Art with Words #2

In the last lesson, Beep turned his name into ART! (Beep thinks his name is very artful.) But are there other ways to use words visually? Of course!

Micrography (micro=small, graphy=writing) is an artform that has been around for more than a thousand years! It began with religious artists who wanted to express sacred texts in interesting new ways; they used Hebrew letters and the Arabic alphabet in their work, but you can use any language in this cool art form. Here’s how:

First, use a pencil to lightly sketch anything you like! That’s right, as you’ll see from the student examples below, you can draw animals, flowers, flags, characters, logos, mythical creatures, your name or even entire planets! I did a quick sketch of Beep, of course:

Now, for the MICROGRAPHY part. You’re going to need thin colored markers (such as ultra fine point Sharpies), pens, or colored pencils. You can also do in black and white with your regular pencil, too; but with pencils, you’re going to have to keep them sharp!

Here’s your task: instead of filling areas and details with color, like you usually do, you’re going to color each area with only words! So wherever Beep is supposed to be blue, for example, you’ll take a blue (pen/marker/pencil) and write BEEPBEEPBEEP… until you fill that area. OR you can write BLUEBLUEBLUE… OR you can write a poem: ROSESAREREDBEEPISBLUE… OR you can fill with words you associate with your drawing like BEEPBOBSPACEARTPARTYYAY!…

Got it? Good! Ready to try? For your inspiration, here are some examples (some still in progress) done by some awesome current 5th grade art students. Some of them can write really small! Enjoy.