Club de Arte 2.09: Superhero Stories

THEME OF WEEK 2:09:  Our Superheroes' Stories

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

and the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  For the children to imagine scenarios of conflict and resolution between their superhero characters and their archenemies.  To draw out these stories in storyboards and then to dress up a second time in their superhero costumes and play out these scenarios infront of a video camera.

PROCESS: 1. Talk about superhero stories with reference to comics in the group. 2. Individually to imagine a story of conflict between the superhero character and his or her archenemy.  3. To dress up! 4. To play out the superhero story in front of the video camera.

MATERIALS: Storyboard sheets, pens and pencil crayons, a comic book example, the children's costumes, video camera, tripod.

STORYBOARDS:

Super Angelica's Super Story: 1. The super heroine was walking by the shop when suddenly a really furious witch appeared. 2. She was kidnapping everybody, when the super heroine saw her and fought her with her super-lazer eyes. 3. She continued to fight the witch with her super-lazer eyes. 4. Suddently she was in the football pitch and she transformed the witch into dust. 

 

The story of X-Ray: 1. Super X-Ray is on the football pitch when he suddenly realizes something. 2. He sees that the cruel sorcerer is kidnapping a girl. 3. The superhero combats his enemy with his x-rays and his super-speed and rescues the girl.  4. The superhero shuts the enemy in a super-bubble of crystal and the the girl returned to being happy.

The Story of Super Kiara: 1. Super Kiara is walking by the football pitch. 2. He sees the wicked blue witch robbing a football from some children.  3. The superhero confronts his enemy with his superpower of hypnotism.  4. The super moro transforms the enemy into a mouse and the children remain happy forever.

REHEARSING: 

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FILMING:

And finally…
the kids' Super Film:

Club de Arte 2.08: Superhero Portraits

THEME OF WEEK 2:08:  My Superhero Portrait

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

and the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  For the children to dress up in their superhero costumes and to imagine their super-name, super-power, weak point and mission.  To record their superhero characters through both photographic and filmed portraits.

Ideas of super names, powers, weaknesses and mission to inspire the children's superhero characters.

PROCESS:  1. Dress up! 2. Each child decides what his or her superhero or superheroine's name, power, weakness and mission is. 3. Pose for photographic and filmed portriats. 

MATERIALS: The kids' costumes, tripod, camera, video camera, posters of ideas "pick-your-own-superhero" 

Meet the kids' superheroe characters from 

NUEVA PROSPERINA: 

"I am Capitan Camila.  My super power is extreme strength.  My weak point is that I am afraid of snakes.  My mission is to protect the people."

"I am Powerful Ivon.  My super power is extreme intelligence   My weak point is that I am afraid of snakes.  My mission is to combat violence."

"I am Powerful Krystal.  My super power is speed.  My weak point is water.  My mission is to protect nature."

"I am Marvelous Mercy.  My super power is that I can jump great distances.  My weak point is that I can't control my rage.  My mission is to fight against criminals."

"I am Super Nicole.  My super power is to read minds.   My weak point is that I am afraid of mice.  My mission is to combat crime."

"I am Marvelous Nicol.  My super power is to throw ice.   My weak point is that I am afraid of mice.  My mission is to take care of the environment."

"I am Powerful Nayeli.  My super power is speed.   My weak point is that I am allergic to earth.  My mission is to take care of nature."

Meet the kids' superheroe characters

from SERGIO TORAL:

"I am Super Alberto.  My super power is that I can throw fire.   My weak point is that I am afraid of snakes.  My mission is to protect the people."

"I am Super Candy.  My super power is that I can throw fire.    My weak point is that I am allergic to water.  My mission is to save the animals."

"I am Marvelous Genesis.  My super power is extreme strength.    My weak point is that I am allergic to sunlight.  My mission is to protect the people."

"I am Captain Michael.  My super power is speed.  My Achille's heel is that I am vulnerable to fire.  My mission is to fight agaist crime."

"I am Captain Mirco.  My super power is that I can see the future.  My weak point is that I am vulnerable to kryptonite.  My mission is to save the world."

"I am Fire Man.  My super power is fire.    My weak point is water.  My mission is to protect the world."

Meet the kids' superhero characters

from SOCIO VIVIENDA 2:

Here are some print outs of famous superhero scenes that the kids in Socio Vivienda 2 coloured in and then described the action, in an impromptu Club de Arte session at the side of the football pitch.  A good introduction to storytelling!

Club de Arte 2.07: Superhero logos

THEME OF WEEK 2:07:  My Superhero's Logo

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

and the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  For the children to design a logo for their superhero and to create the final piece of their superhero costume by decorating a t-shirt with the design.


 PROCESS:  
1.  Facilitators wash and iron a batch of plain white, cotton t-shirts which removes the starch in the material in preparation for decoration.
2. Each child chooses a cardboard stencil for the basic outline of the logo.   With the white t-shirt stretched out and taped to the table, draw around the outline with the fabric pens.
3. Pencil in any letters or detail as desired and use any combination of fabric pens, fabric oil pastels and coloured felt to create the design.

 

MATERIALS:   plain white t-shirts, cardboard templates, pencils, fabric pens, fabric pastels, coloured felt, silicone, scissors, masking tape.

 

It was great to see the creativity in the kids´ designs, with lots of them decorating the back as well as the front, plus collars and sleeves. A lot of kids included their names and a number or star on the back of their t-shirt, making the link to footballers´ shirts, which seemed appropriate in the current context of World Cup frenzy.  So here, meet our three teams of Superheroes and Super-heroines:

 

 Nueva Prosperina´s Superhero logos:

Sergio Toral´s Superhero logos:

 Socio Vivienda´s Superhero logos:

When Art Club is running at its best there is a huge amount of camaraderie amongst our kids, with various groups of siblings who are on the whole really supportive and protective of one another.  This photo below is a beautiful symbol for me of the strong bonds of love and friendship between these children that we´re lucky enough to be working with:

 

:-) 

Club de Arte 2.06: Superhero sidekicks and archenemies

THEME OF WEEK 2:06:  My Superhero's Sidekicks and Archenemies

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

and the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  For the children to imagine and draw the sidekicks and archenemies of their superheroes and super-heroines.  (Also for those children who haven´t yet had the opportunity, to create their super-character´s cape.)

 
PROCESS:  
1. Facilitators pre-prepare "create-your-own" sidekick and archenemy sheets, including drawn outlines of various body shapes and heads (including animals), different weapons, shields, tools, hats, boots, capes and belts. 
2. The children use these sheets and / or drawn by hand to create two drawings on one sheet of paper: one of their super-character´s best Sidekick and one of their worst Archenemy.  Give these characters names and imagine their special powers and abilities, write these beside the drawings.
  

3. Children who finish quickly can imagine a scenario where their superhero or heroine character and his or her sidekick have an encounter with their archenemy.  On a separate sheet of paper draw what happens between these three characters when they meet.

Jean Carlos in Socio Vivienda: His original superhero character is "Super ´A`" who is invisible, throws ice from his eyes and has lengthening arms and hands.  Here his sidekick is "Super Carlos" the dog who has a three-speared dagger, can also throw ice from his eyes, hits, can fly and is invisible.  His worst enemy is Cobra the snake who has a hammer, moves quickly and throws water.  In their confrontation Cobra throws water at Super Carlos, who retaliates with ice-rays from his eyes while Super ´A` shouts "eee" from the sidelines.

Adonys in Socio Vivienda: His original superhero character is "Super Humano" who can fly, throw rays from his eyes, fights and saves.  Here his sidekick is "Rovington" the dog who can run really fast, fly and is very strong.  His worst enemy is "Covello" who carries a sword and can stretch his hair as long as possible and is invisible at night. In their encounter Rovington and Super Humano are in a battle of forces with Covello.

MATERIALS: "create-your-own" sidekick and archenemy sheets of drawings, paper to stick to, scissors, glue, silicone, felt pens, pencils, coloured pencils, rubbers and sharpeners.

Meet all of the Super-sidekicks and Archenemies imagined by the children in Socio Vivienda:

SUPERHERO AND HEROINE CAPES:

This week´s Sidekick-Archenemy session was run only with our Socio Vivienda group, with the other two groups being scheduled to create their superhero capes.   This was because during the original week of designing superheroes our Art Club team observed in Socio Vivienda that designing a character from scratch was too big an ask for the majority of children, who therefore moved straight onto making capes.   I then created the "create-your-own" sheets of cut-out-&-stick drawings that the children could use to build up their character designs.  These sheets proved a great success in Sergio Toral and Nueva Prosperina and the children spent the entire session creating their character designs.  The result at the end of that week was that although the majority of kids had created character designs, the children in Socio Vivienda had not had the chance to experiment with the "create-your-own" sheets and neither of the other two groups had had the chance to make capes.  Hence the reason for our plan for this week.

Our session in Sergio Toral was cancelled, however, because of logistical issues connected with the World Cup:  Ecuador were playing at the same as Art Club which meant that the space we have recently begun to use, which is in a local family´s home, was not available.   However we did run the cape-making session in Nueva Prosperina and the kids did a great job in collaborating with we facilitators to adapt rice sacs into superhero outfits using velcro and tape to make the adjustments and permanent marker and Fomix to personalise their designs.  Here our brilliant colleague Ronald demonstrated a real flair for original costume design!  

 

PROCESS:

1. Each child chooses their preferred colour of rice sac and in collaboration with a facilitator decides on how they want it to fit to their body.  Holes are cut for the arms as required, and velcro attached with silicone and staples where necessary. 

2. The children reinforce any cut areas of the rice sacs with masking tape or colourful electrical tape.

3. The children personalise their cape with designs created from Fomix and drawn with permanent markers.

MATERIALS: Rice sacs, masking tape, colourful electrical tape, Fomix, scissors, permanent markers, silicone, velcro, stapler and staples.

Take a look at Nueva Prosperina´s capes....