Student Art from Georgia

This student art was sent in by Laura Kim of Roswell, Georgia. She was writing to share what her students did with my Landscape Collage project, and I just adore the results, so whimsical and colorful. I would challenge any professional artist to match the personality shown in these. Below is Laura’s description of how her students created their art.“First day we talked about landscapes and I had the kids paint a 9x12 paper with turquoise tempera cakes. After that, we talked about painting pages from an old book in an effort to recycle. I also talked about getting permission to rip up an old book. I demonstrated to the children how to paint...

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Chagall Inspired Watercolor

Marc Chagall, one of the most successful artists of the 20th century, created many paintings that were a dreamlike, surreal tribute to his native village of Vitebsk. In order to have students connect with the idea of Surrealism, I’m going to have them create a painting that has some elements upside down, and some out of scale with each other.1. I’m going to do a follow-along drawing with the students just to get them started with the idea of making a mixed up drawing. On a 11" x 15" watercolor paper, I will ask them to make a curved horizon line near the bottom third of the paper. A few buildings will be added on top (in my case, the entry to...

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Art Journaling 131

I’ve been wanting to start a rubber stamp collection for the longest time, and finally broke down and bought a few at Michael’s for my next art journal class. The stamps can be a bit pricey but, they're so much fun to work with. This is a simple grid layout that I think all age groups can enjoy.1. Given the size of my stamps, I’m going to guide the students to make a pencil grid that fits the largest and smallest of the stamps on hand.2. Each student will be asked to stamp one image in each section, rotating them as wherever possible.3. Some writing is added to each section whether it’s just the name of the leaf or a short poem or phrase.4. Lastly,...

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Kinder Portfolio Art Project

I found this art and book combination over at Teach Kids Art. The book by Peter Reynolds titled “The Dot” is short and sweet and has a wonderful art message. And the simple lesson of just painting lots of dots on a posterboard was fun without having a lot of directions to follow.1. I prefolded 28" x 22" posterboard almost in half, leaving about 4" extending on one side. This is saved for the student’s name. (Make sure any shiny surfaces are on the inside as the paint will not stick to it.)2. Each student received their posterboard face up, along with several spillproof cups of liquid watercolor. “Dip, dip, wipe, wipe” was explained for those...

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Kinder Line Art Project

Starting a kinder art class with a book is very helpful in establishing focus but can also be an opportunity to merge the art lesson with their other studies. Kinders in CA start off the year learning about horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. Finding just the right book can often be a test but, I think this one is near perfect. “Little Green” by Keith Baker has beautiful illustrations of a hummingbird flying in zig-zags, loop-de-loops, and various patterns across the pages. 1. Each student is given a large sheet of paper, 11" x 17" or so, and a thick black marker. Following my sample on the board, I have them draw a zig-zag line from edge...

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$25 Gift Card Drawing Winner

And the drawing winner is. . .Blog-on, who wrote:That movie was simply...amazing. After each phrase, I thought, "that is SO true." I am a constant witness to it's true-ness...I adore every moment with my low economic status, non english speaking 2nd graders! They deserve wonderful life experiences...time and time again!Congratulations and please email me your mailing address.And thank you to Mudpies and Butterflies for sponsoring this giveaway.My friend over at Mudpies and Butterflies is offering my visitors a chance to win a $25 VISA Gift Card just for watching a brief but poignant video homage to teachers. To enter, leave a comment about the video at this posting along with your contact information by Friday, Sept. 24th at midnight. I will randomly draw for the winner on Saturday,...

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Watercolor & Crayon Name

You can give your painting skills a practice while you make a pretty sign for your home or classroom.1. I recommend starting with some kind of watercolor paper as it will make a big difference in the brightness of the paint color. Working with a wide format paper, have the students draw five equal horizontal sections that are about the same width, using a pencil and ruler. Centering tip: Students mark the center of the paper and then figure out what the middle letters are in each part of their full name. In my case, I made my letter "T" in the middle, and then added the "KA" to the left, and "HY" to the right. They can do the same with their...

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Watercolor Alphabet

This was my after school watercolor project this afternoon, a crayon resist alphabet grid idea that I found over at artsonia.com. I wanted the students to learn that they can control where their paint spreads, by literally making little “walls” of crayon. This colorful painting was made by Lara, a talented 1st grader.1. I started with 11" x 15" watercolor paper, and drew a grid out in pencil for each student. Five rows across and five down made 25 rectangles. I explained to the students that they were to write one letter of the alphabet in each, but needed to “cheat” in one of the spaces and squeeze two in to make all the letters fit.2. After...

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Art Journaling 131

I like to try new products on the market, and had fun today with Crayola’s new “Mixing Mediums”. They’ve made “Texture It”, “Pearl It” and “Glitter It” paint which are designed to add some special effects to your artwork. Adding the glitter paint to my journal leaf page added a nice little sparkle, and inspired my quote.1. To draw a nice big maple leaf on my page, I followed the steps in my post “How to Draw a Maple Leaf”. When I was done, I traced my leaf with a black Sharpie.2. My background is made from cut strips of tissue paper, which are glued down with a glue stick. I’m growing very fond of the purple variety as they let you see where...

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Contour Tree Drawing

I’m stilling enjoying the artwork of Friedensrich Hundertwasser, who inspired this contour drawing of a tree trunk.1. I used a square paper and drew the outline of a tree trunk with a few finger-looking shapes pointing down. After adding a few vertical lines for definition, I made a series of curved, or “jumping” lines going across and filling up the trunk.2. I drew a curvy horizonal line, and then filled in the ground below with more horizontal wavy lines that jumped across the tree roots.3. Lastly the sky got a few wavy lines also. When the pencil drawing was complete, I traced all the lines with a thin black marker.4. I chose a main pencil...

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Art Journaling 130

I am still on a quest to find simple layering techniques for my afterschool art journal class. Many detailed adult journals that I've admired have had as many as 5 or 6, but with students as young as kinder, I’ve found having them just focus on 2 layers is a good start.1. This is intended as a title page for a new art journal session. I first traced my hand in pencil, and wrote the words inside.2. I again used my favorite new watercolor paints, the Crayola Watercolor Mixing Set that I can only seem to find online. Love the violet and cyan that it includes! I painted the entire page with just some simple free-form blotches of color.3. I took...

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Pastel Indian Corn

Fall is full of colorful imagery, be it pumpkins or leaves or corn. For some reason, glue drawing on black paper with chalk pastels, seems to bring out the best qualities of all these materials.1. On a 9" x 12" piece of paper, show the students how to draw a long rounded rectangle for their ear of corn. Save room at the top, where leaves are added. Horizontal and vertical lines are added for the ears of corn, and some kind of background may be added.2. When the image is drawn, all the lines need to be traced with white glue. A yarn-size line of glue is ideal, but the blobs end up looking great too. Let glue dry until clear.3. Using chalk pastels,...

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Line Pattern Leaf

This is a study of patterns that could be simplified for kinder and 1st grade students. I drew my leaf and filled it in, but a large template to trace might help younger students get started.1. If you make leaf templates from some kind of posterboard, I would make them large enough to fill a 9" x 12" paper. Stems could be left off and just drawn in, to keep things simple. To begin, the students trace the leaf in pencil near the top of the paper.2. A stem is added at the bottom, and veins are drawn up the center to divide the leaf into many shapes.3. The students are to fill in each section of the leaf with a pattern. Challenge them to think of...

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Fall Leaf Butterflies

This project was inspired by Lois Ehlert’s beautiful book “Leaf Man”. A little technology, namely stock photography and a color printer, helped me to make dozens of flat, easy-to-cut and glue leaves.1. If you are so fortunate as to live near some fall foliage, you can take the real thing to a color copier and make lots of prints of multiple leaves. Or if you are like me, nowhere near any maple trees, you can go to www.gettyone and search for “leaves, close-up”. Download the preview images, which are free, and print out on a color printer. I splurged and used photo paper as the color seems to be about 10 times brighter when I do.2. Young students...

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Textured Fall Leaves

One of the California Visual Arts Standards for 1st graders deals with adding texture to art. I made these paper towel leaves to give this painting some very real bumps and wrinkles.1. I used Bounty paper towels (I like the spongy look to them) and cut out about 3 large leaves and 4 small ones. Mix up a small amount of 50/50 water and glue. Dip the leaves, get them completely wet, and spread them on watercolor paper as desired. Let dry overnight.2. Choose one crayon for each leaf and trace around the edge, pressing firmly. Add a stem at one end.3. I made some extra watery watercolor from my tube set, and painted the inside of each leaf. Dabs...

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Kindergarten Hand Print Quilt

Brag alert! I was organizing my room and came across a long-lost photo of a quilt I made with my son’s kinder class. (He just entered high school, to put a time reference on this.) For this project, each kinder got their own white panel of cotton fabric, which was taped to a piece of cardboard. They had help in tracing their hand with a fabric marker and writing their name on it below. To add a bit more color, each student was allowed to spray their fabric with some push-pump fabric dye that I found at Jo-Ann’s. When the fabric was dry, I washed and ironed each panel to set the colors. I worked out a sewing plan as I went along, coordinating...

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Snowflake Resist Watercolor Grid

I was looking for a quick and colorful project for an upcoming holiday art fundraiser. I think this might work well for all skill levels involved as the drawing is made on one sheet of watercolor paper, then cut into panels, painted, and taped back together.1. I started with a sheet of 8" x 10.5" sheet of watercolor paper. I used a ruler to measure and find the center point on all four sides, and then connected the points with a pencil to make four panels. A small number 1, 2, 3 and 4 was written in the top right corner to help match the panels later on.2. Using a white crayon, I drew lots of snowflakes, taking care to have some large and some...

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Follow Me on Twitter

Want to see what inspires me? I love collecting images on the internet for ideas and themes that I might find useful in developing new lesson plans. I’ve tweeted a few of them and there will be many more to come....

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Fall Pastel Landscape

This kind of loose, simple landscape lets chalk pastels do what they do best – make smudgy, soft shapes.1. Give the students a narrow sheet of construction paper, and instruct them to draw a ground line 1/3 of the way down. (Skip the pencil and just draw directly with the chalk.)2. Next they should draw 3 round circles for the trees and fill them in with fall colors. Rubbing with fingers softens the shapes.3. The sky background should then be colored and blended in.4. Add clean dark lines for tree trunks.5. Divide the ground area into three sections, color and smudge to soft...

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Romare Beardon-Style Collage

Many art historians consider Romare Beardon to be one of America’s most important and inventive artists. Beardon loved collage, combining painting, magazine clippings, old paper and fabric together like a jigsaw puzzle. This project gives a nod to Beardon’s love of photos and texture, but also offers a kinder / 1st grade version of my “Collage Name Card” project.SESSION ONE1. Give each student a couple of colorful magazine pages, drawing paper, glue stick and pencil. The students are to center a large simple stick figure of their first name initial on the drawing paper, in pencil.2. They then form their initial using approximately 1" wide magazine...

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Back To School Portraits

I'd been looking for a different approach to self-portraits for a back-to-school project. I wanted something that would ask the students to see themselves in a new way, and create a colorful display that I knew the teachers would appreciate for their classrooms. Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser has an amazing life story, along with a very appealing style of abstract drawing. Click here to read more about him. 1. Start with a 9" x 12" paper, and trace the width of a ruler around the outside edges in pencil. Add another line about 1/4" away to make a narrow inner border.2. Draw a very large circle that almost touches the top border and...

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How to Draw A Maple Leaf

I love all things relating to the fall season, especially the wonderful shape and color of the classic fall maple leaf. It’s shape can look a bit complex until you break it down into steps. I made my leaf with grocery bag paper to give it a natural look and feel. Another lovely way to recycle.1. Give each student approximately half of the seamless side of an average grocery bag to make a piece that measures about 7" x 11". Using rulers, they are to center an 8" vertical line.2. Measure 4" from either end to find the center, and make a dot from which two “stems” are added at approximately 45 degree angles.3. Small scallops are drawn at the tip...

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Over and Under Snake

Learning to draw overlapping shapes is the first step to working with depth. I found this project to be a fun way for students to think about what is in ‘front’ and what is in ‘back’.1. Starting with a sheet of white drawing paper, the students are to draw one long continuous curved line that overlaps itself at least once, but no more than twice. When complete, they need to draw another parallel line next to it, at least an inch away. One end needs to have a head attached, and one end needs to turn into a tail. Whenever the snake crosses over itself, the student has to decide which part is in front, and erase the lines inside so that the snake...

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In Your Face Cow Drawing

This idea comes from a funny painting I found in a home decor catalog. I love how it exaggerates the proportions of the cow. 1. I started with a 11" x 14" drawing paper, and folded it in half four times to get a grid of guidelines like those shown on my diagram. Have the students start by drawing half of the head as shown on my diagram, and then adding the opposite side with as much symmetry as possible.2. Tilted eyes are added at the widest part of the head. The top of the nose is added to make a nose that looks like a square with rounded corners.3. Ears are drawn extending out of the top of the head, and as they are really large, going off...

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Collage Name Card

Lately I’ve been inspired by scrapbook artists and the layered-looking collages they often create. I plan to start the school year with this Collage Name Card to let the students express their personalities, while making colorful artwork that can adorn their classrooms.SESSION ONE1. Cut enough 9" x 12" drawing paper into fourths measuring 4.5" x 6" to furnish each student with one page for each letter in their name. Also, pass out old magazines and have the students find pictures depicting things that they like such as favorite foods, colors, animals, etc. Demonstrate how the magazine paper, when torn vertically, can produce fairly even strips....

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Drawing Practice Sheets (50) Grades 3-5

The inspiration for these worksheets came from Mona Brooke’s book “Drawing with Children”. She explained that one skill needed for realistic drawing is the ability to look at shapes and draw them for what they are, not what students think they are.I created this set of 50 worksheets for warm up exercises. The students copy what they see in the blank boxes below. These exercises serve as a quick and easy way to get the students to focus while helping to sharpen their cognitive and motor skills.This collection of drawings is suitable for grades 3 – 5. All of the worksheet pages are numbered for your convenience. You can purchase my pdf file with...

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Chalk Pastel Flowers

Georgia O'Keefe had a long and varied career but is mostly famous for her oversized flower paintings.1. Let each student choose from a collection of large flower photos, possibly from old calendars. Instruct them to first sketch their flower in pencil, large enough to go near or even off the edges of the paper.2. Chalk pastels are colored and blended into the paper. Recommend that large areas be colored first, and fine details on top go last. The background looks nice when colored in with a contrasting or complementary col...

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Van Gogh Pastel Sunflowers

This is a tribute to Van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers” painting.1. Instruct the students to draw a line for the table, and then the outline of a jar above it. Show them the jar in the original painting so they can add a curved middle line for dimension, and sign their name, in the style of Van Gogh.2. Ask them to draw a series of circles for flowers, some large, some small, maybe some even going off the page. Add small petals around the flowers.3. Connect the flowers to the jar by drawing stems, and add leaves.4. Trace all the pencil lines with a medium size black marker.5. Have the students fill in the shapes with good oil pastels. Show them that...

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