barely put any effort towards their painting.

There are some paintings I didn't even post because the animals are nearly unrecognizable. Curious, what age groups do you usually have create dot paintings? Maybe I just need to simplify....

Reminds me of an impressionist painting :) 

Completely in awe with this students art! Amazing!