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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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:...

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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...

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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...

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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 Three2.1 Explore...

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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,...

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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...

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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 instructio...

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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...

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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...

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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 instructio...

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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 32.3 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...

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