All things big and small
The Great Wave of Kangawa
Lesson Three: Katsushika Hokusai
Lesson Objectives
To consider how artists use scale to create a certain effect or feeling within the audience.
To create our own landscape environment of our choice using printmaking.
Teachers Notes
This landscape is the most famous of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and was produced around 1830-1832. The style of this artist is quite unique to others children may have encountered, as he uses a woodblock printing technique which involved carving intricate deatol into wood which could then be brushed with ink to be impressed into paper or silk. This allows the children to think about how different textures would produce differing impressions.
This piece by Hokusai also has plausible geographical links; with the image being set around the image of Mount Fuji in Japan which has great cultural importance to the country. It is this image of Mount Fuji that is primary focus for the lesson and its juxtaposition with the great wave, as the Mountain actually stands at 3,776 metres tall.
Key Questions and Vocabulary
1.What is the first aspect of the landscape that you are drawn to?
2. Why has the artist postioned the wave in the foreground?
3. What would you say is the smallest and largest element of the landscape?
4. How do you feel when you look at this?
Landscape - Foreground - Background - Block Print
The Lesson as Part of a Sequence
This is the third image of the sequence, and has been included to allow chidlren to think about the 'big' and 'small' inside of art, rather than purely 'big' and 'small' in terms of the size of the art.
The children will use this image of 'The Great Wave off Kangawa' as inspiration to choose their own environment in which they would like to create a landscape, for example they could create a landscape of the jungle, or of a beach etc. However, the children must each include a 'big' focus within their landscape of something big, such as a large tree or parasol.
They will create these landscapes in a style similar to that of the artist, through printmaking, but rather than wood-blocks they will use polystyrene squares, string and paint to create their design. They will also be offered a range of varing size paper to work on, so they can choose how large or small they would like their own piece.