Art Lesson - Sea Turtle Watercolor

Inspired by the lovely painting "Go For a Swim" by Jennifer Mercede.

Today I spoke with my class about the parts of a sea turtle and how the front flippers are different from the back. We looked at photos of turtles and noticed the different sizes of circles that make up the segments on the body (large for the shell, medium for legs, small for head). 

We used purple-toned oil pastels to outline the body and shell segments, then colored in scribbles of yellow, orange, and pink tones inside the circles. We also used yellow oil pastels to make a "wiggly grid" in the ocean water to give the water movement. I spoke about the sunlight filtering through the water makes colorful reflections on the turtle.

We used green and teal watercolors for the turtle's body and blue for the ocean water. 

I just love how colorful they are!

Art Lesson - Bird on a Wire

I spoke to the class today about warm and cool colors to create our colorful "Bird on a Wire" paintings.

First, we divided colors into warm (red, orange, yellow) and cool (green, blue, purple). Then, I told the children we were going to move the GREEN to the warm side.

We took one piece of water color paper and painted it with our warm colors + green. Abstract shapes filled the paper to the edges. I told the children to try not to overlap colors, but to cover all of the white on the paper. Using thick watercolor is important because I wanted the paper to dry quickly.

We set aside the warm colored pages to dry. Then, we used a second page of water color paper and painted it with blues and purples in horizontal areas. When this was finished, we used black to create some "wires" across the page. We put this page aside to dry.

Taking the warm paper again which was now dry, we flipped it over to draw on the back. I showed the class how to create simple bird shapes. Circle head, pear-shaped body (with heavy bottom), triangles for beach and tail. They drew the birds with sharpie markers on the back of the warm colored papers and then cut them out.

When the background was dry, I showed the class how to place the birds so that they looked like they are sitting on the wire. We used glue sticks to stick the birds down, making sure the bottom of the pear sits on a wire.

Sweet tweets!

Art Lesson - Water Lilies inspired by Claude Monet

Today we painted with oil pastels.  I talked to the children about Claude Monet and his garden in Giverny, France.

We spoke about water reflecting things around it because it has no color.  I told the children to pretend that they were small frogs sitting on top of a lily pad.  What kinds of plants and flowers could be seen around a small pond?

Then, when we paint or draw water, we are really drawing the reflection of the things around it... the sky, flowers, plants, and trees in the garden.

We took colored pencils first to draw the lily pad and flower shapes.  Then we colored our pond with oil pastels on Bristol paper. At the end, we used cotton swabs dipped in baby oil to smear and blend the colors.  This gives the art a painterly look, like Monet's oil paintings.  The baby oil dissolves and blends the colors beautifully.

Art Lesson - Collage inspired by Alma Thomas

Alma Thomas was an African American Expressionist painter from the Washington Color School.  Her brightly colored daubs of oil paint really appealed to the kids.  We discussed the emotional effect of her work and spoke about the colors of the rainbow and how each color   makes you feel.  Starting at the center with a red circle, the kids followed the rainbow to the edges of the page.  We also spoke about how her work resembles mosaic art.

Art Lesson - Blue Dog inspired by George Rodrigue

This week my K-5 art classes tackled the "blue dog" by George Rodrigue.  The children used black crayons to draw the dog and orange crayons to draw the flowers on the grass.  Then they used tempera paint to fill in.  We spoke about warm and cool colors.  We also practiced color mixing with primary colors.  I gave the children blue, yellow, and red paint and they had to mix the orange and green.  I think the expressions on the faces are just are terrific.

Art Lesson - Neon Tigers inspired by Ron Burns

Inspired by the bold animal paintings of Ron Burns, my K-5th grade art classes used oil pastels on black construction paper to make these bold neon tigers.  Grrrrr!

Art Lesson - Metallic Trees inspired by Gustav Klimt

This week my K-5 art classes looked at the gilded paintings of Klimt.  We used black card stock metallic markers to draw trees inspired by his "Tree of Life" painting.  Concentrating on swirls and geometric shapes, the children created patterns on the ground and in the trees.  Some of them used real gold leaf for a finishing touch.

Art Lesson - Torn Paper Landscapes

Sometimes it's fun to just rip paper.  For this project, we used construction paper and glue sticks.  That's it!  Thinking about layering and landscapes, my K-5th grade students made torn paper hills and flowers.

Art Lesson - Valentine's Day Flower Collage

Construction paper valentines showed my K-5th grade classes could practice cutting.  Older children traced their hands.  Younger ones were given hands that were already cut out.  One hand is holding flowers and the other is holding a heart valentine with a message.  Sweet.

Art Lesson - Egyptian Pharaohs

I turned the kids into Pharaohs!  Took photos of them and printed them out.  Cut and pasted onto brown paper.  Then, I had the kids use markers to draw clothing and color with oil pastels.  We talked about geometric shapes like pyramids and triangles.  And we talked about patterns like stripes that are found in textiles.  We also talked about Egyptian paintings on papyrus.  Aren't they great?

Art Lesson - Gumball Machines inspired by Wayne Thiebaud

Today, the kids worked on their version of Wayne Thiebaud's gumball machines using oil pastels on purple paper.  We talked about reflections and shadows.  I think they look so great.  YUM.