Picasso Tinted and Shaded Self-Portrait

Pablo Picasso's Blue Period, in which he painted only blue paintings of sad subject matter, is a good example of how an artist used color to reflect his feelings. Ask children to think of the different feelings associated with colors before they choose the main color for their self-portrait.

1. Show the students how to draw a simple self-portrait with pencil on a heavy piece of paper. It's a good time to review the basic proportions of the face (eyes in middle of oval, nose halfway down, etc.) Have them trace the pencil lines with a black Sharpie marker.
2. Let the students choose one main color - red, blue, green or yellow are good – and distribute on a paper plate with a little black and white. (Acrylic and tempera paints will work for this.) Show the students how they can mix many variations of the main color by adding a little of each color together on the plates.
3. Ask the students to fill in each area of their drawing with a different color of paint. If the paint is thinned well with water, they can paint over some of the black lines if they want.
4. After the entire face and background is painted, let dry. When complete, any black lines that were painted over may be traced again to make them stand out.
This very cool painting was made today by a kindergartener in my afterschool class.

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Sea Turtle Painting

If you look closely at this picture you'll see a lovely texture that was created by...plastic wrap.

1. You need to use true watercolor paper for this. I once ran out and used plain drawing paper – it didn’t work at all. So, give each student a 9" x 12" sheet of watercolor paper and demonstrate how they can draw a sea turtle with ovals, legs and head. They may start their drawing with a pencil, but they then need to trace all the lines with a dark crayon to hide the pencil.
2. I like to use dissolved watercolor tablets. Give the students blue and green watercolor in separate cups, and have them make overlapping splotches of each color all over their drawing. They must use a generous amount of paint. When the paper is really wet, cover the entire paper with a generous section of plastic wrap. Show the students how to push the wrap around until a lot of wrinkles are created. Let the painting dry about an hour or so before you remove the wrap.

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Matisse Pattern Landscape

Henri Matisse, an important French artist, loved all kinds of patterns. Not only the decorative forms he created, but also reproductions of tapestries, embroideries, silks and more. A recent donation of leftover wallpaper inspired this project.
1. I first gave each student a 12" square of chip board for mounting. I passed a variety of wallpapers cut in 12" squares.
2. I asked the students to first choose one main wallpaper for their background and glue it to the chipboard with heavy use of a glue stick.
3. The next step was to choose a ground color and cut a horizon to glue over the background paper.
4. I showed the students how to draw a tree trunk on the back of the wallpaper to cut out and glue it over the ground and background. Tree tops were drawn on another piece of wallpaper to cut out and glue over the top of the trunks. Repeat this step in various sizes. Simplicity of all the shapes is encouraged.

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Watercolor Terrarium

This project can be modified by drawing the jar as a simple silhouette or with dimensional ovals as shown.

1. I cut jar templates from letter-size chip board and gave one to each student. I had them trace the jar in pencil on a 9" x 12" paper.
2. Limit the early crayon color selection to minimize mistakes. Students traced the jar in blue and drew a ground line in green. Then the plants were drawn above the ground, and roots were drawn in white below. I found that going straight to crayon worked fine. Sometimes drawing in pencil and then tracing slows the process down. Lastly, flowers were added to the plants. Emphasize that the coloring needs to be heavy so they should press hard throughout.
3. I distributed watercolor paints and had the students use different colors for the ground, the jar and the background.

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Art Journaling 121

This is a quick bonus project I used in my last rainy-day Art Journal Class. I’m always on the lookout for ways to layer art, and these tissue paper rain drops worked really well.
1. As an intro, I asked all the students to make a border around a new page. Could be straight, scallop, zig-zag, anything to add a little more interest. After the pencil lines were done, they were traced with a thin black marker.
2. I asked the students to write a quick paragraph about rain, whether they liked it or not, and what memories it might bring. A title was added to the top, something large and decorative. Young students could just right the word rain on their page in big fancy letters.
3. I had cut out a lot of tissue rain drops beforehand as the paper can be a challenge for young ones (you have to cut lots of layers at a time). These were passed out to each student. I foresaw problems with kinders overusing the rubber cement, so I walked around and brushed spots of glue on the pages where they pointed to. The tissue drops were placed on top, where they laid nice and flat.

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Abraham Lincoln Mural

On Feb. 12th, our country celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, commemorating the life of our extraordinary 16th president.

This template contains 36 pages and measures 48"x 60" when complete. Color callouts to match this original can be found on each page. You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button below to make your payment and receive download instructions.

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Student Art Gallery

Thanks so much to Brad V. and his 4th grade class in Alexandra PS. They sent in samples of one of their latest projects, Ivory Coast animal drawings. I adore all the patterns they put in their animals, and all the bright color around them. What terrific pieces of art, kids!

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Art Journaling 120

I find that students often think that art equals drawing and if they are not good at drawing, they are not good at art. I try to show them that drawing skills come from taking the time to see details, and lots of practice.
1. With a journal or drawing paper, ask the students to trace their hands with a pencil.
2. Once they are happy with their hands, they are to take either a thin marker or pen and draw in as many line details as they can (nails, wrinkles, etc.)
3. Lastly they chose a line pattern and completely fill in the background. The goal is to have them get into a kind of “doodle” trance, which is a great place to be!
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Five

2.2 Create gesture and contour observational drawings.

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Art Journaling 119

These umbrellas are cut out from patterned scrapbook paper. It’s raining cats and dogs here in LA so I thought this would be a good theme for my next after-school Art Journal class.
1. I started with tracing different size circles onto the pattern paper, drawing a scallop line through the middle, and cutting each out. I made one large, one medium, and one smaller circle so all my umbrellas would be different sizes.
2. After arranging them on my journal page, I glued them down with a glue stick. Black lines were drawn on each to indicate the spokes, and then handles were drawn underneath.
3. I used a thin blue marker to draw lines of rain coming down, which stopped at each umbrella. Pencil crayon was added to add more color to the background.
4. Most students have heard of the "Rain, rain, go away..." poem, so it is an easy one for them to write somewhere on their page.

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Chuck Close Self Portrait

Chuck Close is an American painter and photographer who first achieved fame as a photorealist. This project, which imitates his style, takes a bit of planning, but the results can be spectacular.

1. Take digital photos of the students. With my computer graphics software, I cropped the faces in Photoshop and printed them out (black & white) to fill an 8" x 10" box. Cut out all the photos.
2. Create and print an 8" x 10" grid sheet filled with a 1" lines for each student. Cut out all the grids. Cut sheets of carbon paper that are 8" x 10" square. Stack the photo on the carbon on the grid paper. Tape together. The students are to trace all the edges of their faces on the photo, which will transfer to the grid.
3. Once the face edge lines are on the grid paper, instruct the students to pick a pair of pencil crayons each for the face, neck, background and hair. Each square in these areas is to be filled with any kind of shapes and patterns, but only with the chosen pair of colors. Repeat until all the areas are filled. The eyes look best just colored normally without any patterns.

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Art Journal Page

I like to encourage kids to make layered pages in their art journals. I ask them not write entries NEXT to their pictures, but to place them OVER their pictures to make the entry part of the art.

1. I had some old maps on hand and gave each student a section. I had them cut out a few simple shapes that reminded them of traveling and mounted them using glue sticks.
2. Next, they used watercolor and/or colored pencils to fill in the background. The entire page should be filled in.
3. Then, they added their story, poem or journal entry using a permanent marker or pen to prevent bleeding.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Three
2.1 Explore ideas for art in a personal sketchbook.

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Butterfly Collage

Just about any Eric Carle book can make a good visual aid to this project.
1. It is important to begin with quality watercolor paper, one that has texture on one side. Give each student two 9" x 9" sheets – one is for painting and one is to save for the background.
2. Distribute a wide (1" or more) flat brush, acrylic paints, a paper plate and scrap paper to each student. Demonstrate how the students can dispense a little paint on the paper plate, spread it on the scrap paper until streaks start to show, and then apply it to the watercolor paper, textured side up. Each student should fill their paint sheet mostly with the main butterfly color, and then smaller sections for the antenna, rectangle body, and details.
3. Once the paint is dry, the butterfly wings need to be cut out. Older students can cut one wing out, flop it and trace for the opposite side. Younger students may need a template they can trace.
4. After all the butterfly wings, body, antenna and details are cut out, arrange them on the remaining sheet of paper. Once the cutting is complete, everything can be glued down with white glue.

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Winter Birch Trees

My school is doing a holiday fundraiser this fall, and I think I may use this project as it makes a nice winter scene. It also is a good example of how the contrast of white on dark can really have a lot of visual impact.
1. Starting with a 9" square of watercolor paper, I taped a border around the edge with 1" painter’s masking tape. Then I cut thick and thin strips for trees that touched the top and the bottom of the border. It's important that these strips are cut with wavy edges, and not just full strips of tape. Branches may be added, along with a moon. All the edges need to be smoothed and pressed down.
2. I used Prussian Blue watercolor that was watered down and spread the paint over the entire picture. I wanted to add some texture, so I sprinkled salt on the wet paint as soon as it went on the paper. Let dry thoroughly.
3. Rub the salt off the picture and peel off the tape (careful not to tear the paper). I used acrylic with paint and a small brush to paint little snowflake dots. If any of the paint leaked into the trees, your can use this paint to cover up those spots.
4. With very watery blue paint, add the little bark stripes on the left and right of the trees and branches.
5. Again with very watery blue paint, add a thin shadow stripe on the same side of all the trees and branches.

CA Visual Art Standard: Grade Four
2.7 Use contrast (light and dark) expressively in an original work of art.

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George Washington Mural

 On Feb. 15th we celebrate Presidents Day, commemorating the births of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

This template contains 36 pages and measures 48"x 60" when complete. Color callouts to match this original can be found on each page. You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button below to make your payment and receive download instructions.

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Art Trading Cards, or ATCs

Art Trading Cards are miniature works of art (2.5" x 3.5") that fit inside standard card sleeves. This type of art was started in Switzerland in 1996 and grew out of an interest in mail art. ATCs are now produced all over the world in various media, including pencils, pens, markers, watercolor, acrylic paints, collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.
I’m starting an afterschool ATC Class next week, and am working out ideas to do with the kids. I usually have a lot of really young ones, like kinder and 1st grade, so I’m trying to keep the art really simple.
1. I started with watercolor paper, and drew some simple ocean life shapes in pencil. (I actually got inspired by art from one of my favorite coffee cups.) During class, I will probably draw these on the board to help the kids get started. I plan to have a different theme for each class, so this one will “Sea Life” or something like that.
2. After my drawings were done, I traced them with a black Sharpie marker.
3. I used my favorite Prismacolor® watercolor pencils to color and paint the cards. (Sorry Crayola®, I use your watercolor pencils to stir paint!)
4. After the cards were dry, I went back with my fine point Stabilio® markers and drew some details in the cards.

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Senofu Spirit Drawings

The Senufo people of West Africa’s Ivory Coast are renowned for their cloth paintings. They believe their artwork has special meaning and helps protect them in their daily lives. Design motifs usually include birds, snakes, fish, frogs, crocodiles, and turtles as seen from above or side, covered with lots of geometric patterns.
1. I had to substitute manila paper for cloth, but someday would like to try this on muslin. I had the students draw a border around their paper the width of a ruler. I drew some very simple animal shapes on the board for them to refer to. They were to pick their favorite and draw it as large as they could in the middle of their paper. When complete, the animals were filled with geometric patterns as well as the border.
2. After the patterns are all drawn, I had the students trace the animal and border with a fat black Sharpie and the inside patterns with a thin one.
3. When coloring with oil pastels, I explained that the Senofu people thought all animals had spirits and often outlined them with a thick band of yellow to represent that kind of energy. Lastly, the background was colored whatever color they wanted. The borders were to remain with patterns only and no extra color.

CA Art Standard: Grade Four
4.4 Identify and describe how various cultures define and value art differently.

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Ode to Georgia O’Keeffe Poppy Mural

The artistic brilliance of Georgia O'Keeffe revolutionized modern art. With her paintings she vividly portrayed the power and emotion of objects of nature. One of her most famous paintings, Oriental Poppies is full of brilliant color and measures 30 inches tall and over 40 inches wide.

My Poppy Mural has 28 pages to color and measures 54" by 40" when complete.You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button below to make your payment and receive download instructions.

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Friendship Bracelet Book Winners

It’s time to announce the two lucky winners of the Klutz Friendship book giveaway.
Thank you readers for all your really kind comments about my blog. I wish I could give a book to all 113 of you, but alas there can only be two winners. The winning screen names I randomly selected are: “Gerky” and “sew happy Stacy”. Congratulations ladies, you win 2 books each – one to keep and one to give away. Please email me your addresses so the books can be sent on their way. Thanks again to Klutz Publications for this great giveaway!

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Landscape with Hatching Shading

Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines. A simple landscape drawing is a good place to practice this kind of shading.
1. I drew the outline of a house on a small piece of paper and added horizon lines and a curved road narrowing into the distance.
2. With the outline complete, I added hatching to the house with the lines following each contour. I then filled in the landscape and sky, changing the direction of the lines to give contrast to each element.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Grade 3
2.3 Paint or draw a landscape, seascape, or cityscape that shows the illusion of space.

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How to Draw a Lion

I saw this basic idea for drawing a lion in an Ed Emberley book. I think his books have been around for awhile, but the step-by-step drawing ideas are timeless.
1. I used a letter-size paper and coffee cup to trace the overlapping circles as shown in diagram one.
2. A third circle is centered below the first two. All of the circles need to overlap to create the middle triangle-like shape that will become the nose.
3. The middle black shape is filled in with black marker, and two eyes and two teeth are added.
4. Two ears are attached to the top circles and then whiskers that are coming out from the shapes next to the nose.
5. Lastly, a mane is drawn around the lion. I used a black Sharpie to trace and color my drawing, and then my new favorite Crayola Twistables Slick Stix to color in. I found mine at Michael’s, but you can also get them online here. I really hope stores continue to stock these as they are perfect for getting an oil pastel look without all the mess.

CA Art Standard: Creative Expression 2.0, Kindergarten
2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms (circle, triangle, square) in a work of art.

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