Craft Tutorial: Story of Prophet Yunus AS

 

 

 

This craft is based on the story of the prophet Yunus (Jonah)  AlayhisSalam who was swallowed by a giant fish or whale.

In class I always start with a simplified version of the story but don’t tell the whole thing, so when I get to the part where Yunus AlayhisSlam is stuck inside the whale, I promise to tell them how he got out after we finish our craft. That way I have avid listeners at the end when I need them to quite down.

For this craft you will need:

• Watercolour paper
• Watercolour paints, you can get inexpensive ones at the dollar store but go for the best quality you can afford, especially if you use them often.
• Oil pastels or crayons
• A whale template: I got one here (optional)
• Bubble wrap, cling film, salt (optional)

Start by drawing your whale. You can look at online “how to draw” tutorials, there are some simple ones here. Or you can just look at photos or images and freehand it.

To search for uncopyrighted images I use wikimedia commons, most images are published under a GNU free document licence or a creative commons licence.

 

When you are happy with your whale, use an oil pastel to draw on a piece of watercolour paper, just outlines not too many details. The oil pastel will repel the watercolours when we start to paint.

 

Before you start painting, use masking tape to tape down your watercolour paper to a board or even your work surface, this will minimize warping of the paper. I used a piece of stiff cardboard.

Paint the inside of the whale.

 

 

For the sea bed, paint a thin layer of clean water onto the bottom area only, add in drops of paint and watch them spread and blend.

 

 

Then paint the sea around the whale. I ended up doing a layer of blue over the sea bed, it just felt too bright.

 

Optional: press some cling wrap into the wet paint to create lines, I actually didn’t like this when it dried, so I painted another layer of blue over the whole thing

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I still got quite a bit of warping in this painting. I think it must be the quality of the paper.

 

 

 

At this point younger kids will probably we done and their artwork will look great, but for older kids try making some more sea creatures.

 

 

 

Use a separate piece of watercolour paper and in the same way, draw using an oil pastel and paint over, then cut them out and glue on to main piece.

While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled salt over the starfish to add texture and pressed bubble wrap over the body of the tutle to create the pattern of the shell.

 

Adding texture with salt and bubble wrap

 

Finally, use a coloured pencil to add any missing detail, I wanted to add in the webbing on the whale’s belly and some bubbles.

 

When the piece has dried completely remove the tape.

 

Still looked like something was missing so I added some fish.

We used drying time for cleanup and to tell the rest of the story.. How did yunus AlayhisSalam get out of the whale’s tummy. And we all practiced his Duaa “la ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu mnath thalimeen” for anytime when we are in need of help.

 

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“And [mention] the man of the fish, when he went off in anger and thought that We would not decree [anything] upon him. And he called out within the darknesses, “There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.” (Qur’an 21:87)