Geometric Landscape

Would you like to make sure your students know how to mix a color, in this case green? Then give them one of Crayola’s Watercolor Mixing Sets (which basically only has shades of primary colors) and tell them their job is to figure out how. I asked my students to not only make green, but at least three different shades of green for a simple but colorful abstract landscape.

1. To begin the drawing, I set up a lot of limitations just to keep students from getting hung up on drawing flowers or animals or even a sun. They were to draw at least three triangles trees, with simple trunks, and a wavy ground line.
2. When the pencil drawing was complete, they had the option of tracing their trees and coloring their trunks with brown or black crayons.
3. Next, the fun part, making green. Once the students figured out that the cyan + yellow made a pretty turquoise green, some realized that yellow + the dark blue included in the tray made a nice mossy green. From there, proportions of color could change, or white could be added to make a tint of a color. I encouraged students to leave the ground white, but it was optional. They sky could be painted any color ( I hate to make too many rules).
4. As a followup, small white paper circles made with a hole punch were glued on top to make a sprinkle of snow.
I plan to use this art for our holiday fundraiser, as it makes nice seasonal art that all may enjoy.

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Dubuffet Self Portrait

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was a French painter and sculptor who preferred what he called “raw art”. This came from non-professionals who worked in very primitive ways. He routinely added sand, tar and straw to his paintings to give them an unusual texture. His playful style is fun to imitate and can encourage some very creative portraiture.

1. Start by sketching a large simple drawing of yourself on a sturdy piece of paper. No tiny details, just outline of hair, eyes, nose, shoulders, etc. Draw a few horizontal and vertical lines on the body, hair and face to divide up the areas into smaller parts. Keep in mind that the lines will be traced with a glue bottle so tiny details are not necessary.
2. Make a mixture of 50/50 white glue and black acrylic paint in a squirt bottle, and shake to blend. Trace over all the pencil lines with the black glue. Remember that Dubuffet liked rough looking images so wiggly black lines that are sometimes thin and sometimes thick are what you are trying for. Let the glue dry overnight.
3. A lot of Dubuffet’s paintings were done with just red, white and black colors, so I limited myself to a red and black Sharpie, and randomly added stripes in some areas, and solid colors in others. Some spaces may also just be left white.

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Oil Pastel Klee Portrait

Paul Klee was a Swiss artist from the early 1900’s who liked to turn things into simple geometric shapes. This sample is based on his “Head of A Man” a classic example of his philosophy.

1. Make a 7" round cardboard template for the students to trace in pencil in the center of a brown or tan 9" x 12" paper. Then have them add the neck and shoulders using straight lines and angles, only.

2. To draw evenly spaced eyes that touch, I often have the students first draw three evenly spaced dots that they connect with curves. Circles are added inside. Using a ruler, show the students how to draw about 5 intersecting lines across the face that “jump” over the eyes. The body may have 2 or 3 lines added also. The mouth is just a simple rectangle with a horizontal line through it.
3. When the drawing is complete, all the pencil lines are traced with a thick black Sharpie marker.
4. All of the closed shapes are now colored in with oil pastels. The goal is to have lots of different colors without any of the same touching each other.

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

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Watercolor Collage

I love what torn edges do for a project, even though most students seem resistant to it. I think it maybe just takes time to trust that “happy accidents” sometimes happen with this process.

1. Give each student two sheets (I used 9" x 12") of watercolor paper and watercolors. One sheet is to be filled with one color, leaving a border around the edge (I used blue). The other sheet is painted with lots of large patterns and colors of paint. Let dry.
2. Have the students take their patterned painting and tear it into different size pieces of squares and rectangles and strips. Arrange them on the solid paper in a pleasing way and glue them in place with white glue.
3. Cut pieces of yarn and arrange on top of the artwork. I made a sun and rays and a few more lines. Glue in place and let dry.

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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 crayon.
3. I tried a new paint for this project - Dr. Ph Martin’s Inks. They are similar to watercolors but have a really intense pigment. They don’t cost too much, but they do stain clothes so I wouldn’t recommend them for young kids. Whatever you use, have the students fill in all the shapes they have made with a different color.

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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, orange, green and blue). No blacks, browns or navy as they won't contrast enough from the upcoming black.
4. Each student is to color over their entire picture with black pastel, the darker the better.
5. With a wooden stick, the black can be scratched away to reveal the bottom colors. Encourage the students to make their lines go in different directions to create the maximum amount of “energy” in their drawing.

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How to Draw a Laurel Burch Cat

This project was inspired by a talented artist named Laurel Burch, who has now sadly passed away. She developed an abstract style of painting cats that is really fun to imitate.

1. For young students, do a step-by-step drawing session as the diagram shows.
2. After the cat is drawn in pencil, have the students trace the lines with a marker, and add fun patterns to their cat body if they wish.
3. A final coloring with construction paper crayons will complete their picture.

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Abstract Numbers

Charles DeMuth was an American artist who lived in the early 1900's, and became famous for his abstract paintings that used lines to fragment and divide his canvas.

1. DeMuth's "Figure 5 in Gold" is a wonderful abstract painting to show children as they can easily see the firetruck elements in it. Start by having students draw their own large block number on a piece of paper. I like to give the kids a choice of doing the 5 or another number. Single digits are best though.
2. Using a ruler, they can draw about 5-6 lines from edge to edge to dissect the paper into many sections. Encourage them to spread the lines out, and then trace all with a black marker.
3. I used Art Stix to color this piece as they are bright and not too messy, but you could use crayon or oil pastels too. Have the students choose one color for the inside of their number. In my example, I colored the inside of my 5 with orange first. When that is done, they can color in each segment with different colors, overlapping to create a new color when necessary.

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Abstract Fish Drawing

One art concept even young students can embrace is the idea of making an abstract work of art. I like to describe it as coloring just for fun, and not worrying if something looks real or not. A fish is a good shape to work with as students can draw a spine and then add some “bone” lines.

1. Starting with the body, show the students how to draw a large football shape that is open on one side, which will be closed by drawing a V-shaped mouth. A curve is added to frame the head, a tail and fins and eyes. Lastly, a spine may be drawn across the body and then angled lines to imitate the bones.
2. Have the students trace all the fish lines with a thin black marker.
3. This fish was colored with Crayola Construction crayons, which look great on construction paper. If enough pressure is used, they rival the look of more expensive (and messy) oil pastels.

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Abstract Shape Drawing

I’m finding that almost anything looks good when drawn on black paper, and colored heavily with oil pastels. This is more of an exercise, but can look like a cool abstract drawing when complete.
1. Give each student a sheet of black construction paper, and ask them to draw one circle, one square and one triangle, with space in between. They may fill the page with more of these shapes, with some of them overlapping. When the page is filled, they need to decide which of the overlapping shapes are in front, and erase all the lines that are inside it. Lastly, they add at least two lines that divide up the background. The lines may “jump” over any objects in front.
2. When the pencil drawing is complete, all the lines are traced with a black pastel.
3. All the enclosed shapes are filled in with pastel, along with all the background areas.

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Watercolor Still Life

When it comes to painting, most children need to practice looking at subtle changes in color. The skilled student may already see this, but others may have not been asked to think about it before. In this case, they are challenged to make as many values as they can with just one color and a little water.

1. On a chalk board, draw three simple still life shapes: the coffee cup, the wine glass and a bowl. Ask the students to draw all three in pencil on a 9" x 12" watercolor paper, but note that the items MUST all overlap in some fashion. Add a table edge line somewhere in the middle.
2. Give each student a single dark crayon for them to trace all their pencil lines.
3. Give each student a watercolor set, brush, water, and mixing tray. Tell them they are to use only ONE of the colors in the tray. With this color, they may add water to make different values, for example, very dark red, medium dark red, light red and very light red. As they mix the colors, they should paint in each section of their drawing. The goal is to not have any similar values next to each other.

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Paul Klee Portrait

Paul Klee was a Swiss artist from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His “Head of A Man” is a classic example of his philosophy.

1. In the center of a 9" x 12" sheet of paper, have the students draw a 6" circle, using a cardboard template. Below that the neck and shoulders can be drawn, but only using straight lines and angles.
2. The face may be drawn in pencil, but again only using very simple lines. Trace all with a dark crayon, pressing firmly.
3. Cut up various sheets of tissue paper, in about 3" squares. With a cup of water and a paint brush, the students are to dampen the white paper, and place up pieces of tissue on top in a grid-like format. Once the paper is covered, the tissue may be picked up and thrown away. The student will find that the tissue color has bled to the paper in irregular shapes. It is wise to test tissue paper with water first as some bleed more than others.

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Abstract Winter Trees

A simple illustration I came across in a website inspired this project.

1. Give the students 2 different sizes of narrow triangle cardboard templates, and ask them to draw 3 triangles (trees) across the middle of a sheet of paper.
2. Instruct the students to draw a curvy ground line, and then connect the ground with the trees in a straight line to make the trunks. "V" shapes may be added in the trees to look like branches.
3. Show the students how to divide the background into 3 sections.
4. Ask the students to trace all their pencil lines with a crayon.
5. Give the students watercoler to paint in all the shapes they have created.
6. Use a hole punch to create lots of small white circles. With dots of white glue, add the white circles to the painted pictures.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Five
2.4 Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.

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Art Journaling 118

I think my biggest goal for my upcoming art journal class is to have kids embrace the loose, accidental art that can happen when you let yourself just create. Fourth and 5th graders especially tend to get more judgmental about their abilities, so I hope this un-fussy journal page will let them have some fun.
1. I started by tearing small leaves from tissue paper, and planned out three flowers on each page. Using 50/50 glue and water, I wet the journal pages and arranged the tissue flowers on top. Let dry completely.
2. Drawing with one continuous line, I started at the bottom with a Sharpie marker, traced up and around each petal 2 times, added little loops in the center of the flower, and then drew back down to the beginning point. Small leaves may be added.
3. Using either watercolor or watercolor pencils, paint the background, intentionally leaving white space around each flower and leaf. In fact, the paint should not touch the marker at any point. The extra white adds some extra punch to this colorful layout.

CA Visual Art Standards: Grade Five
2.4 Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.

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