Recycled Animal Art
Art teachers continue to find exciting and innovative ways to make contextual links to artists. The recycled animal art below, created by the students of art teacher Rachael Hughes and teaching assistant Lowri Hoddinott, was inspired by the artist J. Vincent Scarpace. If you’re looking for a new recycled art project, this just might be it.
I got in touch with Rachael Hughes to find out more.
She told me that the theme students were exploring was ‘Environment’.
“We thought it was important to teach the pupils about their carbon footprint and that there is a better use for these items than landfill.”
Scrap materials were collected from various sources including items donated by other members of staff. This massive community effort involved using social media to source items. This was a big effort, but you can see that it has paid off.
The Process of Creating Recycled Animal Art
- The pupils scavenged to find items that would make up the shapes of their chosen fish, bug etc.
2. Images were roughly sketched onto MDF board.
3. Items were glued to the board with a glue gun.
4. The artwork was sprayed with spray paint.
5. Lastly, details and patterns were added using acrylics.
Rachael told me that the pupils worked on these over a 3 week period. The school is a PRU so the classes are smaller more frequent.
A PRU is a type of school that caters for children who aren’t able to attend a mainstream school. Pupils are often referred there if they need greater care and support than their school can provide.
“We are planning a beachcombing outing with pupils. This project will be of interest to teachers who have a keen interest in recycling, reusing scrap materials.” said Rachael.
Below are the artworks once they have been sprayed and had detail added with acrylic.
What an amazing project! I just love it. If you enjoyed ‘Recycled Animal Art’ and would like to be kept up to date with art teacher blog posts click on the image below. You will also be able to download 3 of my free resources each month too.
Further reading:
Techniques and Processes on The Arty Teacher
‘This post has been included in Twinkl’s End of Terms Activities blog.’
I’m looking to have my students make a pet out of clean recycled, materials.
I teach in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Would you happen to have a rubric for this or a success criteria established for this, please?
Hi Paul, I don’t have a generic rubric for a recycling project. It depends on what you want the students to do. Are they looking at an artist? If so, a point could be, ‘Does your work reflect the work of [artist name]?’. Other points might be ‘Does your Pet have an accurate/realistic shape?’ and ‘Has layering of recycled materials been used?’. I hope this helps! I have many recycled projects here: https://theartyteacher.com/?s=recycled