William Wegman Drawings

William Wegman is a photographer famous for his compositions with his Weimaraner dogs. His fascination with humanizing his animals has created hundreds of amazing videos and photographs. I like his book shown here as it shows the dogs in many everyday poses.

1. I created a composite of Weimaraner head photos that you can print HERE. I printed them in color and gave each student a strip that contained 4 different heads. They cut out and glued down their favorite on a 5.5" x 8.5" sheet of paper.

2. They then added a human body of their choice. Some older students were challenged to include an action pose.

3. When complete, the drawings were traced with a thin black marker and filled in with colored pencils.

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Bleach Pen Jeans

There seems to be lots of decorative art in fashion these days (think peasant / ethnic wear) and this is a good way to imitate that look without using a single needle or thread.
1. As part of a weekend class, I had students bring in an old pair of jeans. They first planned their decoration on paper so I could see if it was looking too intricate or not. Simple lines with lots of space between work best.
2. Once a paper plan seemed complete, students drew the design on the jeans with a sewing marker that washed out if mistakes were made.
3. Small swatches of cut-up denim were passed out for the kids to practice on. Each student needed their own Bleach Gel Pen, which you can find at many grocery stores or online. These pens take a little practice to make a smooth, thick line of bleach, but work great when you do.
3. Students drew over their sewing marker line with the bleach pens. Fat lines that look like the thickness of yarn were best. The jeans needed to dry at least a half hour after completing all the lines. The longer the wait to wash, the whiter the lines would be.
4. The bleach was rinsed out in water. Once the students got their clothing home, it needed to be machine washed and dried.

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Watercolor Sheep

I love almost anything that children paint with watercolor. This is a simple watercolor resist, done with sheep imagined on a hillside.
1. The students are to draw, as lightly as they can, three to five ovals (the sheep bodies) in pencil on watercolor paper.
2. A white crayon is used to color heavily inside all the ovals.
3. Give the students a choice of dark crayon colors for their sheep head and feet, such as purple, black or blue. With one color, they need to draw a triangle for the head, two ears to the side and four lines for the feet. These shapes also need to be colored in really well too so that they will show up later. Green crayons may be used to draw just a few grass lines.
4. Finally, I like to have liquid watercolor paint on hand so the students may pick one color and paint over their entire drawing. The crayon will resist the paint and the white bodies will now show up because of the background color - like magic!

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