Corissa Leeds – Skillbuilder 2

Activity #1: Watercolor Pencil Techniques

This was a new activity for me, as I have never used watercolor pencils before. I used to use
colored pencils in a lot of my artwork, but adding this new ability to blend in a painter-like
fashion was a unique twist. I was just experimenting with colors in these pieces, and ended up
creating two works similar to the videos watched with gradient skies. I think I definitely
struggled to blend seamlessly, which is especially apparent in the sky on the lefthand piece.
Additionally, I think I might have been using too much water when blending, because the
pigment kept being picked up by the water. I had to do multiple layers of colored pencil after
each layer dried and keep blending to achieve a higher saturation of color.
In addition, the prompt called for students to use black construction paper for a silhouette effect,
which I failed to do on the righthand piece; I instead used a black marker to draw in a tree.
Activity #2: 3D Paper Mini Sculptures
This prompt called for students to create 2-3 3D paper sculptures with the ability to stand on
their own. I ended up making a pink flower, which called for 8 individual folded papers and took
the longest out of all of the activities. Instead of going through the entire process on each paper
one at a time, I followed each step on all 8 papers at the same time, which ended up making the
process a lot easier. I think this flower turned out beautifully and I did not run into many
challenges.
The paper tree, on the other hand, was a bit more difficult for me, as I ended up going through
the folding process but then messing up on the cuts the first time around. I had to redo it, but I
think the finished product turned out relatively good, and achieved the ability to stand on its own.
Activity #3: Model Magic Mini Food Sculptures

This was probably my favorite skillbuilder. The first part of the activity had students make a
mind map of a few prompts having to do with food. Then, students were to make foods based on
their answers to one of these prompts. I ended up making a peach and cherry upside down cake,
which is what I make for my grandmother’s birthday every year. She taught me this family
recipe when I was very young and it is an integral part of every birthday party we have.
The directions gave various ways that students could color the model magic, and I ended up
using the method where I pooled pigment from markers into the clay, and then kneaded it in.
This ended up taking a while to get a more saturated color, as the white from the clay caused the
colors to have a more pastel look. For the cherries on my finished product, I just ended up
dotting the marker directly onto it to give it a redder look. Another small challenge for this
activity was how small the individual pieces were. My fingers were really struggling to make
pieces so small- especially the cherries and the candles. The sculpture only ended up being 1”
wide x 2” long x ½” high. Despite these challenges, the cake ended up looking very similar to
what the actual cake would look like.