Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Mayes and I am so pleased you have chosen to learn with me today.

We are going to have a really exciting lesson.

I am here to support you for any challenges that you might encounter.

We're gonna have a really great time.

Let's get started.

Let's have a look at today's outcome of the lesson.

I can experiment with making ink and create a piece of art.

I think that's gonna be really fun, don't you? Here are the key words for today's lesson.

I'm going to say the word and I would like you to say them after me.

You are going to do a really good job.

Ink.

Well done.

Natural.

Great.

And dilute.

Ooh, that might be a new word to you.

Let's try that again.

Dilute.

Excellent, well done.

Now let's have a look at the meanings of those words.

Ink means a coloured liquid used for writing or drawing.

Natural is something that comes from the world around us, not made by people and dilute that new word to you.

It means to make something weaker or less strong by adding water or another liquid.

I think this is going to be a really good lesson.

Let's have a look at our first learning cycle.

In this learning cycle, we're gonna be learning how to make natural inks.

What is ink? Have a really good look at that picture.

What do you think ink might be? Ink is a coloured liquid used when writing or drawing.

You might have used ink before.

It is used in different ways by artists to make marks.

Artists can buy materials such as ink from a shop.

You might even have been into a shop to buy materials for your artwork before.

Ink can come in bottles like this.

They sometimes are made from glass or plastic.

When I was little I used to sometimes go into a shop and see lots of glass ink bottles.

Artists can also make their own ink from natural materials.

Do you recognise this material? You might have seen it in your kitchen before.

This spice is called turmeric and can make a brightly coloured yellow ink.

Let's have a look at some of the materials we might make ink from.

Artists can make ink by mixing water with natural materials like soot, charcoal, and plants.

They might look a little bit like this.

Artists may also create different colours by grinding natural pigments such as crushed minerals or berries.

They might look a little bit like this.

To make natural ink, artists might need to crush or blend their material.

This is called a pestle and mortar and we can use it to grind up our natural material.

Once our material has been ground, we might then mix our material with water.

So here we have our ground up turmeric mixing with water, and then we have our ink.

We might need to strain it through a sieve just to get rid of any of those solid parts left and this gives an ink which is ready to use.

Now it's your turn for a question.

True or false? Artists can make their own materials such as natural ink rather than buy it from a shop.

You can pause the video here or I will pause to give you time to answer that question and think really carefully about your answer.

Let's have a look at the answer together.

It is true.

Let's have a look at why.

Artists can buy their ink from a shop just like we saw in those glass bottles earlier, but they can also make their own ink from those natural materials such as plants and soot.

Jacob and Laura are experimenting with natural materials and making their own inks.

That sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? Can you guess how they might be making their natural inks? What colour ink do you think these blackberries might make? Have a really good look at the colours you can see.

Laura starts to make her ink.

What is she doing to the berries here? She says, "I can crush the blackberries to make a coloured liquid just like ink." Here, she's using a fork, but she could have used that pestle tool that we talked about earlier too.

Jacob looks at Laura's coloured liquid.

He says, "Let's experiment.

I wonder what happens if we mix it with vinegar?" Can you see them adding the vinegar? Look carefully at what is happening to the ink as they use and add vinegar.

What did you notice happens to the ink when we add the vinegar? Can you see it becomes a little bit lighter and maybe even a bit brighter.

Laura uses her sketchbook and a brush to look at what happened when she mixed the vinegar with her ink.

Here is Laura's sketchbook.

"Wow! It changes the colour of the ink!" So when we add vinegar, we get different colours.

Vinegar can make the ink thinner, but it can also change the colour of the ink.

The ink might even change colour as you leave your ink to dry.

We can also change the colour of the ink if we add bicarbonate of soda.

This is also something you might find in your kitchen.

What can you notice? It goes a little bit fizzy, doesn't it too? As we add that bicarbonate of soda, look carefully at the colours as they're being mixed.

What colour do you think the ink might become now? Did you notice? It becomes more of a blue colour.

It gets a little bit darker.

What do you notice about ink, bicarbonate soda and vinegar mix that Laura and Jacob have made? What's happening in their sketchbook? Now it's your turn to answer a question.

Which picture shows the blackberry juice mixed with the most bicarbonate of soda? Is it A, B or is it C? Have a really careful, think about that question.

I'll pause here or you can pause the video to give you time to think carefully.

Let's have a look at how you might have answered.

It was A, this image shows the blackberry juice looking more grey, blue in colour just like we saw when we mixed the inks.

Here is your first task of today's lesson.

Number one, we are creating inks from a range of materials.

You could: steep coffee or tea and use the liquid as an ink.

You could use turmeric to create a brightly coloured ink.

Don't forget to strain it as well though.

You might use beech root juice and mix it with vinegar to change the colour just like Jacob and Laura did.

And you might crush edible berries to get a range of different purples and reds.

I think you're going to make some wonderful experiments for that part of the task.

Part two of this task is to explore mixing and using inks in your sketchbook.

You could: try mixing two of your different inks together and see what colours you come up with.

You might try mixing tea ink with chip turmeric.

Your second idea might be mixing vinegar and bicarbonate soda with your ink.

So you might try your beetroot ink and add vinegar and see what happens.

Does it change the colour or does it stay the same? You can use your sketchbook to record your work.

You might draw lines with your paintbrush or have a go at making some different sorts of marks.

I can't wait to see all those wonderful experiments in your sketchbooks and what ideas you come up with.

You can pause the video here or I will pause to give you time to complete that task.

Let's have a look at what you might have done.

There were some great ideas for experiments and lovely ink making.

You might have made strong tea or coffee and used the liquid as an ink.

You might have used turmeric to create brightly coloured ink.

Look at that lovely yellow there.

You might have crushed edible berries to get a different range of purples and reds, and you might have used beetroot juice mixed with vinegar and seen what colours you came up with.

Some really lovely ideas.

Well done.

Now it is time for our second learning cycle.

In this learning cycle, we are diluting and exploring inks.

Have a look at these images.

How did the artist create these marks? Look really carefully.

What tools do you think they might have used and would they have used anything else with the inks? What do you notice about these two images? Are they exactly the same or are they a little bit different? What do you notice about them? If an artist mixes ink with water, they can also change how the ink appears.

Look back at these two images.

This is called diluting ink.

Which image shows the ink most diluted? So imagine if you mixed water with the ink, what might happen and which image shows that? Some great thinking well done.

It's the image on the left.

This image has the most water added because it is lightest and the ink has been diluted.

I'm now going to add water to my ink to dilute it.

Here I have got just a little bit of my original ink on the paper.

I've now mixed some more water with it.

Can you see that the ink becomes lighter? When I add even more water, the ink becomes much lighter again.

And finally, if I add even more water, we can barely see the marks at all.

Now it is your turn.

You are going to add water to your ink to dilute it.

Your water might look like.

Pause the video here to give you a chance to complete that task.

Well done.

That was some great diluting.

Your ink might now look a little bit like this.

When we dilute ink by adding water, it becomes lighter.

We can also use tools to change how the ink and water behave on our paper.

Have a look really carefully here.

What do you think Alex has done to change how the ink has behaved? Alex says, "I have tried blowing my ink with a straw.

I tried blowing it through the water too." Can you see how the straw has made it spread across the page? Jacob is trying something different.

He says, "I dabbed on dots of ink and dots of water.

Then turned my page to make the ink and water drip." And the ink has run through the water as well, hasn't it? Alex is looking at some other tools to use with ink and water.

This looks like an interesting tool, doesn't it? How could Alex use this tool to move the ink and the water? He says, "I could use both ends of the sticks to drag the ink across my page and through the water." With the end that's got lots of different little bits of stick on it might make lots of marks, whereas using the more pointed end might create one mark and one line through the ink.

How do you think these ink marks were made? We've used a paintbrush dipped in ink.

We've made the page wet and dropping dots of ink next to the water.

Here we've used a straw to blow the ink through the water.

And finally, we've tipped the page with dots of water and ink to create those dripping marks.

Now it's your turn to answer a question.

Which of the following statements about ink is not true? A, ink can be mixed with water? B, ink can only be used with a pen? And C, artists can make their own inks? Pause the video here to give you time to answer that question.

Well done for thinking really carefully about your answer.

Let's have a look at the right answer together.

It was B.

Ink can be used with a pen, but it can also be used with sticks, water, paper cups, paint brushes, and straws to make interesting marks, artists don't have to be limited to a paint brush.

Now it is time for your final task of today's lesson.

You are going to use your inks and tools to create your own artwork.

You can dilute your ink.

Remember, that means adding water to make your marks lighter.

Tools you might want to use.

You might think about using a paper straw to blow your ink across the page.

You might want to use a stick thinking about which end is gonna have a different effect upon the ink in front of you.

You might want to use a paper cup to make prints into your ink.

And you might think about using a paintbrush to spread broad marks of ink across your page.

And finally, you might think about using a pipette tool.

This will help you to create dots of water and ink across your page.

You can pause the video here to give you time to complete that task.

I can't wait to see all those wonderful ideas that you have.

Well done.

What an excellent range of ideas that you've come up with and ways you could use your ink.

You may have created an artwork that looks a little like this.

You may have used a paintbrush with diluted ink.

You might have tried tipping the page with water and ink dots.

You might have made the page wet and dropped in drops of ink with a pipette.

You might have used sticks to drag the ink and water.

And finally, you might have thought about using a paper cup dipped in water and then dipped in ink and seen what kind of marks you could make.

A really good range of experiments there.

Well done.

What interesting marks you have made? Let's have a look at what we have learned in this lesson.

We now know that inks of different colours can be made from a variety of natural materials.

We now know that drawing tools can be used in a variety of ways to make different marks with ink and water.

And we now know that ink can be diluted with water to change its appearance.

Well done on all of your hard work in today's lesson and your sketchbooks are looking fantastic.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I will see you again soon.

Bye.