Art Curriculum- Week 21- Evening Sky in Pastels

Week 21- Evening Sky in Pastels

Movement: Realism

This project is more time consuming, probably because of the attention to detail and the step by step process that takes place. Not the best project for really young or impatient ones, but we made it work, so I definitely encourage you to try! :)

What you will need:

-blue construction paper (doesn't have to be pale, I thought that it resembled a blue I've in summer sunsets)
-white, orange, red, dark blue, and yellow chalk pastels (chalk, not oil, because oil doesn't blend as nicely in this sort of project) Tip: Regular white school chalk also works as white in place of a white pastel.

For prep I drew a basic outline of clouds and added a crescent moon. I labeled each cloud with a letter or a symbol, it proved to be very helpful when directing the kids. I also looked up pictures of sunset clouds to show them that there are 3 parts to a cloud when shading: Light/Medium/Dark. And emphasized repeatedly that that was what we were going to do with our clouds.

I couldn't get the picture clear enough so I went in and used symbols on my keypad to mimic the drawing.

Below are a couple step by step diagrams I made to try and show the process of the shading.

• White (Lots of it, layer it on. Try and get the kids to practice rubbing the chalk pastels on their sides vs trying to "color in" the spaces.)
• Add orange, not quite to the edge. Blend using small circular motions with the finger until you can't see a hard edge between white and orange anymore.
• Red. Not quite to the edge of the orange and blend. Add more red to deepen the color if necessary.
• A hint of dark blue for shadow. It might look purple but that's ok, it'll still provide an extra layer of 3D quality to your picture. Blend!
• Yellow! Use bright, beautiful yellow to accent all of the edges of the clouds. Like the light is behind and creating almost a silhouette effect.
• For the moon color it white.
• Shade the side closest to the clouds blue.
• Shade the side facing away from the clouds with yellow.

Overall: A success! It's quite a lovely addition to our art collection and the kids did really well. Keep in mind it might stretch your patience.

I'm especially proud of this project because I created it myself from scratch. Everything from mapping out the colors to creating the symbol guide in the clouds.

Observe our pretties below!

Related blog posts:

-1 Point Perspective in Watercolors
-Van Gogh's Fields

(logging 2 hours for prep and execution)

Art Curriculum- Week 6- Pumpkin Books

Week 6- Pumpkin Books

First off this project is directly inspired and taken from this site: Craftberry Bush: Fall in love with Fall...

Last week I posted a quick review on our time in the Renaissance Period for the month of September. To view it click here.

What you'll need:

-construction paper
-popsicle sticks
-green/brown markers
-hot glue
-scissors

Time: 30-45 minutes tops

This project required them to practice their cutting skills.

I folded all the "pages" to the little book (each child got 8) and traced a prototype I made beforehand onto each page individually for them to cut.

Originally I stapled all the pages together to make a book, and cut all the pages in one go. Then my mother pointed out that they have little kid scissors and not enough finger strength to cut through that much paper. So I unstapled all the pages and then proceeded to trace the demo onto each page.

After they cut their pages I had them each color a popsicle stick green or brown for the stem. I hot glued the stem between 2 pages after stapling the little "booklet" together.

Then all they had to do was spread the pages so their pumpkins could stand on their own!

Overall: Depending on your age group of kids a lot of prep time, but a very easy project for little ones.

Related Posts:

-Week 5- Fall Leaves Project

-A Poem for Fall!

(logging 2 hours for execution + prep time)

Art Curriculum- Renaissance in Review

Weeks 1-4: Renaissance in Review

This week we had a bit of a break due to sickness and Columbus Day.

So instead of a new lesson, I decided to post a quick overview of the first 4 weeks projects and how they're all Renaissance Inspired.

Last week's lesson was a Fall project (and also began the Impressionist period). To view it click here. Last week before our Fall project was when I did a quick review with the kids to see what they remembered.

I looked up pictures of Renaissance art and other cool pictures I liked that showcased the techniques we were doing. Then I would have them try and remember which project fit best with each picture.

Most of the photos I used as reference or inspiration for my projects can be found on Pinterest Board: Art Curriculum.

• Week 1- Gridding: A project involving each child coloring in one piece of the bigger picture. I explained how you can transfer a photo's measurements and even make the image you're copying smaller or larger.

• Week 2- 1 Point Perspective: A painting project which introduces distance and a horizon line for the kids. The Renaissance period was when art was up for being expanded upon. Things like color and texture had more of an impact on the feeling of closeness or realism.

• Week 3- Tri Toned Cube: Painting a 3 toned cube to create a 3D feel. During the Renaissance shadows and light were paid more attention to. I showed them similar images of blocks and we reviewed the "light source." And I also showed showed how in normal portraits of people how the lighting was used to create depth in skin and hair.

• Week 4- Self Portrait: Coloring and drawing their own clothing and features on a stick figure. I pointed out that like the kids added gardens or castles people would pose for hours with objects they valued like a favorite pet or a treasured sword. I also made of point of reminding them back then they didn't have cameras. It would take months and a lot of money to have someone paint a realistic portrait of themselves or family members.

This is a very basic overview. But some of them are quite young, and for now this is a good start. As they grow older they will cover the Renaissance in greater detail.

I hope this was helpful and you enjoy the projects!

(logging 1/2 hour)

Art Curriculum- Week 2- 1 Point Perspective

Reference Picture

Week 2- 1 Point Perspective

Last week's lesson involved basic gridding. If you want to view it you can click here.

This week's lesson was 1 Point Perspective.

Artistic Movement: Renaissance

The project was good practice for watercolor painting with different methods and listening to instructions.

What you'll need:
-watercolors
-plain art paper of some kind (it doesn't have to be fancy but for water colors you want paper other than regular copy paper so that the watercolors have some texture to soak into)

Time: 40 minutes approx.

The original painting (pictured above) is something I found on Pinterest. I used it as a reference and quickly drew 7 rough copies of it using a sharpie.

I kept it basic, explained how when things are far away they get smaller and smaller whereas when things are closer they get bigger. I used a paint bottle on hand and I zoomed in back and forth in front of them.

This was another piece that I did step by step with the kids. I gave them one color at a time and we moved in stripes down the page. Blue-Orange-Yellow-Purple-etc.

For the red and orange ground I had them "messily" color within the lines with red leaving wide spaces. Then I gave them the orange and had them fill in all the white spots. I wanted there to be a bit of color mixing going on without creating mud.

The road we used black paint but I had them practice using lots of water with their brushes while taking tiny dabs of paint to achieve a lighter gray.

Overall: Easy and fun project. Simple cleanup (watercolors don't stain) and the kids love painting so it was a great learning experience.

In Addition: Something you might want to point out and explain is that cooler colors (blue, deep purple, etc) make things look farther away, while warmer colors (red, yellow, etc) make things appear closer. ;)

Related Posts:

Art Curriculum- Week 1- Gridding
Creating an Art Curriculum

(logging in 1 hour for prep and execution)

Art Curriculum- Week 1- Gridding

Week 1- Gridding

Today I taught the first lesson in my curriculum. Gridding.

Artistic Movement: Renaissance

This is an attempt to expose them to the classical methods in art early on. Even if they don't understand it technically and exactly, they'll at least have experienced it to a small degree.

The project required them to listen to instructions and for the younger ones it was good practice with coloring skills and identifying numbers.

What you'll need:
-markers

Time: 30 minutes at the most for both pictures

I looked up simple coloring sheets. I picked flowers to do a color by number, and then an abstract piece so they could see realism and a more fun piece side by side.

I cut the page into 8. There were only 6 kids, so whoever finished coloring their piece first got an extra.

For the sunflowers I went and numbered the different parts with pen. Then I had them do one color at a time. They would pick out a number, and I would tell them what color belonged with it.

For the abstract one I told them they could color it however they wanted to with rules that:
(1) They had to use at least 3 colors
(2) No colors could touch

When they finished coloring we pieced them together again so they could see the final picture.

Then I taped each piece to a black piece of construction paper. Not a necessary addition, but I did it because I thought it gave the paper some stability and if they ever were to put their separate pieces in an art book it would look nice.

Advanced Art Project- Week 1

Keirstyn's assignment was to pick any picture (preferably an animal/landscape etc), apply grid lines to it, and then copy the picture on to a blank grid.

It's not complete yet here's glimpse of the set up:

(Logging in 1 hour for prep and execution)

Related posts:
Creating an Art Curriculum