Potomac Elementary student Noor Judeh, 11, found that working on a mural at the school pushed her to work on other artistic endeavors. “It made me want to draw more,” Judah said.
She was one of 29 fifth-grade students who worked to complete a mural “Celebrating the Arts” at the school. Students submitted sketches to an artist who was working to help them develop the mural, which has a circus theme.
The artist, Monique Goss, then selected some of the sketches, and the students created larger versions of them. “They created those characters,” said Linda Goldberg, principal of Potomac Elementary.
The mural, which hangs several feet off the floor in the all-purpose room and takes up most of one wall, was dedicated on June 8, and the school plans to leave it up indefinitely. “You could come back in 10 years and see it,” said Brian Green, 11, another of the students who worked on the mural.
The students placed their small drawings on a projector, then traced the larger one. They then went over their outline in charcoal, and placed the charcoal side on the primed pieces of wood. The students traced, once again, transferring the charcoal outline which they then painted, said Lisa Johnson, a parent volunteer who helped with the mural. “They also worked to develop their own color palettes,” said Johnson.
Students learned to mix different paints to make lighter and darker shades. “I loved learning to mix the paint, said Justin Settlage, 11.
<1b>—Ari Cetron