“Focal Point” Valentine

This is an exercise to have students think about how they can make their art have a focal point by using different colors, patterns, values, etc. Many masters such as Cezanne used it in paintings like this one to make the warm fruit stand out from the cool background.
1. Give each student a piece of paper, pencil and cardboard heart to trace. The students are to trace lots of hearts, either in a row or randomly spaced. If you are desperate, I've linked my sample template here.
2. The hearts are then traced with a black marker. Ask the students to choose one heart that is to be the focal point of their picture. When coloring, that heart needs to be different from all the others. It could be that one uses warm colors and the rest are cool, or the colors are all similar but one has stripes in it. Or as my students had just learned about making 3D shapes, one could have dimension added and the rest are flat. I personally like colored pencils for this project, and if you can afford them, the Prismacolor brands are the best. It’s a simple but good exercise, I think, and you also have an interesting Valentine card when you’re done.

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Sticker Art Trading Cards

Sometimes kid’s creativity just blows me away. I brought round colored stickers to my Art Trading Card class today, thinking that everyone could make art with just circles. Then one very clever boy started cutting up the stickers to make these amazing cards, including this tiger and electric guitar.
1. I passed out 2.5" x 3.5" white cards, sheets of .75" colored stickers, and thin markers to each student. They were to use their imagination to see how many different things they could make with circles, i.e. flowers, balloons, vehicles, etc.
2. When complete, each card got a plastic trading card sleeve, which cost about a penny each.
Thanks to Luc, a talented 1st grader, for letting me share his trading card art.

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Murals on Canvas

If you're looking for a way to mount my murals or any drawing project on canvas at a modest cost, here’s your answer. This is my Kandinsky Circles Mural fused to a 36" x 24" pre-stretched canvas ($15), using dry wax paper ($15 per 1,000), white glue and lots of Sharpie Permanent Markers.

1. I printed my templates on plain paper and taped a sheet of dry wax paper to each. Dry wax paper is transparent and great for tracing. Using the template as my guide I colored in each circle with Sharpie Permanent Markers, working from the center out to avoid palm smudges.

2. While taped to the template, I trimmed each sheet along the outer guides. I use a rotary cutter to get a precision cut. If you're using scissors, don't worry. Some waivering that results in overlapping hardly detracts.
3. I mixed a 50/50 solution of white glue and water. Using a 1" flat paintbrush I generously coated the mounting area and the back of the first page. The dry wax paper is remarkably sturdy when wet so don't worry too much about tearing as you maneuver the page into place. I then brushed my glue solution over the top to minimize air bubbles and wrinkles. A slight bubbles and wrinkles will shrink away when dry and don't worry about saturation as it all dries to a clear matte finish. Also, some of the darker Sharpie pigments may bleed a little, especially reds. Any runoff onto the canvas can be covered with white paint.

4. Repeat step 3 for each page, meeting the edges as closely as possible. It's better to overlap than to leave gaps. When dry, the drawings are fused to the canvas and appear to be painted on. You can’t even feel the edges. Sweet.

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