"Cub Scout RT492 - Artist AB"

Part of the Mental Skills group.

An excellent way for a Scout to express himself and an opportunity for him to try working in a few art media. The Artist Activity Badge isn't intended to make an artist of every Webelos Scout, but instead, help him better understand how the artist works and what he is trying to express. If you are not familiar with color charts, dishing, sculpture, mobiles and constructions, you should enlist the help of an experienced Parent or an art teacher.

Visit the Portland Art Museum and/or art galleries
Arrange to have a local architect explain his business to your den. Have him show how to read a blueprint.
Have each Webelos make a logo for himself or his family. He can get inspiration from looking at business logos. Use various drafting tools to make a design.
Invite the school art teacher to demonstrate various art media.
Reproduce a pattern using a grid technique and make a project.
Have the boys design a patch for a council, district, pack, or den activity. Learn how embroidered patches are made and how colors are used.
Design a Badge-a-Minit button and make several to commemorate a special occasion.

Sponsor a den or pack art show that would encourage all boys to create something in various media for judging and display. Invite parents to judge and be part of the fun. Create awards for the judges to give:

using all or at least many different colors.
anything that looks restful.
relating to cars, hot rods, trucks, etc.
meaning free from color, a black and white picture.
catches your eye.
representation of a symbol or emblem.
a double, in pairs, using two as part of the design.
anything to do with nature: trees, flowers, animals, etc.

TRC

Eye are funny things, sometimes they can fool you. Here is proof. Get some pieces of brightly colored paper, cardboard or cloth, Be sure the colors are bright. Use red, green, blue, yellow, orange and violet. Cut 3 inch circles from the colored sheets. You'll need a sheet of black and a sheet of gray or cardboard too,

Go outdoors In the bright sun light or sit under a bright lamp indoors. Put the red circle on the black paper and look at It steadily for at least thirty seconds, be sure that you don't move your eyes. Sometimes the experiment works better if you shut one eye, Now take the red circle away and continue looking steadily at the black background. You should see circle on it, but the color will be green, not red.

Try the experiment again, with a gray instead of a black background. The gray will also appear green. Turning off the light or moving into shadow sometimes increases the effect.

Try again, using a green circle. The afterimage will be red. Use a blue circle and the afterimage will be orange. An orange circle will give a blue image. Yellow will give violet and violet will give yellow.

We say that opposites are complementary colors, We can arrange them in a circle as shown here. The order of colors, starting from violet to blue is the same as in the rainbow. Many of the beautiful effects in paintings come from the action of afterimages.
Color Circle

The afterimages case from "retinal fatigue". The eye can get tired, just like a muscle. It gets tired from looking at just red. And so, when you take the red away, the retina of the eye tries to see just the opposite, or complementary color, Look at the circle again and see if you can determine the afterimage or complementary color to red-orange. What about blue-green?

On a piece of cardboard, draw a design. Since the American Indians are the foremost exponents of sand painting, an Native American scene or design could be used. Indicate on the design the colors which are to be used.

Color clean sand with food coloring.
Cover the area to be "painted" with white glue and then pour on the proper color of sand. Shake off excess.
Work with only one color at a time, and if the area is large, do it in several pouring. The painting can be framed if you like.

Or you might like to try a free-hand sand painting. Cover entire cardboard with white glue. Then add colored sand hers and there, forming an abstract design. The cardboard should be small, so the glue won't dry before you're through. This is an interesting technique and can turn out some unusual designs.

GCC

Materials needed:
4 juice cans
poster paint: white, black, green and red
hot water, close to boiling
4 thermometers
food coloring

Paint each can a different color, then fill each can with equal amounts of hot water. Add food coloring to the hot water, mixing drops of all the colors together to get black. Put a thermometer in each can, then record the temperature every three minutes until the water cools. Make a graph showing your results. Which color held heat best?

C-10

Framing drawings and paintings can be the hardest part of the Artist requirements unless the Webelos Scouts are shown some simple methods.

Three simple methods are shown here.

Probably the easiest is backing the picture with one piece of cardboard, then cutting a frame from a second piece and gluing it over the picture.

Boys whose families have woodworking shops may choose to make wood frames. The weathered board frame is also easy, but the boys must sand smooth the area where the picture will be glued.

Bill's Unofficial Cub Scout Roundtable A compendium of Ideas For Cubmasters, Den Leaders and those who help them.
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WEBELOS

ARTIST ACTIVITY BADGE

REQUIREMENTS

WHERE TO GO; WHAT TO DO

ART SHOW

DEN ACTIVITIES

PACK ACTIVITIES

AFTER IMAGES

SAND PAINTING

WHICH COLOR HOLDS HEAT?

FRAMING PICTURES