A Magical Forest

I love the outdoors, so bringing landscapes into my classroom is always a great joy for me. The first thing my little artists created were the painted paper trees. We divided the paper into sections and drew patterns with crayons. Students then painted over these patterns with different shades of green. Day two consisted of setting up the landscape. We created the ground with construction paper, an orange sun and some clouds. We talked about the secondary colors (orange, violet and green) because they made up most of our beautiful landscapes. In the end, we added some texture with sponges and cut out different sized trees with added white paint branches. This is an easy and fun project that is abstract just enough so all students felt confident and created a masterpiece!

Ice cream Snowmen

Students in PreK and Kinder created these delightful mashups of snowmen and triple scooped ice cream cones! We began by painting the backgrounds with a pattern of the three cool colors- purple, blue and green. Next, I had students construct the ice cream and cone and showed them how to add all the necessary details to turn it into a snowman. We even used cool colored oil pastels to smudge a little shadow along the side to make it appear more three-dimensional. This turned into a perfect winter project just in time for snow to fall!

Wiley Inspired Self-Portraits

Students in grades 4-6 made these self-portraits inspired by contemporary American painter Kehinde Wiley. We began by drawing out the portrait- I explained all the proportions of the face so the students would know how to lay features out in the right places. We also used mirrors and as students filled in with colored pencils we incorporated highlights and shadows to increase the 3D effect. We then learned about painter Kehinde Wiley, most famous for painting the official presidential portrait of Barack Obama. Wiley often uses complementary colors in the backgrounds and very detailed patterns. Students rocked these portraits and the resemblance of each one is amazing!

Starting with Selfies!

PreK and Kinder classes began the year with a self-portrait project. We began the first class of the year by completing a crayon drawing. These were then mounted onto a large yellow paper. We used different shapes to create a self-portrait and drew the faces using simple lines. During the final class, students attached yarn for hair and Made a pattern around the border. We also attached a crayon to the hand to commemorate their drawing from the first week of school!

Pattern Name Designs

Students got to create a painting using their names as the design! We began by learning about calligraphy and looking at different styles of lettering and fonts. Students then drew two curvy lines to break the space up on the page. We wrote our names in any style lettering (lower case, upper case, cursive) but every letter needed to touch the top and bottom of the section it was in. I let the students choose which part of their names to include. Once finished drawing it out in pencil, students outlined with black tempera paint and left them to dry. During week two, students added a unique pattern to every separate section of the artwork. I gave students many examples of patterns and let them choose to copy or create their own. I did enforce many DIFFERENT patterns and colors. The final week was spent painting in each section with watercolor paints. 

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!

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!

Watercolor Flowers

Students in grades 1-3 created these vibrant watercolor still-lifes. We began by drawing in pencil a vase of flowers. I showed the students how to draw realistically and how to place the still-life on the page to properly use the space. Students had the option to draw realistic flowers or make more stylized versions. These were then outlined with black paint before we painted. Students did a great job and these lovely paintings are really adding some much needed color to our hallways!

Day of the Dead Skulls

Students in grades 1-3 created these Day of the Dead skulls to learn about symmetry/balance and patterns in artwork. We began by learning about the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. I showed students a YouTube video about the holiday and we also read the book Day of the Dead by Tony Johnston. Celebrated in the U.S. and Mexico from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, the holiday tradition calls for the creation of altars to deceased loved ones, decorated with photos, meaningful objects and their favorite foods said to attract their souls. Petals of bright yellow-orange marigold flowers are used to guide them from the cemetery, according to tradition. 

The skulls were made by drawing half of the face on a folded piece of paper, then tracing it with black crayon and rubbing it to transfer to the other side. These were then painted with watercolors- students could make them as colorful as they wanted or leave it more simple. The final class was used to create a marigold flower border around the skull.