Watercolor Resist Snowflakes

Here's a simple crayon and watercolor painting idea that was inspired by an illustration on a stock art website.
1. As the students will first need to draw with a white crayon on white paper, I've found it helpful to trace 9 large circles very lightly in pencil to use as a guide. As a starting point, I encouraged the students to make an "X" in the middle of each circle, and then a horizontal line through the middle so their flake will have 6 legs. After that, they may add dots or arrows to each, but they must press very hard and draw slowly to leave a lot of crayon on the paper.
2. Once you are certain that there is a snoflake drawn in the middle of each circle, pass out lots of liquid watercolors. When the students fill in each pencil circle with paint, the snowflake will "magically" appear. A simple project with beautiful results, I think.

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Stained Glass Nativity Mural

I am proud to unveil my newest stained glass mural design, a nativity manger scene. I love the way the colors stand out against the heavy black edges. Just click on the image if you want to see how the template looks before coloring.

This mural has 30 pages to color and is 36" by 60" when complete. It also contains a single page color copy of this sample posted. Students could refer to it if you would like your final mural to look somewhat like mine.

You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button below to make your payment and receive your download instructions.

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Line Art Leaves

I tried something new with this project. I told my students that contrary to the popular belief, there was not going to be a prize for finishing first, but rather this time there would actually be a prize for the student who finished last. (Their homeroom teachers usually had some kind of reward system already set up.) It actually worked out well as I saw a lot of slow and careful work being done, especially from those that always seemed to rush.

1. I had large tabloid paper and large cardboard stencils of three different kinds of leaves (oak, beech and sassafras.) Each student was asked to trace at least two of their favorite leaves, and then draw the veins inside. The veins should divide the leaf up into large sections.
2. When they were happy with their drawing, they switched to Sharpie markers and traced all their lines. Within each leaf shape, they were asked to draw a pattern of lines or shapes, changing whenever they got to a new section. Both leaves were to be entirely filled in.
3. When complete with the inside, they were to trace what I call “energy lines” around the outside until the paper was filled. I emphasized throughout the project that nothing was to be filled in. I think it made the student’s think more. . . and made my markers last longer too.

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