Valentines Pop art 4 ways

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With the K-3rd graders I did some "pop art" that had a Valentines Day theme. It was also a good way to have them do different techniques and media in on project that also ends up looking pretty cool. I used the heart as a theme, but they could interpret it in any many of way or color and were encouraged to go beyond red and pink! I had them do the heart four ways ith 6x6" squares of paper:

Watercolor on white paper

Oil pastel on black paper

Penicl and pen on white paper

Collage on black paper

Then I glued them into  a graphic 4 square layout.

Its amazing how creative the kids could get and how it made them think outside the box (even though were creating in a box) Amazing how setting  few rules can free you to be creative. Also, teaching them how to cut and draw hearts is an amazing lesson in symmetry, and following directions, which at this age, is no small task!

Sunflowers in watercolor

It's Summer/Fall and that means a lot of old standbys, including this twist on a classic: Sunflowers are so cool looking and even the boys don't mind painting them since they are not all pink and girly! Here are sunflowers from past years. I had all three class levels do this project and it was fun.
I briefly talked about Van Gogh, the most famous sunflower artist.

We started with black oil pastel. The younger kids were instructed to use handprint tracing to make the flowers (there isn't anything you can't do with handprints!). I also used this to teach warm colors and cool colors.

Catching up from last year

Here are a couple projects from last fall that didn't got posted to the blog back then:

Watercolor Fall Trees

I had the kids draw a bare tree with black oil pastel, and then had them use watercolor to color the background. Some kids made a sunset, while others filled the spaces with different colors.

Pasta Collage pilgrims

In time for Thanksgiving, the kids made collages out of multicolored pasta. Lots of fun!

Spring Butterflies

Always a crowd-pleaser, I did butterflies with the younger kids. This taught symetry, wax resist and watercolor.

I had the kids fold their paper in half and draw their butterfly on one half with oil pastel. Then they used a spoon to transfer the half-butterfly onto the other side. Some had to draw over their faint lines, but that is okay!

Then they used watercolor to fill in the blanks and the oil pastel showed through.

Week 6: Halloween Black Cats

To celebrate Halloween without the pumpkins, ghosts and skeletons, I came across the idea to draw a black cat with bright glowing eyes. The kids had really enjoyed doing a directed drawing last year for the the Year of the Tiger, and this became a similar project.

I had them use black paper, white crayons and bright oil pastel. I wanted them to just color the eyes and amybe the background but leave the cat face black paper.

Week 3: Modigiliani Self Portraits

I like to do several self portraits each year, usually in different media.  It gives the kids a measuring stick as to their art improvement and makes a great piece to keep.

This week we did self portraits in the style of Modigliani, the Italian painter know for he exaggerated and elongated faces.  The distortion inherant in this style is perfect for the imperfect manner in which most kids draw, so perfection is not the goal, but expression is.  Often this lesson is harder to teach then straightforward art.

The class was pretty simple. I gave each kid a piece of black paper and oil pastels. The only other rules were to make the head and/or neck distorted.

Week 21: Year of the Tiger drawings

As a nod to Chinese New Year and the Year of the Tiger 2010, I decided to do a directed drawing project. As for the actual Tiger subject and technique I was inspired by this artist blog and her really cute tiger:

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/07/rousseau-tiger-drawing.html

I have had luck with doing very targeted drawing exercises with the kids and this seemed like a good fit. Plus, I needed something simple to prepare since my home office where I plan and get projects figured out is in the final throws of being renovated and my files are being chased around the house.


The materials are simple: paper, crayons and/or oil pastels and markers. I talked briefly about the 12-animal cycle of the Chinese New Year and showed them some real photos of tigers. Then I showed them on the board each step: 1. draw a circle 2. draw eyes 3. draw the nose 4. draw the cheeks etc.



Most kids did a great job following directions and I encouraged them to fill the paper with color since many like to rush through things and get done. The best results came from careful drawing and making the lines dark enough so that after the color is applied the lines still show through.

These Cool Cats will make a "purrfect" addition to our walls for our open house next month! I was born in the year of the Tiger, so this is especially close to my heart.