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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Paper Mache Masks

This week I had a lot of students finish their paper mache masks in my first after-school class. I love the big, bold results! One of the joys of working with little kids is watching how they can paint without hesitation. No regrets, no worries... they just paint.

Note: There is a fair amount of prep work for this, but it was all made from recycled products so it was cheap. I started by cutting the largest matching ovals I could from the two flat sides of a pizza box, approx: 17" x 14". This large size is important as it allows little ones to paint with big fat brushes and still get a clear face. Using box cutters, I cut out the eyes from one oval, traced them onto the other and cut again. You will need some kind of spacers to glue the two cardboard faces together, with about an inch of space between. I stacked about 5 layers of cardboard strips together on the chin, cheeks and forehead and glued them together with a tacky white glue. Let dry. With 2" wide masking tape, run a strip all around the outside to seal the edge. With thinner tape, also tape closed the inside of the eyes. This has to be repeated for each student.
1. Week One: Have the students paper mache the large areas of the face with 5" squares of paper towel. They should try to get near all the edges to make what looks like a generally white face.
2. Week Two: The students now work with narrower strips of paper towel, about 2" wide, and concentrate on wrapping the strips around the outside edge and the inside of the eyes. The mask should now be completely covered with towel, and there should be no tape showing anywhere.
3. Week Three: I had a lot of premixed acrylic paint from Michael’s, their store brand actually, and first limited the kids to one background color of paint. When the face was completely covered, they were allowed to choose their own colors to paint details. Let dry. Spray with a glossy spray sealer when complete.

This mask was made by a talented first grader, Sophie Haaland. Thanks Sophie!

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Tree Silhouette

I was inspired for this project by a stock art illustration. I really like how it turned out as it lets students focus on how detailed tree shapes can be. And it makes a good Halloween project too.
1. Give the students a 9" x 12" piece of watercolor paper, and some yellow and blue watercolor paint. Ask them to paint one large yellow moon circle in the middle of the paper, and then a blue sky all the way around it. Let the paint dry.
2. With wide, medium and thin-tipped Sharpie permanent markers, demonstrate how the students can draw thick tree trunks from the top to the bottom, and gradually add branches growing up and out from both sides, using lots of variation in line weight.

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