Illuminated Letters

 

Sixth Graders are moving quickly through our art history timeline and have created Illuminated letters.  Illuminated letters were from important manuscripts a long time ago.  These manuscripts included an illuminated first letter on the page.  These were expensive manuscripts because each was hand made and they are "illuminated" because the letter was often adorned with gold leaf.  Students began by learning about illuminated letters and looking at many examples (like from the beginning of the movie Shrek) and they chose a letter that had meaning to them.  Most students picked the first letter of their first or last name but some chose letters for other reasons.  We decorated them with intricate patterns and traced with black sharpie markers.  Lastly, we used metallic paint (to mimic the gold leaf) and painted our letters.  These look great in these pictures but really shine in person!! Great Job!!