Ode to William H. Johnson Mural

In celebration of Black History Month, I've created this mural in the style of William H. Johnson (1901-1970), a very talented painter who had a difficult life. He came to be widely admired for his primitive style and bright colors, but sadly, only after he had passed away. I love the rural scenes that he often painted, so I’ve created a new mural with big, flat shapes in his style of drawing that you may color however you’d like – the bolder and brighter, the better.

This template contains 36 pages and measures 60"x 48" when complete. A color key is included, instead of color callouts, as this is an original artwork and may be colored any way you’d like. Click on the image above to see a preview of the template pages.

You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button to make your payment via Paypal and receive download instructions.

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Lois Mailou Jones-style Drawing

This Lois Mailou Jones-inspired drawing is in honor of Black History month (coming up in Feb). During Lois’ remarkable life, she painted, designed masks, textiles and stained glass windows, traveled the world and never stopped learning. Her “Les Fetiches” art has a style that is fun to imitate.

1. Starting with a black sheet of paper (I prefer art paper, not construction...

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Many-Colored Hands

I’ve found that students new to oil pastels often need to be guided to use them to their full potential, namely layering them. This project can be a good practice as they will be able to see that brown pastel colored over gold, for example, makes a completely different color than gold colored over brown.

1. Students are to trace their hand as many times as the they can on a piece of paper, all of them just touching each other to create lots of closed spaces. No overlapping!
2. After the hands are traced in pencil, the lines are traced with a fat black Sharpie marker.
3. The hands are colored in with oil pastels, using as many combinations as possible. My sample uses peach, golden brown, medium brown, pink and white in different layers.
4. Lastly, the closed shapes around the hands are colored with different pastels.

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Faith Ringgold Flag Story Quilt

Faith Ringgold, an African-American artist, is best known for her large story quilts. In 1985 she made a piece titled “Flag Story Quilt” which inspired this collage.

1. In order to get students cutting right away, I plan to give them this template to follow, printed on a 8.5" x 11" cardstock. They will get several magazines with the goal being as follows: red swatches of color are cut and glued inside the long boxes, magazine type in between, and blue swatches in the large rectangle. These are all done in pieces, overlapping when necessary. In other words, students are to combine smaller pieces to fill each area.
2. After all the gluing is done, students will receive lots of little white circles cut from a hole punch. With a glue stick, they cover the blue rectangle with glue and then arrange the white circles on top.

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Bernard Hoyes-Inspired Dancing Lady

Jamaican-born artist Bernard Hoyes is a Caribbean national who has served his country well. Now residing in California, Hoyes is among the most widely collected and exhibited of contemporary artists. Through his art, many have been able to connect with Jamaica’s colorful traditions and culture.
1. Past experience has...

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Martin Luther King Mural

On January 18th people of all ages and backgrounds will join in celebration of the life of Martin Luther King. I created this mural to commemorate his great legacy.

This template contains 36 pages and measures 48"x 60" when complete. Color callouts to match this original can be found on each page. Click on the image above to see a preview.

You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button to make your payment and receive download instructions.

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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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