Welcome to Story

Telling through Art: (Student Booklet)

DOT EXPRESSION

Table of Contents:

The Dot (Peter. H. Reynolds) 3

Indigenous Australian Dot Painting (Danny Eastwood) 7

Story Telling – Using Symbols 12

My Story! (Louise Chapman) 17

The Dot By Peter. H. Reynolds

Click on the link and listen to the story

‘The Dot’

By Peter. H. Reynolds

And then answer the questions below.

‘The Dot’ (YouTube, 2010)

Please help me read the instructions.

Audio Help

The Dot By Peter. H. Reynolds

We are all creative in our own special ways, it can all start with a dot. The story

showed that we can express our feelings through art. Vashti thought that she

couldn’t draw and then found a way to tell her story through painting dots.

Vashti used a range of colours when painting her dots. Colours can represent

different feelings and tell a story. Create a creative dot painting and show and share

with the class.

Activity 1:

Making my mark!

You will need:

a piece of white paper

paint brush

water colours

water

art smock

Creative Thoughts

Show and Share Questions:

1. What colours did you choose and why?

2. How did you feel when painting your dot? 3. What does your dot painting mean to you?

What

colours

do I like?

Am I going

to paint

one dot or

more?

What does

my dot mean

to me?

Audio Help

The Dot By Peter. H. Reynolds

Colours can represent emotions and feelings. Colour can mean different things to different people. Think about colours that make you feel happy or colours that make you feel sad. Let’s explore how we can tell stories through using a range of colours. Activity 2: How do these colours make you feel?

What colours can mean? Pick 5 colours and write what they mean to you. (Google Images, 2017)

Blue makes me feel

_________

Red makes me feel

_________

Yellow makes me feel

_________

Green makes me feel

_________

Activity 3:

Write a story using coloured dots to show how you felt on your first day of school. Remember that colours can mean different thing to different people and people can have different feelings towards the same event. Draw and colour a dot in each section and write the emotions you were feeling on your first day of school (you can do more than one dot if you felt a range of feelings). Use the colour chart to help you best describe your feelings.

How I felt on my first day of school

Morning

At School Going Home Going to Bed

Have a go at writing your own story

Do you know of any art work that uses dots to tell a story?

Audio Help

Dot Paintings By Danny Eastwood

Danny Eastwood

(Zubrychi, 2017)

Danny Eastwood was born in 1943. He is a descendant of the Ngemba Tribe in

Western Sydney.

Danny Eastwood is very creative and has worked in many areas creating art, this

includes:

Paintings (including dot paintings)

Illustrations

Cartoons

Designing T-Shirts

Danny Eastwood was the ‘NAIDOC’ Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 1992 and now

continues to share his knowledge and skills as he teaches art classes within his

community.

Audio Help

Dot Paintings By Danny Eastwood

Ulura by Danny Eastwood (Karlangu Aboriginal Art Centre, 2017)

Responding to Art

Activity 1: 1. What colours can you see in the painting? 2. What things can you see in the painting? 3. What shapes can you see in the painting? 4. How does the painting make you feel? Why? 5. What story do you think Danny Eastwood is trying to tell?

Dot Paintings By Danny Eastwood

Indigenous Australian dot painting began in 1971 by an art teacher named Geoffrey Bardon as he watched the Indigenous people telling dreaming stories while drawing symbols in the sand. Geoffrey encouraged his students to draw murals on the wall and soon they began to paint them. Through their artwork they told tribal stories which included sacred elements so they covered the pictures with dots to hide them. Activity 2: It is time to create a dot painting. Choose a picture from the templates below and use dots to cover the image. Think about how Danny Eastwood used shapes and lines to fill in the landscape and objects. Creative Thoughts

Templates of Australian Animals (Brisbane Kids, 2017)

Can I use

colours to

bring feeling

into the

picture?

What shapes

or lines can I

use to help

tell a story?

What story

do I want

my animal

to tell?

Dot Paintings By Danny Eastwood

Indigenous Australians continues to be one of the oldest art forms practiced today. The traditional Indigenous Australians used a range of natural materials to create their art. This included:

Bark Logs

Trees Burnt Sticks

Rocks Clay

Vegetables Blood

Orchre Fat

Feathers Soil

Indigenous Australians used dot painting to capture their spiritual and cultural stories that had been passed down through their tribal generation. They used dot painting and other art forms to communicate their spiritual life on earth, customs, food, rituals and rituals decorations. As the dreamtime has been passed down through the family an artist cannot paint a story that does not belong to them.

(Google Images, 2017)

Audio Help

Dot Paintings By Danny Eastwood

Activity 3: 1. In our modern time today what can we use to make natural materials to use to make our own authentic painting through story telling? 2. What natural materials could you use to make these colours? 3. Create a dot painting using a range of natural materials to represents a story about a time in your life that you would like your future generation to know and remember.

Story Telling…..

A Special Time In My Life.

Story Telling -

Using Symbols

(Google Images, 2017)

Activity 1: 1. What colours can you see in this Indigenous Dot Painting? 2. What patterns or shapes can you see in this Indigenous Dot Painting? 3. What do you think the different patterns and shapes mean? 4. What story do you think the artist is trying to tell?

Story Telling –

Using Symbols

From the beginning of time, the Indigenous Australians told dreamtime stories through the generations to keep their culture alive and to educate others. Different cultural tribes of Indigenous Australians used a range of symbols to represent objects and living things to illustrate Dreamtime stories. Some of the symbols would represent sacred sites and locations of waterholes, campfires and groups of men, women and children.

A range of Indigenous Symbols

Symbols can vary from each other; this shows cultural differences between the Indigenous tribes. (Google Images, 2017)

Audio Help

Story Telling –

Using Symbols Activity 2: 1. Look at the Indigenous painting and use the symbol charts to work out what the shapes represent. 2. Write a Dreamtime story that goes with the Indigenous painting based on your symbol definitions. 3. Once competed, share with the class. Did you all reponsed the painting in the same way?

Story Telling -

Using Symbols Activity 3: The Symbol Dice Game You will need:

Game Sheet

1 Die

Pencil

Colour Pencils

Writing Pad

Instructions: 1. Work in pairs 2. Roll the die five times 3. Each time you roll the die, colour the matching number of the die and the equivalent roll number column. 4. After you have had five rolls write a story with your selected symbols (in your Writing Pad).

EXAMPLE

1st Roll – Number 3 (digging sticks)

2nd Roll – Number 4 (turtle)

3rd Roll – Number 6 (running water

between water holes)

4th Roll – Number 3 (honey ant)

5th Roll – Number 1 (star / moon)

Write a story with the selected

symbols above.

(Google Images, 2017)

Story Telling -

Using Symbols Activity 4. Making Symbols You will need:

Sandbox

Camera

Computer

PowerPoint or Word

Pencil

Writing Pad Instructions: 1. Groups (3-4 students). In your groups think of a short story you would like to write about. Within your group write the story. 2. Create symbols to represent different aspects of the story (should use no less than four symbols). 2. Draw the symbols one at a time in a sandbox and take a photo of it (there can be more than one symbol per page to help visual the story). 3. Create a digital presentation using the photos of the symbols. 4. Present the digital presentation alongside the oral story. Examples of sand art (Google Images, 2017)

My Story! By Louise Chapman

This is ‘My Story’ by Louise Chapman. It is about her life, what she likes to do and what she loves. The artist used symbols to represent what is important to her and the symbol of the tree represents her life continuing to grow. The artist used a pattern that consisted of swirls and dots to fill in the empty space and to become the foliage of the tree.

My Life!

By Louise Chapman

I am married with four children. I have three girls and one boy. Within our home we have two dogs. The things we like to do as a family is to enjoy time together in our home, go to the beach, play and watch sports and eating ice-cream. The things I

love the most is my family, coffee and reading books. As my life grows, like the tree, I will find many more things to add that makes my life complete.

Audio Help

Audio Help

My Story!

Planning and Assessment Task

Activity 1: Writing a short story You will need:

Pencil

Eraser Think about your family or a favourite holiday or a special time in your life. Write a short story which may include people, places, activities, special events, favourite things and other objects that can be represented by symbols (for the next activity). In the space provided below use the planning bubbles to gather ideas and then write your short story, including a title.

My Story!

My Story!

Activity 2: Creating Symbols Create symbols to go with your story. You can use a mixture of the Indigenous Australian symbols that you explored in ‘Story Telling – Using Symbols’, or create your own symbols. Fill-in the table below using your symbols and a label.

Symbol Label

My Story!

Activity 3: Create your artwork using your story and symbols. Be creative and create an image that will reflect your story, for example, if it is about a birthday party, you could use balloons to put your symbols in. Make sure you think about what materials and tools you need to create your artwork ‘Story Telling’. Think about how to fill in the space using dots or other background patterns. Use your knowledge about colour and how colour can give feeling within the artwork. You may want to use:

Materials to decorate the image (for example, a range of colours, pencils, pens, paint, natural materials)

Tools (paint brushes)