Mixed Media Snowmen

We are supposed to be getting some cold weather this week so I thought I'd get everyone in the mood with a snowman project. Also, I made a new blog friend over at MaryMaking, and her cute snowman post reminded me of this project I did with my art class last winter. I wish I could find more of the pictures of all the cute snowmen the kids made-they were so fun and creative. I'm still trying to organize pictures, so maybe I'll run across them. These take 2-one hour class sessions and are painted on a canvas panel. After painting the canvas a sky blue color, I had the students make the snowmen and ground snow out of modeling paste-it gives great dimension. The modeling paste will have to dry so this is all done the first class, along with some of the embellishments. Next class, we painted the snowmen, added highlights and shadows, and glued on all the embellishments like real stick arms, fabric scarves, and real buttons. The carrot noses were made from model magic clay and painted (created the first class). Last, we added sparkle paint to the snow to give it a nice shimmer. In this lesson I teach about texture and mixed media art.

Mixing Color with Kandinsky

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I use this lesson with my older students (ages 3rd-6th) to practice color mixing and also to learn color theory. It's also great to introduce Wassily Kandinsky, patterns and rhythm. I use a square canvas and have them divide into nine square parts. We paint each square one of the following: (I only allow the students to use blue, red, yellow, black and white for mixing): primary colors, secondary colors, complementary colors, analogous colors, warm colors, cool colors, neutral colors, tint/shade of one color, and the last with colors of their choice. They have so much fun mixing and seeing the variations in color.

Goodbye Fall

I had a painting workshop Monday and had the sweetest group of little girls. I was a little disappointed though when I woke up to a gloomy sky, rain and a lot of brown leaves left on the trees since we were supposed to be painting "Fall Leaves". Regardless of the circumstances, we used some good photos of leaves and our imaginations to paint some beautiful pictures. These were painted by 5-7 years olds-amazing!

Scribble Art

This is a fun lesson that I usually do at the first of the year. I got the idea out of an art education book--the only problem is that I made a copy of the page thinking the title was at the bottom, but it wasn't. Anyway, this is a great little lesson to your creative brain warmed up, or a good time filler/killer. The kids always seem to get into it once they get started. First, I give a short lesson on "lines" and we practice drawing them curvy, straight, wavy, etc... Give each student a large piece of white construction paper and a pencil. Instruct them to make all types of lines on their paper without ever lifting up their pencil. When they have filled up their paper then have them start looking for things--I always ask them first if they have ever played the game where they look at the clouds and find things. I encourage them to work together to "see" things. (Be sure and don't tell them what they will be doing before they make their lines because then as they scribble, they will "try" to make it look like something.) When they have identified a few things, ask them to pick their favorite and outline it with a black sharpie. Let them use markers, crayons or oil pastels to color it in.

Van Gogh Clay Plaques

Here's another great lesson that I got from Dick Blick Lesson Plans online. I've done this project with students(ages 2-6th grade) several times and I always get great results. It's a great lesson to introduce Vincent Van Gogh and landscapes, basic clay and painting techniques and texture.

The above pictures are actual photos of Vincent Van Gogh's work-I show several of his landscapes to the students and let them pic their favorite to create. I'll let the pics explain and you can refer to the lesson plan on Dick Blick for more details. One tip is that I do encourage them to work on one small section of the picture at a time.

I thought their art turned out amazing!

Pattern Cats

I have seen this lesson on several sites, but the one that inspired me first was from Techy Teacher (formerly the Art Kids). I break my lesson down into two, one hour sessions. I introduce lines, patterns and shapes, basic watercolor techniques, complementary colors and the American artist Laurel Burch. I have had success with this project from ages 5 all the way up to 12.

In our first session, we meet the artist and talk about how she uses patterns to make her art interesting. Using lines and shapes, I teach them two to three different ways to draw cats. I let them practice first on newsprint, and then have them use a pencil to lightly draw onto their watercolor paper (I encourage them to draw "big"). Then I let them "decorate" their cats and background. Lastly, we trace over the pencil with Sharpie and erase all our pencil lines that still show.

In our second session I let them add more pattern and color accents with oil pastels-I try to limit them to three accent colors. At this point I talk about complementary colors and encourage them to pick a "color scheme" before they start, trying to use complements by each other. Lastly, we go over basic watercolor technique and they paint their cats. I love seeing how unique each one turns out---don't they make you smile!