Contour and Pattern Self-Portraits

Students in middle school began the semester with a review of some drawing activities. One of my favorite lessons is blind contour drawing. It teaches the artist to become more observant and focused while quickly improving their drawing skills. We spent a day doing blind contour drawings of hands before using mirrors and drawing our faces. Once these were finished, students traced them onto another paper with sharpie. Students then needed to add a minimum of five patterns. I encouraged students to choose patterns that would enhance the self-portrait, like if you love to swim then do a pattern that looks like waves or water drops. The final step was to choose a color scheme and fill in parts of the portrait with colored pencils. These turned out great and the artist's personality definitely shines through in each one!

Winter Cityscapes

Students in grades 4-6 created these lovely winter cityscapes as an exploration into architecture, value and shading! We began by creating a unique cityscape- drawing homes or buildings and adding detailed architectural elements. These were drawn in pencil and then traced over with sharpie. For the background, I let students choose a color of paint and then create a gradient sky. We talked about the art element of value- the lightness or darkness of a color. Adding white to a color is called a tint and adding black to a color is called a shade. Students were to mix the colors and create a minimum of 5 different values in their sky. The final step was to cut out the cityscape and attach it to the value painting. We also used oil pastels in the same color to create some shadows on the buildings and white paint to add snowflakes. 

Winter Penguins

We began this project as our one winter art project of the year, even though we haven't had snow in Texas for several years. The first step was a discussion about lines in art and how they can be used to show movement. I told the students this was for a cold weather artwork so we would be using the cool colors- blue, green and violet. Students created a variety of swirls to show a cold and windy sky. I showed students how to hold and angle the brush so they could do thick or thin swirls. For the second class, we watched the intro to Happy Feet so students could have a little fun but also examine the shapes and colors of a penguin. I then led a guided drawing of a penguin which was painted over in black. The final class we added a light violet ground, a shining aluminum foil moon and the penguins. We used oil pastels to blend a shadow on the penguin and also under the penguin to add a bit of depth. The result: adorable winter penguins! 

Self-Portraits!

Students in PreK and Kinder created these super sweet and hilarious self-portraits. We began by tracing a head and neck shaped template onto a piece of paper. I gave students several colors of paint (brown, black, white, yellow and red) and showed them how to mix the colors to create a unique skin and hair tone that matched their own. During the next class when these were dry, we talked about the proportions of the face and drew out all of our features. I encouraged students to add details that are unique to them- such as blacking out teeth if they are missing or jewelry. We then painted a pattern background from the center to add emphasis to the face, cut everything out and put it all together. These portraits are so fun and really capture each students personality!