Hilary White shows how
Atableau is a three-dimensional picture that shows a moment frozen in time.
Traditionally, a tableau was created by people posing like statues, but you can also make a miniature tableau using a cardboard backdrop and cut-out photos or drawings.
MAKING THE BACKDROP
Whatever kind of backdrop you want to make, the basic technique is the same. It can be any size, although children cope better with working on a large scale. Check the size of the figures you want to add and make sure they are in proportion to your backdrop.
You will need:
a large piece of stiff card (corrugated card from a packing box works well); lightweight card in different colours (white for clouds, green and brown for trees, grey and red for houses); sticky tape; scissors; PVA glue; felt pens and paint; pieces of sponge; 1 metre of ribbon, approximately 1cm in width What to do:
* Cut out a large rectangle of stiff card and fold it in half to be the backdrop. Sponge-paint the top half blue to represent a sky, and the bottom half - the base - green, grey or black, depending on whether it represents grass, pavements or a road. Cut out clouds of white card and stick them to the sky.
* Draw and cut out trees, bushes and houses from coloured card, leaving a strip of 1cm to 2cm of card at the bottom of each cut-out. Add details with paint, felt pens or collage. When the figure is finished, fold the strip of card to create a 'foot'. Make sure the fold has a strong crease so that the figure stands upright, then tape the foot to the base of the backdrop.
* Decide where to position your cut-out people, cars, animals and whatever else you are adding. Encourage the children to explore different arrangements before finally taping on their figures.
* When the backdrop is complete, tape a length of ribbon to each side of the backdrop, running from the back of the sky to the bottom of the base.
As long as the ribbons are taut, they will keep the sky at right angles to the base and prevent it from flopping backwards.
Tip: a squat cut-out figure tends to stand up better than a tall, thin figure. Encourage children to create trees with wide trunks and bungalows rather than skyscrapers. Enhance the 3D effect by positioning larger figures such as trees and houses towards the back and smaller figures near the front.
CREATING THE TABLEAU
Once you have made your backdrop, the possibilities for turning it into a tableau are endless. Explore different ways of making figures. If you cut figures from paper, mount them on card and make a foot so that you can tape them to the base of the backdrop.
The backdrop can also be used as a toy theatre. Instead of taping down the cut-out figures, fix them with a little piece of Blu-tack so they can be moved around in a mini drama. You can also use free-standing fantasy figures, toy cars or model animals in your theatre.
Animal park: choose a category of animals such as pets, African game, wildlife or the farmyard, and create a suitable backdrop. Use collage materials as well as paint to make a background - for example, sand, sandpaper, straw, dried leaves, small pebbles and twigs. Dark green pan scourers make effective bushes and you can also create authentic-looking water features by pouring PVA glue on to card and letting it dry to a clear, glassy finish. Cut out animals from magazines, or get older children to draw and cut out their own animals. Give little ones ready-cut animal shapes to decorate, using collage scraps such as fur fabric, felt, wool for manes and tails and cotton wool for sheep.
Family photos: cut out full-length photos of family members. Alternatively, cut out body shapes and stick cut-out faces to the heads. Use scraps of fabric to make collage clothes for the people. Encourage older children to arrange the figures in chronological order - grandparents near the back of the backdrop, new baby sister at the front.
A favourite story: copy or trace characters from the pages of a book or comic, or colour photocopy the characters to cut out, mount on card and tape on to your backdrop.
Traffic jam: paint the base of your backdrop black and stick on strips of white card to make the lines down the centre of the road. Cut out different vehicles from magazines, mount them on card and tape them to the road.
A memento: take photos during a trip to the zoo, a birthday party or an afternoon at the seaside. Recreate an appropriate backdrop and then add figures from the photos. A tableau of a special event, such as a wedding anniversary party, makes a lovely memento for grandparents.
