Patterned Hands

My experience in graphic arts enables me make up my own templates for new art projects. In this case I added a diagonal line to my graph, but alternating squares will work fine too.1. Give each student a square paper that has the (lightly) printed 5/8" grid, with a diagonal line slicing through each box. Have them trace their hand in the middle of the paper, in pencil.2. The students are to pick just two pencil crayons for their picture. In the example shown, the student chose pink and blue. She colored everything inside the hand pink, but changed the coloring density on the top and bottom triangles to make one light and one dark. If you have...

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Self-Portrait Painting

Years ago I taught my first self-portrait project in my son's 2nd grade classroom. They've since become a favorite of students and their parents and have served as great fundraising tools. 1. I started with 5" x 7" canvas panels and an assortment of acrylic paint. It helps if you include lots of skin tones, as well as other bright colors when purchasing your paint. During the first class session, I had the students just choose one color and paint the entire background. Let dry for at least one day.2. Distribute small brushes and paint. Ask the students to paint in an oval face and then a neck. A simple shirt is painted below and the hair is added...

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3D Laurel Burch Cat

You can use this idea to turn any silhouette into a 3-dimensional shape. Just make sure you use a thick paper so your design will stand up nice and straight.1. I love using Laurel Burch's cats as inspiration for projects, her style is so fun to imitate. I made a two cardboard templates of a silhouette (see picture) and had the students trace each onto the heaviest watercolor paper I could find.2. Each student is to cut out their two cats, including the narrow slits. They need to be about 1/32" wide to accommodate the thick paper. Test sliding the cats together to make sure the slits are working.3. The students may then draw in pencil their cat...

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Monet Water Lilies

Claude Monet (1840-1926) painted directly from nature and revealed that even on the gloomiest of days, an infinite number of colors can and do exist. To capture these fleeting hues, Monet created a new painting technique using short brushstrokes filled with individual color. The result was a canvas alive with painterly activity, the opposite of the smooth blended surfaces of the past. 1. I presorted some oil pastels so that students had only yellow, peach, pink, light green and white available to choose from. As a follow-along drawing, I asked them to first color one large yellow lily (which is much the shape of a tulip) and then one...

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Gold and Black Greek Vases

My quest for multi-cultural art continues, which has led me to a new media combo that I really like. It’s using food wrap paper like this, markers and tempera paint. I actually ran out of drawing paper and tried out this food wrap that was left over from an old project. It makes for a very “breezy” painting that doesn't wrinkle like the others. More tests to continue...1. I had the students fold their 12" x 12" food wrap paper in half and crease. With a pencil, they could draw half of a large vase, preferably using up as much of the paper as possible. When complete, they traced it with a large, chisel-tip black Sharpie. With the paper still folded,...

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Plants in a Jar

I'm always looking for new ways of using white crayons that “magically” appear when painted. This can be integrated with a science lesson on plants and root systems.1. I cut jar templates from letter-size chip board and gave one to each student. Have them trace the jar in pencil on a 9" x 12" paper.2. Limit the early crayon color selection to minimize mistakes. Students were to trace the jar in blue and draw a ground line in green. Then the plants could be drawn above the ground, and a root was 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,...

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Joan Miro Watercolor Painting

Joan Miro was a Spanish artist who developed a very whimsical style back in the 1930’s. His painting called “People and Dog in Sun” is  fun to imitate by drawing stick figures, stars and circles.1. Give each student a 9" x 12" piece of watercolor paper and pencil. They are to draw one large stick figure in the middle, preferably in some action pose. Miro often repeated shapes in his work so ask the students to add more shapes to their art but ONLY by using lines and dots. At least two of the shapes need to intersect (overlap) to make more shapes to color.2. After the pencil drawing is done, the students need to trace it heavily with a black...

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How to Draw a Cubist Portrait

Many 3rd graders in California learn that Picasso’s cubism was about seeing two sides of something at the same time. Here is a breakdown of steps that I use, which I hope are helpful.1. Give each student a 9" x 12" piece of black construction paper. Have them fold the paper in half vertically so they have a middle line. Then they are to make a light pencil mark in the middle, and then in the middle of each of those sections as in Diagram 1.2. A profile line is drawn down the middle, with the top of the nose hitting the top quarter mark, the bottom of the nose hitting the middle mark, and the bottom of the chin hitting the bottom quarter mark....

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How to Draw King Tut

This lesson can be a good supplement to a history lesson on Egypt.1. Working with large paper (at least 11" x 17") have the students fold the paper in half vertically so that the face can be centered easily. Start by showing them how to draw a large "U" in the middle that is centered on the fold. A line closes the top, and another parallel line is added below.2. The face may be filled in next. This can be a good time to review proportions of most faces. A key addition to making the Egyptian look is to add the lines on the outside of the eyes.3. Add neck lines below the head, and a headpiece that curves in at the bottom.4. Stripes are added to...

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Ceramic Planter Face

Last fall I applied for (and happily won!) my first grant with this project that combines both art and science. I proposed that many elementary art standards include making a three dimensional sculpture, while their science studies often cover the study of plants. Making this ceramic planter and then planting seeds for hair makes watching the growth process just a bit more fun.What I learned: Turning a slab of clay into a cylinder worked pretty well for 4th and 5th graders. Any younger and it was a struggle. I tried having K – 3 make a pinch pot with a face, but they too often turned into bowls with a face, which wasn’t the same concept. Here...

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Scratch Art Landscape

You don't have to buy expensive scratch art paper, if you have some good oil pastels, you can make your own.1. Give the students a heavy card stock sheet of paper, 8.5" x 11" is good. With a pencil, ask them to draw at least 3 simple upside-down curves to represent hills. Next they are to draw a circle sun somewhere in the sky, and then add concentric circles around it until the sky is filled. No houses or trees are needed.2. Next the pencil lines are to be traced with a fat, black sharpie.3. Ask the students to color in all the shapes with oil pastels, coloring slowly so that no paper shows when complete. Bright colors are best (yellow, red,...

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Mexican Landscape

Diversity Day is approaching, so I’m trying to integrate each classroom’s chosen country into their art lessons. No small task, but for some reason I enjoy the challenge. A second grade class made this drawing today, which was an exercise in drawing close shapes large and far shapes small.1. I started with colored paper so that the houses could be colored a nice, bright white. With a pencil, a horizon line was drawn about 1/3 of the way down the paper. I asked the students to draw a vertical wavy road, and then add at least three houses along that road. The closest house was to be the largest, the next smaller, and so on. I demonstrated some...

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Delaunay Marker Drawing

Sonia Delaunay was a ground-breaking female artist who made some wonderful abstract paintings known for their rhythm and color. My goal was to have the students learn that if they used repeating shapes and colors in their art, they could create a very rhythmic picture too.1. I found a vital piece of equipment at Michael’s, a circle scissor that helped me make dozens of circles from 1" to 6" wide out of card stock paper. I passed out both the inside and the outside circle shapes to trace, along with a ruler. The goal was to have a picture filled with shapes that are limited to full circles and half circles, but no other kind of splices. The...

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Scherenschnitte-style Drawing

Scherenschnitte, which means “scissor cuts” in German, is the art of papercutting. This work often has lots of symmetry, and common forms include silhouette and portrait images. I needed a German-themed art project this week, so I had my 4th graders draw a bold German mask to imitate the look of Scherenschnitte, as sharp scissors or knives were not an option for this age group.1. One of my biggest internet finds last year was ClipartETC.com. They have thousands of etching-style drawings that are very easy to browse through. I decided to use several of their German mask images, like this one, and printed the largest out on a letter-size paper....

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Mandala Drawing on a CD

A mandala is an abstract design that is usually circular in form. In fact, “mandala” is a Sanskrit word that means “circle”. Mandalas generally have one center point from which radiate an assortment of shapes and designs. Radial symmetry is the cornerstone of any mandala design.1.  I wanted to start with a bright background on my old CD, so I spray painted it white until it was totally opaque. After it was dry, I brushed it with some watery glue to make a more slippery surface. I learned that would help keep my markers from plugging up later on.2.  After the glue was druy, I used a ruler and...

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Folk Art Bird

One of the main features of Folk Art is that it is made by untrained artists. In this lesson I encouraged students to paint and draw with a very rough and sketchy style. This time, neatness doesn't count!Week 1: Give the students large pieces of butcher paper, about 12" x 18". They are to paint a one-color large bird in the middle, in profile. The background gets painted black, deliberately leaving a bit of paper edge around the bird and the paper edge.Week 2: With oil pastels, the students are to add detail to the bird, such as legs, eyes, beak, etc. The background is to be filled with lots of line patterns. Finally the painting gets glued to...

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Mondrian Watercolor Painting

Piet Mondrian became a master of geometric shapes in abstract art. There are many ways to imitate his style of painting, but I like this one best as the crayon naturally creates a wall between the watercolors.1. With a ruler, the students are to draw lightly draw about 4 parallel horizontal lines across a piece of watercolor paper, and then about 4 vertical lines.2. Ask them to randomly erase about 4 sections of the horizontal lines.3. Next the students need to add about 5 lines, in any direction, chopping up any the the large rectangles to make some small ones. The goal is to have relatively even amount of large, medium and small shapes...

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Cityscape with Clouds

I keep learning the importance of keeping new techniques simple, simple, simple, especially when working with 5 and 6-year olds. This week my afterschool watercolor class made a cityscape with lots of puffy clouds.1. I gave my students 11" x 15" watercolor paper, a pencil and lots of scrap cardboard rectangles. After drawing a ground line, they could arrange and trace the rectangles however they wanted to create their cityscape. Roofs, doors and windows were added in pencil before the oil pastel tracing was done. I like pastels instead of crayons because they just make a more intense outline.2. After the tracing was complete, the buildings were...

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Animals Eyes

Learning how to draw well involves paying attention to detail, which is what this project focuses on.1. Color copies of enlarged animal eye photos are needed for each student. If you have a color printer and access to the internet, go to www.gettyone.com and search for animal face photos. Or if you have magazines and a scanner and color printer, you can make your own. A variety of eyes from fish, tigers, elephants, etc. are helpful so the students can choose one that they find most interesting.2. Crop the photos so that they are all in a square format and draw a line through the middle in both directions. Give the students a square blank paper...

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Cliff Dwelling Landscape

I found this landscape to be especially successful with boys, who love the idea of drawing their own fortresses with ladders, windows, etc.1. Hand out 18" x 12" sheets of drawing paper. Starting on one side of the paper, demonstrate to the students how to draw a continuous line with perpendicular angles up and down to create the first layer of buildings. Students should only draw with a chalk pastel as pencils tend to lead to too much detail. This line should generally be near the bottom section of the paper. The students are to fill in this layer in with color, and blend the color into the paper with their fingers.2. Next they draw another...

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Paint and Trace Watercolor Flowers

This project worked well for kinders through 5th grade last week. I basically had students draw or “fill in” the flowers first with their paint brushes, and then trace the edges afterward. My other projects almost always begin with traced drawings so this backwards approach gave the students a different perspective and different results.1. With medium size brushes, liquid watercolor paint and white card stock paper, I had the students paint three flower tops and then a few stems and leaves below.2. To keep this a one-class project, I handed out paper towels and had the students gently apply it on top to absorb any extra paint. This sometimes...

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Watercolor Scaredy Cat

One of my goals with my afterschool watercolor class is to teach students that they can control the paint if they pay attention to when their paper is wet or when it is dry. This cat has clean edges because it's painted on dry paper. The stripes are fuzzy because they were added while wet.1. My class is large and full of kinders so I gave the students a paper with the outline of the cat head drawn in pencil. I think 2nd or 3rd graders could do this step themselves. I did a follow-along drawing on the board showing students how to make the arched back, belly and legs, and then the tail and face details.2. Once the drawing was complete,...

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House Collage

This is a fill-in-the-blanks kind of challenge for students, which can be easier than starting a drawing from scratch.I looked online for architecture photos, and printed them out in black and white. You could also just xerox magazine photos. Look for a variety of images, making sure to have a selection of house parts including windows, doors, roofs. And feel free to include some landscaping too.2. Give each student a paper (could be black or white), a selection of photos, and glue stick. They are to take about 5 or 6 different house parts, cut them out and glue them down with space between each.3.With colored pencils (I like these from Dick...

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Finish the Doodle Picture

I found this wonderful exercise at illustration.com. Try giving your students a page with several unfinished doodles, and just watch what they come up with!1. I gave one doodle sheet to each student – even as young as 1st grade – and told them the line drawings were just the beginning of something that they were to finish. If they had trouble seeing something, they could rotate the paper until some other ideas came.2. Have the students draw the image in pencil, trace with a black marker, and color in with colored pencils. I can still recall my favorite drawing where a young girl not only saw a rabbit, but a rabbit hiding BEHIND...

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How to Draw a Cat

I've never had a student say that they didn't want to draw a cat. They make a great subject matter for boys and girls of all ages.1. I first made 3.5" cardboard circle templates. Each student was instructed to place their circle near the top left of an 8.5" x 11" paper. The circle is traced, and then slid down near the bottom of the paper, and traced again, very lightly.2. The cat body is drawn by making curves that go from the neck down, adding space around the circle. The reason for this is that we want the bottom of the cat to be wider than the head. When complete, erase the bottom circle.3. The eyes, nose, mouth, collar and whiskers are...

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How to Draw a House

I had great success with this project for kinders recently. Several even came back later saying they went home to draw more houses. Love it when that happens!1. I printed out 1/4" graph paper on 17" x 11" paper to help the students draw straight lines. Using just plain white paper would probably be fine though too. Start by showing the students how to draw a straight horizontal line for the ground. A basic house shape is added above it, sitting a bit to the left of the paper.2. Show the students how to draw two horizontal lines for the edges of the roof. If possible, ask them to make them approximately the same length.3. Starting at the top line,...

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Felt-Covered Journal

This project is good for smaller groups as it requires purchasing a few items, albeit inexpensive ones.1. Gather or buy chip board and cut to a 6"x9" size, two for each student. Cut 9"x12" drawing paper in half to match the chip board. Place about 1/2" stack of drawing paper between the boards and take to Staples or the equivalent to have wire bound on one side. Have one book made for each student.2. Cut oversized felt rectangles and pin together to make two sleeves for the book. Show the students how to make a whip stitch around the cardboard edges with colorful embroidery floss. When complete, pin and stitch the two sleeves together on the...

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