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 ONE
1. 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 strips. Demonstrate how the magazine strips torn vertically, will stay be pretty even. The students are to trace their drawn initial with the glue stick, covering generously, and glue the magazine strips in place.
3. The students use a peeled crayon and a sheet of plastic canvas (sold at Jo-Ann Fabrics for about 50¢) to do a crayon rubbing with the side of the crayon, all around their collage letter.

SESSION TWO
1. The students use the Crayola Watercolor Mixing Set and water to paint just one solid color around their letter. When complete, they may take a paper towel to dab and speed up the drying process.
2. Finally, a small darker piece of peeled crayon is rubbed along the edges of the page.

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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 does touch the left and right. Wobbly circles are welcome! Shoulders may be straight or angled. Eyes are drawn by starting with a center dot, and then the football shapes that extend and touch the outside edge. Hair must be simple, simple, simple, using as few lines as possible. Names are drawn in block letters in the bottom border.
3. When the drawing is done, all lines are traced with a thin black marker.
4. Everything is colored in heavily with some good colored pencils. This sample is down Prismacolors.

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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 of each line. They should all be the same size.
4. The 2 large“J” shapes connect the scallops. This shape should extend about half way down to the center point.
5. Two more “J” shapes are added with the ends of both just about level with the center point.
6. Gentle curved lines connect the outer points to the center point.
7. Add a second line to widen the stem so that it can be colored in. Small vein lines can be added, all to be traced heavily in pencil. Use colored pencils to fill in the leaf. Layer lots of fall colors and press hard to make a rich looking leaf.

8. Cut out carefully and display as desired.

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