Transport - like Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian artist and architect who is best known for the colorful buildings he designed, built with attention to the environment and nature. The buildings of Hundertwasser are very recognizable: straight lines are missing, there is use of bright colors and many of his buildings have typical turrets. The influence of architect Gaudi is obvious.

The paintings of Hundertwasser have exuberant colours too and mainly undulating lines.

Show buildings of Hundertwasser on the digital board. Discuss the salient  features: bright colours, undulating lines. Then show some paintings and discuss the things that stand out:

• the use of small areas outlined with black

• no straight lines, usually parallel lines
• recurring spiral shapes
• bright colours

Tell students they are going to draw means of transport in the style of Hundertwasser. 

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. markers

Draw a car, plane, boat or something you think is a mean of transport. Fill it with lines and patterns like Hundertwasser did. Cut your drawing and paste all means of transport on a great colored sheet. 

Source: Dutch website Laat maar zien. 

Op art - like Henrique Matos

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. liquid water colour
3. jar with water
4. compasses
5. ruler
6. pencil
7. black waterproof markers

Henrique José Teixeira Matos is a Portugese painter. He is born in 1961 in Oporto.  Matos painted landscapes, portraits and abstract works, but is best known for his op-art work.
Show pictures of Matos's work on Wikimedia Commons. Look especially the op-art works and discuss what you see.

More op-art lessons on this blog can be seen following the link Op-art.

Paint a white sheet of paper with liquid watercolour and a lot of water a plain background.

Drip some liquid water colour on the surface while it is still wet. Use more water if the colours won't flow. Leave the sheet to dry.

Use compasses to draw some small circles (2 cm average) on the sheet. Draw wider circkels around them. Fill the sheet with those circles and half ones near the edges.

Draw lines from the middle of the circles to the edges. Be sure it's an even number of lines and  Kkeep the lines as much as possible equidistant from each other. Color the squares alternating with a black marker or pencil.

Op art hands

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. markers 

Draw a grid on the sheet with squares from 2 cm by 2cm. Draw your hand or an object with a pencil. Color this alternately with black an a color of your choice.  Color the background squares with the same colors, but so that the checkerboard pattern reverses.

Where Keith Haring meets Piet Mondriaan

You need:

1. drawing sheet A2 size
2. black strips 1,5 cm wide
3. colored construction paper in red, yellow and blue
4. ruler
5. scissors
6. glue
7. black marker

This is a teamwork lesson for two students. 

Draw squares and rectangles of various sizes on the colored paper. Make sure they are straight: start from a right angle and measure carefully. Cut the squares and rectangles and spread them on the white sheet.  Make sure same colors do not touch each other and stick them. 

Continue with the black strips. Decide by yourself how many strips and where you want them, but there are four requirements:

• the strips must be sticked straight! (use your ruler)
• black strips must be sticked around all colored area's
• use the black strips to create white area's (squares and rectangles) 
• don't use to much glue. Let some strips stay loose so you can put a Haring figure behind it

Draw three or more Keith Haring  characters on the colored paper. Cut them and paste them on the Mondriaan sheet. Be sure there is no yellow character on a yellow area. 

Outline the characters with a black marker and draw some 'move stripes' around them.

Picture book illustration

Students of grade 6 made this illustration. After a good study of the original illustration in a Dutch picturebook, they made a list of required materials to use for this artwork. The faces and arms are painted, the clothes and curtains are cut out of fabric, the wallpaper comes from a sample book for wallpaper and the flags are from scraps of paper.

Cat on head - like Corneille

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

1. drawing sheet A3 size
2. oil pastels
3. liquid watercolor paint
4. brushes

Corneille painted often cats, birds and women. There are some paintings where he painted the cat on the head of a woman!
Show Corneille paintings on the digital board or use google: 'Corneille woman cat'.

Who of you has a cat at home? Does it ever lie with you? Does your cat ever lie on your head?

Look at these artworks. What do you see? Why would the painter left the cat's eyes white?  Do the women on the paintings have hair? 

Draw a head on your sheet with oilpastel (dark color). Maybe your own head, but you may choose another head too. Draw a cat sitting, standing or lying down on the head. The cat looks like hair! What hairstyle it is, had to do with the position of the cat. 

Color your drawing with bright colors. Trace the outlines with a dark color if necessary and paint the background with liquid watercolor paint. 

Made by a student of grade 3

There are more lessons about Corneille on this blog! Use the search function. 

Corneille China

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. paper plates)
2. black markers
3. acrylic paint
4. small brushes 
5. jars with water and paper towels

Show some pictures of animals in Corneille's artwork. What do you see? What can you say about the colors? Do you like it? Why or why not? What animals do you see on the china?

Choose an animal. Use a black marker to draw it on your plate. You can also decide to draw just the head of the animal. Your drawing has to be large, it has to fill almost the entire plate. Can you think of anything else? Does the moon shine? Is your animal with others? Or is it in the grass? You can make it!

Color your drawing with acrylic paint and a brush. Choose bright colors and make sure it's opaque. Rinse your brush with each new color and dry it well in a paper towel; the acrylic paint shound not get wet.

Trace the marker lines again if necessary but only if the paint is really dry.

More information about Corneilla and the Cobra group on this blog:  Lesson 1 en lesson 2.