Painting Butterflies

I had a fun little group of girls getting ready to enter kindergarten in class last week. I had planned to do folk art style houses, but they vetoed me and collectively rallied for butterflies...so glad I went with their suggestion because we had some beautiful butterflies!

I always try to incorporate in all my lessons how wonderful it is that God gave us so many beautiful things in creation alone that can inspire us to create art. Butterflies are a great example.

I also like to talk about what an awesome creator God is-the best artist that ever existed-and the Bible says that we are created in His image. We all have the ability to be creative!

God gave us each a unique ability to create, just like he made us each unique in the way we look, in our talents and our personalities

It's wonderful that we each have a unique and different way to express ourselves...

just like these butterfly paintings. No two are the same!

In one of my classes, as I was explaining about what an awesome artist God is, one little girl interrupted and said, "but this isn't Sunday school class, this is art class." 

Nothing makes my heart happier than to share just how much God is involved in the creative process, and a part of everything that inspires us as an artist. 

Her comment made my day, and reminded me why I love teaching art to kids!

In this lesson we also learned about the color wheel and patterns in art. Paintings were done in acrylic on a 16 x 20 canvas in a 2-1/2 hour workshop.

More Razorback Paintings

More Razorback Paintings! In this painting lesson students painted a close up of a Razorback. It was a younger age group so this was a little less detailed than the last Razorback lesson I posted. Basically the steps are the same.

Paintings were done in acrylic on a 16 x 20 canvas and took 2-1/2 hours to complete. Several of the students painted this especially for their Dads as a Father's Day gift. 

Painting Razorbacks

Week two of art painting workshops got me ready for Razorback football! I did two art lessons for painting a Razorback. This lesson posted here is was geared for 4th-6th grade students.  This lesson was just in time to make great Father's Day gifts for Dad Hog fans.

First we looked at several hog pictures, paintings and cartoons from the internet for inspiration. I taught a short drawing lesson on four different "hogs" and showed the students how to break it down into your most basic shapes first. I let students practice their drawings and then select one of the four hogs they drew on their practice paper.

Next I instructed students to paint out their design with a light colored wash, focusing on shapes, not detail.

After students got their basic shapes, I instructed them to go over them with more detail in black.

Painting in the back ground and edges came next.

Now some color for the Hogs.

Since this was an older group, I let them have a little more freedom with their artistic expression-I let them choose their design, style and color schemes.

Students were also encouraged to paint their edges with a decorative design. We did these in acrylic paint on a 16 x 20 canvas. We completed this painting in a 2-1/2 hour workshop.

Painting Flags....

I've started my painting workshops for the summer and so far I've been amazed at the talented artists I've seen! I'm doing three painting classes per week, each one 2-1/2 hours. Students complete a painting in acrylics on a 16 x 20 canvas during the class. I give instruction and provide a demo as we paint together. We also learn about different elements and principles of art, art styles and basic painting techniques. Last week we painted Folk Art Houses, Peacocks and American Flags. This is the first painting lesson I've done on American Flags and I thought they turned out so cute! These paintings were all done by 1st-4th graders.

Starting out looking at a flag and talking about how many stripes and stars. We also talked about different painting styles. Then we sketched out our design with black paint.

Time to add our color.

We talked about proportion and scale to decide how large to make the blue part.

We did have a little drying time before we applied the white. It was so hot outside all we had to do was sit their canvases out in the sun while we took a bathroom break.

The tricky part of the whole painting was lining up the stars correctly.

Some students cut out a star stamp from cardboard and stamped over their dots.

Some decided just to go with the dots for a more impressionistic feel.

God Bless America!

I was inspired to do a few flag paintings myself while preparing for this lesson. Here's what I came up with. I decided to try out several different styles.

8 x 10 Oil on canvas board.

 

8 x 10 acrylic on canvas board 

8 x 10 oil on stretched canvas

This was my favorite. 8 x 10 oil on canvas board 

Inspiration for lessons-top 5

So how do I get inspiration for my art lessons?

Here's my top 5 sources (drum roll, please)....

1) Other art lesson blogs, art websites and craft blogs. Since I'm on 5's today, here's 5 of my favorites (of course, there are so many good ones it's hard to narrow it down, so also be sure and check out my regular reads in the left sidebar). I would love to add your link if it's not there! I also love looking at the lesson plans at Dick Blick.

*Deep Space Sparkle

*Art Projects for Kids

*Mary Making

*Incredible Art Department

*Teach Kids Art

2) Art lesson books. The library has tons of great books I've checked out for lesson inspirations. Occasionally, I run across one with fabulous pictures and projects and I just HAVE to own. Here's a pic of a lesson I adapted from one of my favorites, Dynamic Art Lessons for Children*.

3) Paintings I've tried and work of other artists. Once I figure out how to do something and it "clicks", I love explaining it to others. After painting still life pears, I knew I could simplify it enough to teach kids to paint them too. Also, when I run across fun art created by others, I always think about teaching children how to recreate it in a lesson. For example, I love Tricia Robinson's art and follow her blog Little Redhead. Her Dress Art inspired my Proverbs 31 lesson.

4) The Arkansas Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition I love taking my own kids to this each year and seeing all the amazing art created by children around our state. I always take notes and have gotten some great ideas for lessons.

5) Kids. They come up with great ideas of things they want to learn to draw, paint or create. One of my advanced classes begged me to paint pet portraits (result-dog painting above). My own kids have also come home with wonderful projects from school that I can elaborate on or adapt to a different medium.

I would love to hear from you about where you get your inspiration for your art lessons, or even your own art! Follow me in the upcoming months as I elaborate more on each one of these, and show you more new examples of art lessons I've tried!

*Advertisement disclaimer-I only use advertisements inside my posts and recommend products when it is something that I have actually used and found helpful with my lessons or in my own life/art. I do not do it solely for monetary gain, and all money earned from this site goes to support our sponsor children at Compassion International.

Painting Pears

This is one of my favorite painting lessons that I do with kids. I usually do it in my summer workshops. I wish I had more pictures of the process, but I don't. It's a great lesson to introduce shadows and highlights and mixing colors. We paint on a 16 x 20 canvas with acrylic. I instruct students to paint BIG. I also demonstrate how to draw a pear (start out with a bigger circle on bottom and a smaller circle on top, then connect the curves). This painting usually takes 2-3 hours. The results are always adorable and work of art that parents love to hang in their home.