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 20- Stained Glass Trees in Watercolor

Week 20- Stained Glass Trees in Watercolor

Movement: Abstract Expressionism

A project that goes hand in hand with this one is our painting that uses a wet on wet technique to make splatter painted trees in watercolors. To view it click here.

This project was ultimately taught to 3 different groups. Kindergarten-3rd + 4th-6th + our ordinary group of 6 kids (all of whom take the other 2 classes only split up to fit their age groups).

What you will need:

-multipurpose paper
-watercolors
-sharpie
-brushes
-paint palettes

Time: 1 hour

Prep:

The tree is based on a picture I saw on pinterest that I expanded on a bit... So design for the tree is not mine. Each of the trees had to be drawn/traced on by hand and then gone over with sharpie because the paper was too big to fit in the printer.

The hearts are designed by my sister, Sarah, for the younger class.

Execution:

• Each child gets a brush, a paint palette (or shares depending on how many you have), a cup of water, and a blank sheet of paper with 8 sections on it.
• First we practiced with the blank sheet. I had them always try to lay down the lightest color first before adding the darker color (for example, yellow and then blue). Once we were comfortable with laying down color in a neat fashion had practice making the colors run and blend with each other we moved on to the Tree.
  
• For my older class of 4-6th graders I could let them go at it themselves. Filling in each panel with separate color schemes. Some of them were really creative and ended up with cool patterns.
  
• For the the younger ones, I don't think some of them quite got the part about "keeping the panels separate so that they don't run into each other and make mud) but the colors are still fun and vibrant!

older class 4th-6th grade

Remember to lay down your paint quickly and don't overwork your colors!

Enjoy!

Related blog posts:

-Expressions in Color

(logging 3 hours for prep and execution - includes teach 2 separate groups)

Extra- Stained Glass With Melted Crayons

Stained Glass With Melted Crayons

Our last lesson was for Valentine's Day, you can view it here.

Another bonus lesson for the week!

Simple, will require one on one supervision due to the use of a hot iron, but fairly quick.

What you will need:

-paint palettes/cups/containers to hold the different crayon shavings
-crayons
-peelers/pencil sharpener

-wax paper
-iron

-paper towels

-ironing board

-sharpie/marker

-scissors

Time: 45+ minutes

Prep:

• Shave the crayons (I used an old potato peeler, but I know you can also use a pencil sharpener). This is pretty much all of your prep time. It took me close to an hour to get these shaved. My advice, peel slowly, it's less messy. The shredded crayon will want to cling to your skin and go all over.
• Plug in the iron and set up the ironing board
• Cut the wax papers beforehand. I cut enough for each child to make 2. I cut 6x6 inch pieces of wax paper. You'll need 2 papers for each picture (The 2 papers are the bread of the sandwich and the crayons are everything in between)

• I brought up one child at a time. I spread out the first paper and put paper towel underneath it. They could pick all the colors they wanted. Try to keep the crayon away from the edges because the melted crayon could leak.
• Sprinkle all the colors!
• Cover with the second piece of wax paper and top it with another paper towel.
• Iron. Try not to over bake, the colors could melt too much and become muddied.
• Lift the paper towel to check periodically (don't go over 5 minutes unless you have very stubborn wax or a weak iron)
• Below are some examples of the process (before and after melting)

• Use the sharpie to draw your designs in the paper after they've cooled. I gave the kids the options of having a: Star, Circle, Heart
• Cut out your shape
• Hang on string or tape to your windows!

Related blog post:

-Stained Glass Leaves

(logging 2 hours for prep and execution)

100 Days- Silhouette Painting

The exciting news about today is... it is the 100th day of school! For the session of 2014-2015 we have hit the incredible one-zero-zero. The day consisted of many games with the 100 theme: Stacking 100 cups, doing 20 of 5 different exercises (5x20= 100), making a snack with 100 pieces of various ingredients, etc.

All of the above was planned and executed by me eldest sister. She also found today's art project but I had the pleasure of planning and teaching it.

To make the project extra special we bought canvases. Most of the kids have never gotten to use a canvas before so this was a big deal. :)

What you will need:

-canvases (we used 8x10)
-papertowels
-tempera paint (or acrylics - you can buy cheap .99 craft bottles)
-stencils

Time: 1 hour

• Each child gets to pick ONE color - lay down a solid coat of that one color using papertowel
• I then plopped white paint straight on the canvas in the center - give each child a new papertowel - have them blot/dab the white to spread it out almostttttt to the edge
• Plop more white in the center - dab it so you have a bright center, medium pale color, then the edges are dark
• New paper towel! I poured a little black on their paper towel and we dabbed the edges just to give it an antique border and add some contrast
• Drying time! During this time of maybe 10-15 minutes (tempera dries fast) the kids went with my eldest sister and did some exercises while Keirstyn and I painted the edges black and blow dried the paint where it had pooled
• When they came back they each got to pick our the stencil they wanted and we used black paint (the red and green stencils are mine and Keirstyn's paintings) - I would hold down the stencil and they would dab on the paint.
• Enjoy and hang it on your wall!

Art Curriculum- Week 19- Zentangle Valentines

Week 19- Zentangle Valentines

Our last zentangle project involved making a massive 3D snowflake. To view it click here.

This project was purely for fun. It's simple enough, however the kids needed a lot of encouragement to keep going since they would lose energy and want to quit. It helped that this wasn't the kids first time doing a zentangle project.

What you will need:

-colored paper
-black marker

Time: 45 minutes (approx)

Prep: I printed an empty heart on white paper; filled in the lines with a ruler; then printed the filled in heart on red paper.

I suggest having several patterns prepared to show the kids that they can look at. Then if they don't know what to fill in, you can give them suggestions. Look up zentangle patterns and different zentangle projects for fun. There's a lot you can do!

For the younger ones I suggested: Circles, zig zags, hearts, swirlies, etc.
For the older ones I suggested: "Fish" scales, checkered patterns, etc.

Overall: A simple and attractive project. Might require a lot of guidance.

Related blog posts:

-Watercolor Trees
-Pointillism

(logging 1 hours for prep and execution)