In honor of the 100th year anniversary of the cherry blossoms being gifted to the United States by Japan, 8th Graders created Japanese brush paintings.
We took a look at traditional and contemporary uses of the bamboo brush, and experimented with three key brush "holds" (ways you hold the brush to create a specific stroke): the horizontal hold, the 45-degree angle hold, and the straight hold.
Students also practiced writing Japanese Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese written language) with the bamboo brush. To complete the paintings, each student carved a chop, or signature stamp, as a way to "sign" their painting in the traditional style.
By looking at the artworks below, see if you can figure out which hold was used to create each image! Click on any image to see it larger.
We took a look at traditional and contemporary uses of the bamboo brush, and experimented with three key brush "holds" (ways you hold the brush to create a specific stroke): the horizontal hold, the 45-degree angle hold, and the straight hold.
Students also practiced writing Japanese Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese written language) with the bamboo brush. To complete the paintings, each student carved a chop, or signature stamp, as a way to "sign" their painting in the traditional style.
By looking at the artworks below, see if you can figure out which hold was used to create each image! Click on any image to see it larger.