How-to: Activity

1. Reference images help, as everyone knows, to show kids beforehand so this could be used to show the symmetry of a tiger’s head. To start off, fold your blue paper in half to have two equal sides. This fold line will be the center line of the tiger’s head. Students only need to draw half of the tiger’s head. Starting with a nice big half circle almost the whole side of the paper. Off that half circle the mane and triangular ears can be drawn. Then inside the half circle, draw the triangular bottom of the nose plus the curve up the side, the half circle eye off the nose, the curve of the mouth and finally the two sets of three triangle shapes for the black markings on the top of the head and the side. Students can add other details in paint later, for example the white above the eyes in the reference image. Also, the whiskers could be added at the end by scratching into the paint with the end of the paintbrush, or painted on.

2. Once the students have the drawing established the rest is a combination of continuous painting and printing. Students will paint a section and then fold it together to imprint that paint onto the other side. The black outlining and detail is a good place to start. Emphasize that a good amount of paint should be used to make the print but not too much that it bleeds beyond the lines. A back and forth between painting and printing should be constant. You can redo an area if needed to make a better print, too.