Variations on a Theme

      Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds!  When Fall arrived here in Texas, the only way we knew it was from the displays in the stores.  The trees did not turn, and it is only now getting cool out.  With the long drought we have had to suffer through and the 100+ days of 100+ temperatures, I was ready to usher in Fall!  By far my favorite season for the colors, the smells, the tastes, the temperature and the clothing!  It was time to bring Fall into the art room.  

     I purchased a large pumpkin and a bag of smaller squash and gourds.  A teacher friend, Judi, donated a bag of small pumpkins.  The students were amazed at the sight of the huge pumpkin and the tiny ones, the unusual textures of the squash and gourds.  I passed them around the room for the students to feel and describe before they would draw them.  Then I set them all up on a rolling cart in a still life with a beautiful complementary blue cloth below them.  We discussed the shapes, sizes lines and textures in the still life.  Proportion, overlapping and perspective were also discussed.

    K, 1st, 2nd and 5th grades all drew still lifes in different medias using different elements and principles of art.  Above I've shown three examples; a 5th grade value drawing, a 2nd grade oil pastel drawing and a 1st grade painted paper collage.  The painted paper collage idea I got from the wonderful Deep Space Sparkle sight.  This project was a big hit with beautiful results!  

    If you have any questions about how we went about these lessons, please message me and I'll be happy to share in more detail.  Happy Fall Y'all!!! 

2nd Grade Georgia O'Keefe Inspired Flowers

     All I can say is...never underestimate the creative ability of a child!  Our lesson on Georgia O'Keefe's style of painting magnified views of flowers, was a simple and easy concept for 2nd graders, one that I thought would be more challenging.  I thought it would be more challenging because children have a difficult time with drawing and thinking big.  This is a concept that I am constantly reinforcing in my lessons.  

    We not only looked at O'Keefe's paintings of flowers, but also looked at real photographs of flowers (laminated calendar pages) to get our inspiration.  I demonstrated examples of how to draw the simple lines and shape of the flower and stressed that they must take their petals off the edge of the paper, just like Georgia did.  I also showed them what I did not want to see them do, by drawing a small flower in the middle of a large square of paper.  They really understood and it was immediately apparent in their drawings.  

    We used 10" x 10" squares of white posterboard (yes, I sacrificed my posterboard for this- I wanted them to have a sturdy surface on which they could build their paintings on).  We used tempera cakes to paint with.  I told them to choose one or two colors for their flowers, that I did not want to see rainbow flowers- with each petal being a different color.  That there are no flowers that actually grow like that (at least not to my knowledge!).  We talked about either filling their space with all petals, or leaving some room between the petals for green leaves.  Also, I showed them how to add white to their paint to make tints of the color they chose.  

    They totally amazed me, as usual, with their art work!  And inspired me.  I love my job!

Torn Paper Animals

    While the original idea for this project (Torn Paper Zebras) was found on the wonderful Deep Space Sparkle Website, I decided that since I have (6) 2nd grade classes, that would be waaayyy too many zebras hanging around this art room!  So, I decided to make this a unit on wild animals, making a Power Point Presentation for each class on a different wild animal to introduce our animal and our art project.  So far, we've learned about zebras, lions, tigers (2 classes made tigers) and owls.  Still to come are giraffes.  2nd grade students love to learn and talk about wild animals... really, who doesn't?  They're endlessly fascinating.  We not only learned about the animals and their habitats, but also about different types of animal art, how the animals are the subjects of sculptures, paintings, drawings, graphic design, and more.  

    First, the outline of our animals was drawn using an oil pastel, then we tore and pasted stripes, manes and feathers on.  Next, the students cut their animals out and glued them to another sheet of paper that would become their animals habitat.  Students got creative, making rainbows, suns, clouds (even rain clouds with raindrops falling from them!), grass, water, rocks, trees, flowers, moons and stars.  They really enjoyed this project from start to finish and so did I... we learned a little about our animals and a lot about how to take what we learned and create a wonderful work of art from it!

Painted Paper Weavings

    2nd and 3rd graders made weavings from papers that they had painted using watercolor and tempera paste.  This is a beautiful version of the traditional weaving projects we do with colored construction paper in elementary school.  

    With the watercolor project, I had the students create two paintings; one warm color (yellow, orange and red) and one cool color (green, blue and purple).  Starting with our warm color scheme, we looked at the color wheel and I told the students we would begin with our lightest color first, making a dot or a line (or 2 or 3 of them) on their watercolor paper with the yellow paint.  They would then need to paint concentric circles or lines around their original ones with the orange, and then the red.  Then they would repeat the pattern until they had filled their whole paper (9" x 12") with color.  The students then repeated the same process using the cool colors on a new sheet of watercolor paper.  In our second art class, we then wove the papers together for beautiful results!

    For the tempera paste painted papers, I used a mixture of 1/2 tempera paint to 1/2 art paste to make the tempera paste.  Using donated construction paper (the lesser quality kind than we normally use in the art room), students chose either the warm or cool color schemes to paint with the paste paint, then scraped and stamped designs and patterns into their paper using forks, thread spools, cardboard scrapers, popsicle sticks, and other objects (a la Eric Carle).  The second art class we wove the wonderful papers they created together and the students loved the way they looked! 

    

GIANT CROCS!

2nd grade students created these Giant Crocs!  Elementary age students (I can only speak for them) have a very hard time drawing BIG.  This project was the perfect subject to teach them how to draw on a large scale- I told them, "I don't wanna see any itty bitty little crocodiles!  Crocodiles are BIG!  So fill up your whole paper!" 

We watched a Power Point presentation I created on crocodiles, with lots of pictures and factual information.  We discussed the texture of the crocodiles skin and the lines we would use to draw the crocs. 

Then, using a large piece of green craft paper, we drew them step-by-step.  Once they were drawn in pencil, students outlined them in black permanent marker.  Next, we added texture to the crocodiles skin by using rubbing crayons and texture cards.  Students colored in the teeth and eyeballs with white crayons and cut their crocs out.
The final step was to make an environment for our crocodiles.  We learned that they live in the water and find their prey on the banks of the water.  So, on a large piece of cardboard, approx. 12" x 28", we collaged water and a sandy bank.  This was the most fun project!  The students liked making our BIG art project and they named all of their crocs! 



Pastel Landscapes

Second grade students learned about landscapes.  We compared the landscapes of Joan Miro and Grant Wood as well as various other artists work.  We discussed how they were alike and how they were different, the colors that the artists used, and then learned about the foreground, middleground and background in a landscape. 
To begin, we practiced making a loose line in the air, waving our arms like music conductors.  Then we practiced drawing our loose, organic lines on a piece of newsprint paper.  Once our practice drawings were complete, we were ready to make our final drawings in pencil on top of colored construction paper.  Colored paper adds more depth to pastel art work; another layer of color beneath the top colors that keeps our eyes seeing deeper into the work.  I used lavendar, green, brown, pink and blue papers; a different color for each class.  This made it easy to find which class the art work belonged to if a name or class code was missing.
After the final drawing was done in pencil, the students traced over their lines with a black crayon.  We discussed color schemes.  What are warm colors?  What are cool colors?  What kind of landscapes would have cool colors (the arctic, the ocean, snowy mountains) and what type would have warm (the desert, mountains in warm climates).  The students then chose their color scheme and were instructed to choose the lightest color in their color scheme and color in their land, all three parts of it.  Each student was given a paper towel to wrap around their fingers to use for blending their pastels on the paper.  Once their first layer of color was blended, we discussed how to create shadows and light in our landscapes.
I demonstrated how to make a shadow by using one of the darker colors in their chosen color scheme, finding a low area in their lines and rubbing the pastel on it's side at an angle down to the next line. I told the students that anywhere there was a shadow on their mountain, right next to the shadow would be light.  We talked about how the light came from the sun, and there are places where the sun cannot go, those places are dark, in the shadows.  The places that were high on the land that the sun could get to, would be light.  Anywhere there is a shadowy place on land, there would be a bright place right next to it.  So, the students added the lightest color in their color scheme right next to the shadowy areas.  Then they blended their colors.  If they wanted to go back and add more color, they could.
Once the land was complete, I demonstrated how to make their sky.  Some students chose to make blue skies, and some chose to make sunset skies.  The results were gorgeous, as you can see!
The following is a step-by-step lesson you can use with your students:

Pastel Landscapes

1. Practice drawing loose lines on newsprint.

2. Make final drawing on colored paper and trace over pencil lines with black crayon.  Review foreground, middleground and background.

3.  Choose the lightest color in the colorscheme you chose for your landscape, and using the flat side of the pastel chalk (not the tip), rub the chalk across the paper filling in all of the land.

4.  In the middleground, use the next darkest color in your color scheme to rub over the lightest color, and in the background use the darkest color to rub over the lightest color.

5.  Blend with a paper towel or Kleenex.

6.  Add shadow areas; find low areas in your lines and beginning at that point, rub the darkest color on its side, at an angle, down the land area and stop at the black line.  The darkest color would be the next darkest color up on the color wheel from the one that is on your paper.  For warm color schemes it would go; yellow, orange, red and brown.  For cool color schemes; light green, light blue, green, blue, violet.

7.  Next, rub the lightest color in the color scheme right next to the shadow area. 

8.  Blend and go back over your work in places where you would like to add brighter light areas or darker shadowy areas.

9.  Create your sky by choosing either cool colors for a warm landscape or warm colors for a cool landscape for the most visual contrast, or whatever you would like your sky to look like.  First rub the main color of your sky over the entire sky area; for the above I blended dark blue and light blue.

10.  Add cloud by rubbing a white pastel on its side in a circular motion.

11.  Add sunset colors over the horizon and blend into the sky if you would like.