Kids Artists

Winter mittens and cap

2012-02-07T17:43:00.000+01:00

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

coloured construction paper
markers
white sheet
glue
scissors
oil pastel

Students draw a face on a large sheet of white paper and colour it with oil pastels. Be sure the eyes are not on top of the head, but in the middle. The space between the two eyes is as wide as an eye.
From coloured paper students cut mittens and a hat (or trace templates first and cut them). Draw patterns on the hat and mittens with marker. The patterns on both mittens should be similar, as well as the patterns on the hat.
Paste hat and mittens on the drawing. Make sure the thumbs point to each other!

Pastel planets

2012-01-28T18:28:00.000+01:00

You need:

black construction paper A4 size
chalk pastel
hairspray

During our school project about Space, students of grade 5 made these fantasy solar system. Spheres were drawn with attention towards an imaginary light source creating light and dark values. Overlap was required to suggest depth. To suggest the endlessness of the universe, parts of planets had to be drawn at the edge of the sheet.

Draw circles by tracing round subjects or use compasses. Colour with chalk pastel. Note the technique of the chalk: colour, smear and blend until you're satisfied. Fix the artwork with hairspray.

International Space Station

2012-01-27T22:52:00.001+01:00

You need:

piece of cardboard 30 by 25 cm (box)
space wallpaper or blue crepe paper
gold and silver foil
scraps paper and cardboard
metallic supplies like candle holders, stones, beads etc. .

During a school project about space students of grade 5 made the International Space Station - ISS, where Dutch astronaut André Kuipers currently stays. We saw photographs of the ISS and talked about the different parts of it.

All students get a piece of cardboard and wallpaper or crepe paper. With different materials they make their own representation of the ISS.

Winter forest prints

2012-01-17T11:32:00.001+01:00

I found this lesson on Mrs. Knight's art class blog. Take a look on that blog to see more beautiful artworks.

You need:

ribbed cardboard
flat cardboard
woodsies
coloured construction paper
block printing ink
piece of plexiglass
roller

Students make a collage of trees, cut from pieces of flat and ribbed cardboard and woodsies. Tell them the cardboard can be used in two ways: from top to bottom or from left to right.
Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some paint on the glass and roll it out. Roll the paint on the trees. Put a sheet on top of it and press firmly with a flat hand. Make different prints, choose the best one to paste on a coloured background.

A journey through space

2012-01-14T21:49:00.000+01:00

You need:

white drawing paper A5 size
crayons
black paint
brush
toothpick
coloured construction paper

As part of a school project about the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and his space journey, students scratched these drawings.
Colour the entire drawing sheet with crayons. Choose the colours you want, but don't use black or white. Then Paint the entire sheet black and let dry. Scratch a space scene with a toothpick. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 3

Stamped polar bears

2012-01-06T13:42:00.000+01:00

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

blue construction paper
pencil
tempera paint white and black
marshmellows
brush
glitter
glue

Show how to draw a polar bear out of simple shapes: circle, half of a circle (ears) and a part of a triangle for the body. Talk about the grey shadow under the head. How do you make gray? Tell students they have to stamp with marshmellows or brushes. Do not paint!

Students draw the head of a polar bear on blue paper. Use white to stamp head and body. Use grey to stamp the shadow. Paint eyes and nose with a small brush. Decorate the artwork with glitter.

Snowmen mandala

2011-12-27T17:10:00.004+01:00

You need:

white drawing sheet
compasses
scissors
crayons or oil pastels
indian ink
brush

Step 1.
This lesson is a variaton on 'Autumn leaves mandala'. Click the link for full description.

Focus in this lesson: make sure the snowmen are really coloured white with crayons or oil pastels, otherwise they will turn completely black with ink after step 2.

Step 2.

Crumple the picture into a ball. Make flat again. Paint the entire drawing with indian ink. Rinse the ink immediately after it in the sink and let the work dry. The ink will rest in the folds of the paper and creates a great "antique" effect.

Made by a student of grade 3

Golden Christmas

2011-12-18T12:24:00.001+01:00

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

white drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
ruler
pencil
silver and gold marker
black construction paper
glue

Children divide their sheet with ruler and pencil in 16 squares from 5 by 5 cm. In each square they draw a Christmas figure: tree, candy, snowman, skates, mitten, sock, candle etc. These figures have to be coloured , just like a checkerboard, with gold and silver marker. Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

Gingerbread man printing lesson

2011-12-13T22:14:00.000+01:00

You need:

two pieces of linoleum 10 x 10 cm
lino knife
block printing ink
flat piece of plexiglass
linoleum roller
white sheets
lino press
scissors, glue
coloured paper

Draw a gingerbread cookie on both pieces of linoleum. Cut away the outlines of the first linoleum, and the background of the second one. Print in one or two (Christmas) colours and paste on coloured paper.

Winter scenes

2011-12-12T10:07:00.002+01:00

You need:

styrofoam

pencil

block printing ink

paint roller

flat piece of plexiglass

coloured paper

Explain the principle of printing. Why is it that people started to print texts and pictures?

Draw a winter scene with a pencil on the styrofoam. Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet.
Put the styrofoam on a newspaper. Roll one colour ink onto the foam, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay a sheet on top of foam and press with a flat hand. Take away the sheet and your print is ready. Let dry and cut it with about 1 cm around. Paste one or more prints on a white sheet. Decorate the frame with fingerprints.

Made by students of grade 2

House in cubist style

2011-12-06T18:44:00.000+01:00

By a student of grade 4

You need:

drawing paper A4 size
colour markers
pencil
ruler

Draw a house simplified house with windows and a door. Add one or two trees. Divide the sheet in with three horizontal and three vertical lines. Colour the surfaces with four different coloured markers.

2011-11-30T22:20:00.000+01:00

You need:

black construction paper
scissors
kite paper
glue

In the folklore of the Netherlands, Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is a yearly feast on the evening of December 5th. Sinterklaas celebrates his birthday by distributing presents to all good children. Half November Saint Nicholas comes with is steam boat out of Spain to Holland. With his helpers, a lot of Black Pete's, he visits schools, hospitals, stores ands families.
This lesson is about Sinterklaas, but can be done with Santa too, or any other person with a recognizable silhouette.
Fold the black sheet and draw an oval as great as possible. Use this oval to draw a decorated frame. Cut this. Draw a silhouette against the fold of the resting piece of black paper, and cut it. Paste kite paper behind the fram, paste the silhouette in the middle of it.

Amsterdam by night

2011-11-26T21:09:00.001+01:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
liquid water colour
brush
jar with water
indian ink
straw
black and yellow construction paper
scissors
glue

Paint the white sheet blue or orange with liquid water colour; add water to get a brighter blue / orange above. Let dry. Drip some indian ink and blow it upwards with a straw. Cut a row of canal houses out of black paper and paste it on the coloured sheet. Cut and paste windows and a moon out of yellow paper.
Paste the artwork on a black sheet.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

In the style of Pablo Picasso

2011-11-22T22:53:00.002+01:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
watercolour paint
brushes
black marker
ruler and pencil
scissors and gluetekenpapier op A4 formaat
black construction paper

Show some cubistic works of Picasso on the digital board. What do you see? What does the face look like?

Students draw a portrait. In this lesson we made a portrait of Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), the helper of our Dutch Sinterklaas. We called him Pietcasso! Of course this lesson can be done with any other portrait.
Colour the portrait with watercolour paint. Paint a background too. Outline with black marker.
Measure the face between hair and neck. Divide it in three and draw the lines with ruler and pencil on the drawing. Cut the three strips. Divide the strips in quares.
Paste the top of the face on a black sheet. Make a composition of the little squares; be sure there's not a facial square on the outside of the face. Paste the squares. Finally paste the lower face.
.

Northern lights

2011-11-21T22:47:00.002+01:00

You need:

black construction paper A4 size
chalk pastel
white wallpaper with texture
scissors
glue
fine black marker

I found this lesson via Flickr on Pinterest, but don't know to whom I have to give credit...
Show some northern light movies on Youtube. What can you tell about the colours? What movements do you see?

Draw a horizon line a little below the middle of a black sheet. Use different colours chalk pastels to colour the sea. Do not use too much chalk, so that it can be smudged.
Cut a strip of mountains out of black paper. Paste it on the horizon line. Use white chalk pastel to make snow on the mountains. Draw the northern light above the mountains. Smudge colours.
Draw a polar bear on an ice floe on the back of a piece of white wallpaper. Cut out. Draw details with a fine black marker. Paste the polar bear on the sea.
Finally paste the artwork on a bright coloured sheet.

By students of grade 5

Patterned leaves

2011-11-15T22:13:00.000+01:00

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
pencil
black marker
water colour paint
jar with water
brush
white pencil
coloured sheet

Draw contours of leaves with a pencil on a white sheet. Don't forget some half ones on the edges. Draw veins. Trace the leaves and veins with a black marker. Fill the spaces between the veins with as many different patterns you can.

Paint the space between the leaves with water colour paint. Leave a white edge around the leaves. Let dry. Paste the artwork on a coloured sheet and finish the half leaves with a white pencil on this frame.

Silly sandwich

2011-11-10T19:29:00.000+01:00

You need:

drawing sheet 12 by 30 cm
colour pencils

Create a super size sandwich, stacked with all your favorite things to eat! The sandwich could be as crazy or realistic as you want them to be, just stack them high!

Building a burger

2011-11-05T22:14:00.001+01:00

I did this lesson in October 2009, and soon saw it on many blogs. It's still one of my favorite lessons.
This week we had the Dutch Week of School Breakfast, a good reason to build a lot of new burgers with students of grade 4.
How to do this? Look at this post.

Printed mushrooms, group work

2011-10-31T21:49:00.000+01:00

Group work by students of grade 3

You need:

piece of linoleum 15 x 15 cm
lino knife
block printing ink
flat piece of plexiglass
linoleum roller
white sheets
lino press
autumn leaves
scissors
glue
coloured cardboard

Draw a mushroom on your linoleum. Cut away the linoleum around the mushroom. Remember: what you cut away will not print. It is not important to carve deeply into linoleum, just enough so that carved area is lower than the linoleum surface. Always carve away from your hand, always keep your hand behind the back edge of linoleum. When you want to check your printing block, place a piece of paper on the linoleum and rub over the paper with a crayon. This will create a “rubbing” and will give you an idea of what the final print will look like.
Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet.
Put your linoleum block on a newspaper. Roll one or two colours ink onto the linoleum printing block, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay the block on a sheet in the printing press and press. Take away the block and your print is ready.

To make a group work, all students have to cut out on of their their prints. Leave a white edge around the mushroom. Ask some students to make a collage of all mushrooms on a piece of dark coloured cardboard. Paste some autumn leaves on the bottom of the collage.

Stitched face

2011-10-29T15:32:00.001+02:00

A nice lesson to practice stitching on a sewing machine: stitch a face in one line on a drawing sheet!

Autumn leaves mandala

2011-10-25T21:37:00.001+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
compasses
pencil
oil pastels

Draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Draw within about 1 cm another circle (the edge of the mandala). Cut out and fold into 8 pieces. Draw against one of the folds half of an autumn leaf using black oil pastel.

Fold the sheet and press firmly with the hands to get a print of the leaf on the other side of the fold. Trace this half with black oilpastel. Repeat this and draw the other three leaves. Colour the leaves and background with oil pastels in warm colours. Colour the edge with a nice pattern.

Outlined autumn leaves

2011-10-23T22:45:00.000+02:00

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
liquid water colour yellow and red
brush
colour markers
glue
scissors

Paint a wet white sheet with red and yellow liquid water colour. Leave to dry. Outline some autumn leaves on this sheet, cut them and paste them on a new sheet.
Choose three markers in wamr (autumn) colours and outline the leaves until the sheet is full. Draw the veins with a fine marker.

Blob creatures

2011-10-22T17:42:00.001+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
tempera paint
scissors
glue
black marker
black paper for background

Start by folding the white sheet of paper in half and open it up again. Then drop blobs of tempera paint in three different colours somewhere around the middle of your paper. Don't put the paint to close to the edges. Fold the sheet and press by firmly moving hands around. This movement will move the paint around more than just folding.

Open the paper and dry flat.
Look carefully at this creature. Outline the creature with a black marker. Look for typical shapes, like arms, eyes, ears etc. and trace them with a marker. The drawing should be totally symmetrical.

Cut the creature, leaving half cm white around the black lines. Paste it on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 4

Paper batik autumn leaves

2011-10-19T22:39:00.000+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
oil pastels
brown tempera
liquid soap
brushes

Step 1
Ask students to bring autumn leaves. Outline some of them on the white sheet and draw veins in them. Colour the leaves and background with oilpastels, press heavily.

Step 2.
Wrinkle the sheet into a ball; make sure the picture is on the inside.

Step 3.

Smooth the paper out.

Step 4.

Use brown tempera with a tiny bit of liquid handsoap, and paint over the entire paper.

Step 5.

Then rinse the paper under cool water. The paint sticks in the little crinkle wrinkles giving it that batik look.

Leave the work to dry and press it flat between two books. Paste or staple it on a coloured background.

Burton Morris!!!

2011-10-13T22:19:00.000+02:00

Made by a student of grade 6

In February I posted a lesson about Burton Morris. It is a tutorial to make artwork in his style.
Today I was highly surprised when I got an email of the artist himself! Burton Morris wrote me! You'll all understand how excited I was!!!

Dear Jacquelin,

I came across your blog and saw your student's artworks. I am truly touched that you honored my artwork in your teaching lessons and hope it was a success and inspired the children!

I hope to show again in the Netherlands one day and feel free to keep in touch.

Your friend,
Burton Morris

If you want to check it out again, follow this link: http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-style-of-burton-morris.html

To see his wonderful website: www.burtonmorris.com

Three owls of clay

2011-10-12T14:58:00.002+02:00

Artworks are made by students of grade 5

You need:

clay
two beer coasters stapled together
clay plate
clay knife

In this lesson students will sculpt three massive forms together and then decorate them.
View pictures of owls and talk about the basic shapes: an oval for the body, round eye shapes, conical beak and plumes (note, these are not ears, because they are on the side of the head).

Students make three egg shapes in different sizes. The pointed end is the bottom of the owl. Modell these shapes together. Work out the shapes by attaching wings, beaks, plumes, eyes etc. The wings are made from flattened clay balls. To attach the wings, roughen the bonding side and press the wing firmly on the body.

Do the same with beak and plume using a conical shape. Make eyes by pressing the finger in the head. Apply texture to the wings, the body and around the eyes using a clay knife or little sticks.
Place the work on two stapled beer coasters. Let it dry for a few weeks before baking.

Halloween scene

2011-10-11T10:53:00.001+02:00

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
liquid water colour yellow and orange
brush
jar with water
black markers
black construction paper for backgroud
glue or stapler

This lesson is about silhouettes. A silhouette is a shadow, you can only see the outside lines. Show some silhouettes or shapes made with your hands. Show that sometimes the light comes through openings in the silhouette, so it is not just black.

Make the drawing sheet wet and paint it yellow and orange with liquid water colour to suggest a sunset. Draw a horizon line. Draw a house or a tree, and draw Halloween things around. Colour the silhouettes black and let light where it can. Paste or staple the artwork on a black sheet.

Haunted house in the moonlight

2011-10-08T15:03:00.000+02:00

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
black construction paper
yellow chalk pastel
scissors
cutting knife
lijm
white pencil
black marker
blue and purple tempera paint
sauzer
sponge

This lesson is all about Halloween and haunted houses. First make a word web about haunted houses: skeletons, spiders, bats, old, tombstones, dark, scary, etc.

Tear a strip of black paper from about 5 cm and paste it on the bottom of the white sheet: the ground. Draw on black paper ahouse that looks old and cut it out.

Use a cutter for doors and windows. Paste the house on the white sheet. Draw details such as bricks, ghosts, spiders, webs with a white pencil. Use a black marker to draw things in the white window openings.
Cut a circle, the moon, from a scrap of paper and lay it on the work. Outline moon and house with a yellow chalk pastel and smudge the chalk outwards.

Use a sponge piece to stamp the background with purple and blue tempera paint. Do not get too close to the yellow chalk. Finally paste the artwork on a yellow background sheet.

Gnomes

2011-10-04T21:57:00.000+02:00

You need:

some sturdy branches
saw
scraps of wool
felt
scissors
markers

Saw before the lesson starts for all students from a piece of the branche in different lengths, between 5 and 10 cm. Saw one side bevel and the other right.

The bevel side is the head of the gnome. Cut threads from the wool for the hair De schuine kant is het hoofd van de kabouter. Cut strands of wool for hair and beards, and paste them on the branch. Cut a triangle out of felt and shape into a pointed hat. Paste the hat on the head. Draw a face with markers.

Dutch canal houses groupwork

2011-09-26T16:29:00.000+02:00

Part of the groupwork, made by students of grade 4

You need:

white drawing sheets
tempera paint
brushes
pencil
glue plakkaatverf

After a request of Amy Baldwin, art teacher in Millington, my 4th graders painted Dutch canal houses for the Empty Bowl fundraiser in Millington (Mi).

Before starting to paint, we talked about the Dutch Golden Age, a period roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. In this century many of the typical canal houses were built, in that age used as store houses. We looked at pictures of canal houses, discussed the different kinds of gables (neck gable, trep gable, bell gable) and details of the houses (windows, year it was built, stairs).

Every students gets a sheet of paper and has to draw a line on 8 cm of the bottom - this is for the canal. On the left side of the sheet there must remain a white strip of 2 cm (to paste all paintings together).

Every student draws his own canal house. Stop drawing after 5 minutes, to avoid drawint to many details. Paint the house with tempera paint. Mix colours, or for even better results: take two colours of paint on your brush and mix a little while painting.

Paste all paintings together to make a long street. Paint the canal. You might even add the words 'Groeten uit Holland'!

Click to see full site.

In the style of Henrique Matos

2011-09-20T22:34:00.001+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
liquid water colour
jar with water
compasses
ruler
pencil
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.

By a student of grade 5, coloured with pencil

Same animal, different colours

2011-09-16T20:53:00.003+02:00

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

two white drawing sheets A4 size
oil pastels
liquid water colour
brush
jar with water

A lesson about cool and warm colours.

Draw an animal on a white drawing sheet. Be sure it's not too small. Ask the teacher to make a copy of this drawing. Colour the first animal with oil pastels in warm colours, the second one in cool colours. Paint the background with liquid water colour, using warm and cool colours as well.

Paste both drawings below or next to each other on a large white sheet.

Peaks and valleys

2011-09-15T19:29:00.000+02:00

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
crayons in bright colours
watercolour paint
brushes
jar with water

Discuss with the students the difference between hills and mountains. When do we call something a mountain, when a hill? What does the top of hills look like? And what about the top of a mountain - this can be a sharp point or eroded and round, depending on the age of the mountain.

Show students step by step how to draw a landscape with hills and mountains. Start with two wave lines Start with two wavy lines on the bottom of the drawing sheet. Draw diagonal lines down from the lowest points. Draw some high mountain peeks behind the hilss and draw a sun behind the peeks.

Fill the mountains and hills with patterns. Use crayons in bright colours. Each mountain should have its own pattern. Paint the mountains and the sky with watercolour paint. Patterns and lines will resist the watery paint.

Outstanding name

2011-09-10T17:36:00.001+02:00

By Vincent, grade 3

You need:

white drawing sheet A5 size
waterproof black marker
colour markers
black fine marker

Every year we make a birthday calendar in the classroom. For the calendar of this year, we used this lesson. The drawings were pasted on a coloured sheet with the date of the anniversary of the student.

Write your name in elegant letters with a black waterproof marker on a white sheet. Outline the letters with markers in different colors. Divide the background into pieces, by drawing lines from top to bottom and from left to right. Fill out the individual surfaces with patterns drawn with a black fine marker. Make sure that your name really stands out!

In the style of David Hockney

2011-09-05T20:13:00.002+02:00

I found this terrific lesson on the blog 'Use your coloured pencils' of Anne Farrell. I used this lesson to tell about artist David Hockney and his swimming pool paintings.

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
coloured paper for background
oil pastels
liquid water colour, blue and green
brush
jar with water

The successful British artist David Hockney was born in 1937 in Bradford, England. He studied at the Royal Academy in London. His first works were anecdotal and ironic. In 1964 Hockney moved to California, where he developed a more realistic way of painting. The main themes at this time, are pools, landscapes and portraits.

From 1966 David Hockney increasingly used photographs for his paintings. He made collages containing just photographs. After 1980, Hockney's work became a more expressionistic character. His work shows influences of Picasso Besides paintings, Hockney also makes drawings and etchings.

Look at artwork of David Hockney, especially those with swimming pools. Discuss with the students how people look like under water - flowing hair, lighter skin. What causes the shimmering
surfaces on the water and what do they look like?

The students draw one or more people in swimsuits and colour them with oil pastels. Use white oil pastel to draw a water pattern in the background, consisting of wavy horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
Paint the picture with blue and/or green diluted coloured ink. The swimmers and the white lines will not resist the ink.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Sunflower batik

2011-08-25T22:22:00.005+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
oil pastels
pencil
tempera paint brown or black
liquid soap
brushes

Draw some sunflowers on the sheet and on the edges. Colour them with oilpastels, press heavily. Wrinkle the sheet into a ball; make sure the picture is on the inside.

Smooth the paper out. Use black or brown tempera with a tiny bit of liquid handsoap, and paint over the entire paper.

Then rinse the paper under cool water. The paint sticks in the little crinkle wrinkles giving it that batik look.

Leave the work to dry and press it flat between two books.

Made by students of grade 4

Sunflowers in five different materials

2011-08-21T19:54:00.001+02:00

You need:

sunflowers or pictures of them
white drawing sheet A1 size, cut in strips of 30 by 65 cm
five different colouring materials, like colour pencils, tempera paint, watercolour paint, oil pastels, crayons, coloured ink, aquarell pencils etc.
brushes
pencil, ruler
coloured paper
scissors

Look with the students at some sunflowers or pictures of them. How thick is the stem, what can you tell about the leaves, how are the petals divided, what colours do you see in the heart of the flower, etc.

Divide the sheet with thin lines into five strips of 13 cm high. Draw some sunflowers. Make sure the flowers themselves are drawn at the demarcation of the strips. Make sure too that in each compartment at least half a sunflower or leave is drawn.

Choose five different colour materials. Use in every compartment a different material. Consider yourself the order of the materials, for example from bright (markers) to less bright (aquarelle pencils).

Paste the work on a coloured background. Or cut the five compartments and paste them with some space between on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 5

African adire

2011-08-14T13:52:00.002+02:00

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

white drawing paper A4 size
crayons
liquid watercolour
brush
ruler
pencil

Yoruba women in Nigeria make a type of resist-dyed cloth that they call adire. They make some adire by folding, tying, and/or stitching cloth with raffia before dyeing. This is called adire oniko, after the word for raffia, iko. They also make another type, adire eleko, by painting or stenciling designs on the cloth with starch. Both types are dyed in indigo, a natural blue dye.

The dye-resistant starch can be either painted freehand or stenciled onto the fabric. When freehand painting, the artist usually paints a grid of squares or rectangles onto the fabric first. Then she fills these squares with geometric and representational motifs.

Stenciled patterns are even more diverse. New motifs, both geometric and representational, are constantly being created. They can include everything from simple shapes to elephants, keys, letters, and skyscrapers. The metal stencils are made by men, who sell them to the female adire artists.

Show some pictures of african adire and discuss them. Show African symbols and talk about their meanings.

Students use pencil and ruler to divide their sheets in squares of 5 by 5 cm. Draw with a yellow or white crayon symbols and/or patterns in these squares. Paint the sheet using coloured ink.

In the style of Klaas Gubbels

2011-08-11T16:55:00.001+02:00

Made by a student of grade 5

Klaas Gubbels (Netherlands, 1934) is a Dutch artist. He is best known for his still lifes of tables, chairs and coffee pots. He also makes sculptures, mostly with the same subjects.

Gubbels attended various art schools and teached art at the Art Academy in Rotterdam.

Gubbel's work became more abstract over the years. A characteristic of Klaas Gubbels is that he avoids all that is 'beautiful'. Beauty is unreal to him and keeps us away from the truth. The subject isn't interesting, but the humour, agression or dullness of this subject, that's what it's all about. The utensils, if they are freed from their jobs, end up with a mood or emotion.

Gubbels uses various techniques in his works: painting, drawing, graphic techniques, but also photographs, collages, assemblages and sculptures in glass and metal.

You need:

canvas A4 size
acrylic paint
brushes
jar with water
pencil

Show artwork from Klaas Gubbels. Discuss the subjects of his paintings. What stands out? Much or little detail? Depth? Perspective? Use of colour?

Students work on canvas with acrylic paint. Tell them about the properties of this paint: it dries quickly and is paintable.

Students have to make a painting with one of the topics that Gubbels frequently paints: chair, table or coffee pot. Unlike the real Gubbels works, the children in this task, however, have to paint a background. White is out of the question!

Made by a student of grade 5

Colour theory part two

2011-07-13T13:45:00.006+02:00

Following Colour theory part one a lesson about the effect that colours have on each other.

The aim of this lesson is that students discover the effect of primary and secondary colours on one another.

You need:

two sheets of white or black paper, A3 size
coloured sheets in red, yellow, blue, orange, green and purple
glue

Pre-cut squares of coloured paper. Per student you need: 5 squares of 5 by 5 cm in all six colours and five squares of 3 by 3 cm in all six colours.

Repeat the terms primary and secondary colours and name the colours. Tell students they will see today how the colours interact. What would be yellow on blue? What about red on purple? What colours would stand out well, what not? Try to discover how we can systematically investigate. Eventually you come to the following concept:

A. primary on primary.
B. primary on secundary.
C. secundary on primary.
D. secundary on secundary.

primary on primary

A. Primary on primary.

To make all combinations of primary on primary to make you need 2 large and 2 small squares of all primary colours. Ask students to find out how, or give them the solution:

- blue on yellow and red on yellow
- yellow on blue and red on blue
- yellow on red and blue on red
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Write under it: primary on primary.

secundary on primary

B. Secundary on primary.
To make all combinations of secundary on primary, you need 3 large squares of each primary colour and three small squares of each secundary colour. Ask students to find out how, or give them the solution:

- orange on yellow, purple on yellow, green on yellow

- green on blue, orange on blauw, purple on blue
- purple on red, green on red, orange on red
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Be sure the big squares in the same colour are next to each other. Write under it: secundary on primary.

primary on secundary

C. Primary on secundary.
To make all combinations of primary on secundary, you need 3 big squares of each secundary colour and 3 small ones of each primary colour. Ask students to find out how combinations have to be made, or give them the solution:

- yellow on orange, blue on orange, red on orange

- yellow on purple, blue on purple, red on purple
- yellow on green, blue on green, red on green
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Be sure the big squares in the same colour are next to each other. Write under it: primary on secundary.

secundary on secundary

D. Secundary on secundary.

To make all combinations of secundary on secundary, you need 2 big and 2 small squares of each secundary colour. Ask students to find out how combinations have to be made, or give them the solution:
- purple on green, orange on green
- orange on purple, green on purple
- purple on orange, green on orange
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Write under it: secundary on secundary.

Ask students after making this work to discuss see which colors are most contrasting, which you hardly see, etc.

Colour theory part one

2011-07-12T12:34:00.001+02:00

By students of grade 2

You need:

black cardboard 15 by 15 cm
coloured paper in yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green
scissors
glue
pencil

Fo the first part of a lesson on colour theory, we repeated primary and secundary colours and showed how to make secundary colours out of primary colours. Students knew those colours, but didn't know the names. Tell them about the complementary colours, the colours that lie opposite each other in the circle, called complementary. Red is opposite green, yellow against purple, blue opposite orange.

The primary colors red, yellow and blue are in a triangle. The same goes for the secondary colours orange, green and purple.

Tell students to cut 6 shapes from the coloured sheets and paste them on black paper as discussed.

Use a pencil to draw triangles in dotted lines between the primary and secondary colours.

Portrait of your schoolmate

2011-07-08T10:04:00.001+02:00

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

drawing paper A4 size
colour pencils
watercolour paint
brushes
coloured ribbed cardboard
stapler

After an instruction about proportions of a head, students draw their classmate who is sitting in front of him. The portraits are coloured with colour pencils, the background is painted with watercolour paint. The frames are made from coloured ribbed cardboard strips.

Pasta and beans landscape

2011-07-04T21:15:00.001+02:00

You need:

cardboard A4 size
glue
several sorts of pasta and beans
pencil

Students have to draw a simple landscape on their piece of cardboard. Fill the several parts with glue and put beans and pasta on them.

Artwork made by students of grade 3

ATC's from Australia

2011-07-03T16:01:00.001+02:00

We received an envelope full of the most beautiful artist trading cards from Anna Pietrolungo and her students on Essendon North Primary School, Australia. The envelope came just in time, because my 6th graders will leave our school this week.
Thanks a lot Anna, for these beautiful cards. My students were very excited and will get one of these cards on their last day of school.

Plaster mask

2011-06-27T20:42:00.003+02:00

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

bandage plaster
vaseline
towel
jar with water
scissors
canvas
cloth tape
tempera paint
brush
stuff to decorate, like feathers, stones, shells, ribbons
glue

Work in groups of two students.

Show a You tube movie about making masks or read Wiki how manual. In brief students have to:

1. Put a towel around the shoulders and pull the hair off the face.

2. Coat the face well with vaseline, especially hair line, eyebrows and eyelashes.

3. Cut the bandage plaster in strips. Make the strips one by one wet and cover the face. Be sure the strips overlap a little. Leave the nose open.

4. Provide three layers plaster for a solid mask.

5. Remove the mask after 15 minutes.

6. Close the hole of the nose with a last plaster strip.

Outline the mask with a pencil on a canvas. Cut a hole in the canvas about 1 centimeter smaller than the mask. Push the mask through the hole from the back of the canvas and stick it to the front and back with cloth tape.

Paint the canvas and face with tempera. Decorate the artwork with feathers, ribbons, shells or strass stones.

Students of grade 6 with their masks

Flowers behind fence

2011-06-24T21:49:00.000+02:00

Flowers behind fence with fingerprinted flowers, grade 1

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
masking tape
scissors
tempera paint
stencil brushes
bubble wrap
sponge strips

Create a fence with pieces of masking tape, about 2 cm from the bottom.

Cut a piece of bubble wrap that is as large as the sheet of drawing paper. Paint it with a thick brush, half blue and half green. Put the drawing sheet on top and rub with the hand, creating a bubble print. Use sponge strips (cut from an ordinary sponge) to stamp steals and leaves.

Use stencil brushes to stamp petals of use your fingers to print them. Stamp/print some flowers under the fence an between the poles of the fence. Leave the work to dry and gently pull off the masking tape.

Flowers behind fence with stamped flowers, grade 2

Artist Trading Cards exchange with Australia

2011-06-22T22:17:00.005+02:00

Another Artist Trading Cards, this time with Anna Pietrolungo from Essendon North Primary School in Australia.
Contact with a school contact with a school on the other side of the world is so exciting for my students! We searched the school on Google Earth, visited Anna's art blog and the school's website.

Many ohs and ahs when they saw the Australian students wearing school uniforms. That's inconceivable in the Netherlands and it took quite a time to discuss the the pros and cons (although most of my students didn't see any pro at all!).

My students made about 35 cards. Subjects and materials were their own choice. I laminated them and sent them to Australia. Hopefully their cards are almost ready, because we only have two weeks school to go before my students leave us to go to highschool!

In the style of Keith Haring, group work

2011-06-18T15:14:00.003+02:00

Group work, made by students of grade 2 and 3

You need:

drawing sheet A1 size

pieces of cardboard 10 by 15 cm

pencil

scissors

glue

colour markers

permanent black marker

We worked in groups of five students.
Each student draws a figure on a piece of cardboard in the style of Keith Haring: no details, movement, a figure like in a comic. Cut the figures and trace them several times with pencil on the big sheet. Working together is required!

Instructions:
- Draw not twice the same figure next to each other.

- Vary the position: upright, horizontally, diagonally. Turn the cardboard to get a mirror figure.

- Do not start in the middle, but work from the side and place the figures as close to each other.

- Outline all figures with a permanent black marker.

- Divide the intervening areas into smaller areas by straight lines drawn with black marker.
- Choose one colour per person and colour the areas with these five colours.

- Put your signature on the work, just as Keith Haring did!

Connected shells

2011-06-13T13:20:00.002+02:00

Warm colours, made by Emmy, grade 6

You need:

white drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
colour markers
fine black marker
pencil

Draw a few lines on the sheet to divide the paper into sections. Draw several shells on those lines. Be sure the shells touch eachother. Trace the shells with a fine permanent black marker. Colour the sections between the shells with colour markers in warm or cool colours.

Cool colours, made by Bjorn grade 5

Father's Day newspaper

2011-06-06T14:09:00.002+02:00

In this lesson students make their own newspaper for Father's Day. Everyone has to make a front page with a fanciful name and three other pages. We gave them six categories (weather, sport, shownews, news from the city, a comic and a puzzle). The rest of the pages had to be filled with self chosen articles.
The articles can be written by hand or on the computer.

During this project several subjects come across: language, spelling, writing and illustrating.
But also themes like layout, headlines, editing, editor and journalist can be discussed.

We worked several weeks to complete these newspapers.

Thanks to Els Wagenaar.

In the style of Romero Britto

2011-06-02T14:14:00.001+02:00

Dutch tulips in the style of Romero Britto, by Malou, grade 6

This was one of my most successful lessons so far; students enjoyed it and the results were amazing: In the style of Romero Britto.

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
permanent marker
colour markers
ruler

Romero Britto is a Brazilian artist. He was born in 1963 in grew up an extremely modest lifestyle amongst eight brothers and sisters in Recife Brazil. His drew and painted on any scrap of newspaper or cardboard he could find and filled them with colourful images of a beautiful world.
In 1983 Britto travelled to Europe to study the old masters. After this trip, he traveled to the USA where Pop Art was flourishing. He opened a gallery in Miami. In 1989,Absolut Vodka selected Britto to design an artwork with their famous logo. From that moment the name Britto was known to a greater public. His artwork are now represented in galleries and museums across five continents.

Paris in the style of Britto, by Emmy grade 6

Look at artwork of Britto on his gallery. Discuss the salient features: bright colours, simple shapes, the work is divided into sections that are filled with patterns, thick black outlines. Discuss how you to see the difference between the drawn picture and the background. Ask about the stylistic characteristics and where to classify this artist (Pop Art, Cubism).

The students have to make a drawing with a topic of their choice. No details, but only the main lines. Divide the drawing surface with pencil and ruler in several sections. Trace all lines with a waterproof black marker and then colour them with markers in the way Britto did.

For the background we stamped circles with toilet rolls on a coloured sheet and pasted the artwork on it.

Flowers in the styleo of Britto, by Nadia grade 6

Sailboat regatta

2011-05-29T12:47:00.002+02:00

You need:

two sheets of white drawing paper
sandpaper
tempera paint in blue, green and white
brush
coloured paper
brown paper (grocery bag)
glue
blue paper A1 size

Spray paint stripes in blue, green and white on a saucer. Lay a sheet of white drawing paper before you, with the small size up. Paint it with coloured waves. Don't mix the colours on the saucer, but dip the brush in two or three colours. Leave the sheet to dry.

Take the second white sheet and lay it before you with the small side up. Cut a piece of sandpaper as wide as the sheet and 8 cm high. Paste the sandpaper on the bottom of the sheet.

Tear the painted sheet in wavy strips. Tear the straight sides of the first and last strip too, so that all strips have two wavy sides.

Place the strips overlapping on the white sheet. Start below. Place the second strip partly under the first one, the third under the second etc. Paste down the short sides of the waves on the left and right.

Cut boats out of a brown paper bag; bigger ones below, smaller ones at the top (perspective). Cut masts out of the paper bag and sails out of coloured paper. Paste the boats between the waves and paste the long sides of the waves at the same time. Paste sails and masts on the boats.

Paste or staple all works together on large blue sheets (A1 size) to create a beautiful group work.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Filled with fruit

2011-05-23T09:48:00.000+02:00

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
oil pastels

Choose four fruits and draw many of them on the drawing sheet. The fruit should overlap. Colour them with oil pastels and outline with black.

Wavy weaving

2011-05-17T15:06:00.002+02:00

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

paper strips in two colours, 4 x about 50 cm
black cardbaord
scissors
glue
printed grid of 5 by 5 squares, each square is 4 by 4 cm

1. Give all students the printed grid. Cut it along the outside and paste it on black cardboard.

2. Cut 10 stripes in two colours, 4 x 50 cm. Fold the ends of the strips about one cm.

3. Paste the fold edges exactly along the lines of the squares. Use two different colours alternately. Paste the arcs from bottom to top and from left to right, alternately. Cut a piece of the strip if it's too long. You may paste small squares to the ends of the rows as a finishing touch.

5. Press the strips gently and your weaving will look great!

MOMA

2011-05-13T22:02:00.001+02:00

Made by Debbie, grade 6

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
colour pencils
ruler

A lesson about drawing one point perspective.

Students draw a square in the middle of their sheet and draw four lines from the corners to the middle, see schedule. These are the floor and ceiling lines. Draw two lines from both short sides to the middle. Between these two lines the paintings has to be drawn. Draw lines from the bottom to the middle for tiles or parquet.
It's nice to draw artworks that students have made this schoolyear or to choose for artworks of famous painters.
Colour with colour pencils.

The most beautiful peacock

2011-05-10T22:29:00.000+02:00

By students of grade 1

You need:

white drawing paper
coloured cardboard
colour pencils
scissors
split pins

Cut a peacock out of coloured cardboard.
After learning the word 'peacock' - in Dutch we call that bird a 'pauw', it's a word that is learned in grade 1 - every students makes his own feather. Give students a stripe of white drawing paper. Students cut it in the form of a feather and decorate it with colour pencils. Attach the feathers to the peacock with split pins. Of course the new learned word 'peacock' and 'egg' is not missing!

Puzzle drawing

2011-05-07T16:48:00.000+02:00

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
markers
black construction paper
glue

Students draw organic shapes on a white sheet and colour them with markers. Then all shapes have to be cut out and pasted with a little space between them on a piece of black construction paper. Be sure to lay down the cut pieces directly on the right place, to avoid hours of puzzling!

Three spring flowers, three materials

2011-05-05T22:38:00.001+02:00

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

three white drawing sheets 10 by 10 cm
coloured origami sheets 12 by 12 cm
coloured cardboard 14 by 38 cm
tempera paint
brushes
crayons
colour pencils
tulips, daffodils, bluebonnets or pictures of them
glue

Students scetch three different spring flowers on three sheets of 10 by 10 cm: bluebonnet, tulip and daffodil. Colour the flowers with three different materials: crayons, tempera paint and colour pencils. Paste the drawings on coloured origami sheets and paste them then on coloured cardboard.

Painting while listening to classical music

2011-05-02T23:09:00.001+02:00

By Marrit (gr. 6, right part) and Luuk (gr. 1, left part)

You need:

cd's with classical music
cd-players
drawing sheet A2 size
brushes
tempera paint
jar with water

During a school project about music, students of grade 1 and 6 painted together while listening to classical music. We had five classrooms to work in. In every classroom was a cd-player with classical music: Bolero of Ravel, Four Seasons of Vivaldi, the Carneval of the Animals of Camille Saint-Saëns and two more. On the tables big sheets, paint and brushes.

Every first grader came to the sixth graders and asked a student to work with. Each pair was sent to a classroom where they listened to a piece of classical music. By talking together, 'What do you think of while hearing this?' 'What do you feel?' students had to make a painting. One student on the right side, the other on the left side of the sheet. It wasn't nesessary to make one painting, but they might do it. I was all about interpretation of the music.

Marrit (left, grade 6) and Luuk (grade 1) working together on their fishbowls

Students made great artworks together. Some worked together to make one painting, like the one above: two fishbowls, painted while listening to the Four Seasons - Spring of Vivaldi. It is clear the right bowl is painted by the grade 6 student. Other couples chose to paint tow different interpretations, as you can see below.

A great project, worth to give it a try!

Weaving flowers

2011-04-30T23:21:00.002+02:00

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

beer coaster
coloured yarn
weaving needle
paper plate
white sheet
coloured construction paper A4 size
scraps of coloured paper
tempera paint
brushes
glue
scissors

Cut notches in the beer coaster at intervals of 1 cm. Be sure it is an odd amount. Wrap cotton yarn around the tray, back to front, until the whole beer counter is wrapped. Start weaving in the middle. Use different colours of yarn. Don't weave too tight, to keep the work flat.

To make the flower you have to paint a paper plate with tempera paint. If you use plastified plates, the paint will give a wrinkly effect. Cut a circle ouot of a white sheet circle which is two cm larger then the plate. This will be the outer edge of the flower. Paint it too.

Paste the woven circle on the plate. Paste the plate on the coloured circle. Paste it all on a coloured sheet. Cut petals and a stem out of green paper and finish the flower.

Printed birds

2011-04-28T22:03:00.003+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
two potatoes, middle and small size
knife
sauzer
tempera paint
piece of corrugated box cardboard
paper towel
fine black marker
brush
watercolour paint

In 'The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas' I found this great lesson.

Place a paper towel on a saucer and spray a stripe of brown paint on it. Use the side of a piece of corrugated cardboard of about 7 cm to stamp branches.

Cut the medium potato in half and cut this half again. Stamp the bodies of the birds using red tempera.

Cut the half potato in two pieces. Use the quarter to stamp the tails.
Cut the small potato in half and stamp the faces of the birds.
Clean this half potato with a tissue and cut it in two. Stamp the wings.
Paint beaks, eyes and legs. Leave the work to dry. Paint the background with watercolour paint. Outline the birds with a fine black marker.
To make spring art work, you can add leaves by stamping them, cutting them out of green paper, using real dried leaves or .....use Paint shop pro, like I did!

Fantastic felines in the style of Laurel Burch

2011-04-25T21:50:00.000+02:00

You need:

pink or purple constrution paper A3 size
oilpastels
tempera paint
brushes
gold and silver markers
glitter
glue

Laurel Burch (1945 – 2007) was an American artist, designer and businesswoman. As a 20-year-old single mother she found metal in junkyards to hammer into jewelry to support her two children, and went on to launch her business, now called Laurel Burch Artworks, in the late 1960s with the help of a small staff that worked out of her house. She began making paintings and was commissioned by restaurants, businesses and private collectors. Burch designed, among other things, beads, jewelry, paintings, T-shirts, scarves, coffee mugs and tote bags, but 90% of her designs derived from her original paintings.

Especially Burch's cats are recognizable. Few some of her paintings on the website of Laurel Burch and discuss the salient features: bright colours, bold pattersn, eyes and nose are drawn out of one line. use of silver and gold.

Students draw a cat on purple or pink paper in the style of Laurel Burch. Colour the cat using different materials like tempera, oilpastels, gold and silver markers. Outline the cat with silver or gold. Draw a frame around the artwork. Use glitter to accentuate lines.

All artworks are made by students of grade 5

Prisoners in World War II

2011-04-22T21:43:00.003+02:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
ribbed cardboard
pencil
watercolour paint
brushes
jar with water
black wool
glue

In Holland we rembember the victims of World War II on the 4th of May. The 5th of May we celebrate the day of liberation. In schools World War II is an important part of the history lessons. Students are always very interested in this topic.

"We had to draw one or more people in a concentration camp. Our drawings should show the fear and powerlessness of the prisoners. Most of all did well and the artworks were really beautiful. When the drawing was finished, we had to paint it with watercolour paint, using sad colours. We used black wool to make barbed wire and pasted it in front of the drawing. Finally we pasted the artworks on ribbed cardboard. It was an intense task, and it made us really think about that terrible time."

Artworks are made by students of grade 6

Thanks to Sylvia Versteeg

Easter eggs with lines

2011-04-21T20:27:00.000+02:00

You need:

cardboard egg shape 10 cm high
pencil
white drawing sheet
several colour materials, like markers, colour pencils, crayons, chalk pastel
coloured paper 20 by 14 cm
gekleurd papier 14 cm hoog, 20 cm breed
glue
scissors
fine black marker

What kind of lines do we know? Let students draw them on the blackboard: straight - horizontal, vertical, diagonal; angular, like zig-zag and curved lines.
Students have to make four Easter eggs. Ouline the template with a pencil. Draw straight lines in the first egg, curved lines in the second one and zig-zag lines in the third one. The fourth egg may is made with lines of their own choice. Trace the lines with a fine black marker. Colour them with four different materials: colour pencils, markers, chalk pastel and crayons. Cut the eggs and paste them on a coloured sheet.

Made by students of grade 3

Origami tulips

2011-04-20T21:12:00.002+02:00

You need:

origami sheets 10 by 10 cm
strip of green cardboard
scraps of green paper
scissors
glue

Fold the sheet twice, open and turn around.

Fold two diagonal lines and open it.

Fold the sheet double at a straight fold,

push the ends inward and push it flat.

It is a double square now.

Fold one point down.

Fold two points to the side.

Fold four tulips in different colours. Paste them on a piece of cardboard. Cut stems and leaves and paste them.

Chicken of towel fabric

2011-04-18T22:51:00.002+02:00

In the Netherlands we have washcloths where you can put your hand in. I've never seen them in the USA, so for this lesson you'll have to sew them first! They look like this.

You need:

towel fabric
cotton wool balls
cotton thread
piece of cardboard
glue
wobbling eyes
small piece of felt
scissors
hay

Fill the two corners of the washcloth with cotton wool balls. Tie a cotton thread around the edges so the cotton does not fall out. Cut a cardboard strip with a length of 2 times the width of the washcloth and 6 cm high.
Fold this strip round and paste or staple the ends together. The circle should be slightly smaller than the opening of the washcloth.
Push the circle in the bottom of the washcloth. Push the two filled corners - the heads of the chickens -down so they are just above the rim. Paste wobbling eyes on the head and a beak of felt. Fill the space around the heads with hay or Easter eggs.

Handprinted chicken

2011-04-18T08:59:00.000+02:00

You need:

yellow paper 15 by 15 cm
green paper 16 by 16 cm
brushes
stapler

Paint the hand and press onto the paper. Be sure the thumb faces up or forward, not down. Complete the chicken with legs, an eye, a comb and a beak. Paint grass and another little chicken if you want to.

Charming chicken

2011-04-17T14:44:00.003+02:00

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

blue and yellow construction paper A4 size
oil pastels
glue

Draw a chicken on blue construction paper, using the tutorial on How to draw a chicken. Make it a charming chicken by colouring it in bright colours. Mix colours to create smooth transitions. Draw a horizon line and colour the ground. Draw somethin on the horizon line, Teken een horizonlijn en kleur de grond. Teken iets op de horizonlijn, for example a fence or a farm.
Tear the edges of the blue sheet away and paste the chicken on a yellow undersheet. Draw eggs around it.

Made by students of grade 6

Printed tulips

2011-04-12T22:23:00.000+02:00

You need:

cardboard of a box
scissors
block printing ink
flat piece of glass
linoleum roller
white or coloured sheets A4 size

Draw two or three tulips in different sizes on a cardboard box. Cut them. Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some paint on the glass and roll it out with the lino roller. Roll the paint on the tulips and press them on a white or coloured sheet, using a book. Remove the tulips of the sheet and roll them again. Add white to the colour on the glass for a lighter colour. Place the tulips tulips partly overlapping the first, and press again with a book.

In the style of Jean Dubuffet

2011-04-10T22:22:00.004+02:00

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
pencil
thick markers in red, blue and black
fine markers in red, blue and black

Jean Dubuffet (France, 1901-1985) was a French painter and sculptor. He was very interested in drawings of children and mentally disabled. He called those drawings Art Brut (raw art):art produced by non-professionals working outside aesthetic norms, such as art by psychiatric patients, prisoners, and children. Dubuffet sought to create an art as free from intellectual concerns as Art Brut, and his work often appears primitive and child-like.

Many of Dubuffet's works are painted in oil paint, thickened by materials such as sand and straw, giving the work an unusually textured surface. During the early 1960s, Dubuffet produced a series of paintings in which he limited himself to the colours red, white, black, and blue. Those works resemble jigsaw puzzles, such as Nunc Stans (Guggenheim Museum, New York), in which tiny, obscure, closely spaced figures and faces dominate.
Towards the end of the 1960s he turned increasingly to sculpture, producing works in polystyrene which he then painted with vinyl colour paint.

Look at artwork of Dubuffet, especially Allées et venues. Discuss the salient features: colours (mostly red, blue, white, black), recognizable and unrecognizable shapes, curved lines, hatched areas and the whole sheet is full.

Doodling wavy lines

Students fill their sheet with wavy crossing lines, using a pencil. Then they search human or animal figures in those lines. Trace these figures with a black marker. Colour the patches of these figures in red, blue, hatched red and hatched blue. Leave some patches white. Outline the figures with a wide black marker. Trace de remaining lines between the figures with a fine black marker.

Made by a student of grade 6

Scenes from a fairy tale

2011-04-08T22:14:00.000+02:00

Hansel and Gretel, made by students of grade 6

You need:

piece of linoleum of 15 by 15 cm
drawing sheets A4 size
lino knives
block printing ink
flat piece of glass
linoleum roller
lino press
white paper A2 size
scissors
glue

I got the idea for this lesson from Artlessons from Belgium. This is a group assignment for four students.
Every group of students chooses a fairytale that has to be represented in images. They discuss the most important parts and each students cuts one scene out of linoleum. After printing the scenes, they paste them in the right order to create a fairytale cartoon. Use letter stamps to print the name of the story above.

I chose to let all students print their part of the fairytale four times. The best print is for yourself. Each student gets one print of the other three group members, so every student has his own cartoon.

The princess on the pea

The emperor's new clothes

2011-04-06T20:57:00.000+02:00

The Emperor's underwear, by students of grade 3

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
colour pencils

The Emperor's New Clothes is a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1837 in Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children.

The story is about an emperor, who cares for nothing but his appearance and attire, hires two tailors who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or 'just hopelessly stupid'. The emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him. Then the emperor marches in procession before his people. A child in the crowd calls out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.

Read the fairytale. Tell students they have to draw the emperor. The emporor , who is recognizable by his crown, is almost nude. The only cloth he wears is beautiful underwear. Colour the drawing with colour pencils.

Chicken on a stick

2011-04-04T15:08:00.001+02:00

You need:

cardboard box
tempera paint
brush
coloured paper
wooden skewer
scissors
glue

Draw a chicken on cardboard. Cut it. Paint the chicken and colour the beak. Cut two wings out of cardboard and cover them with coloured paper. Paste the wings with double sided tape on the chicken to make them look 3D. Cut a comb and wattle out of coloured paper and paste them on the chicken. Use a marker to draw an eye.
Cut three pieces cardboard of 8 by 5 cm and stick them together. Paste coloured paper around it. Insert a skewer into the stand and plug the other end in the chicken.

Fairy tale comic

2011-04-02T17:20:00.003+02:00

Hansel and Gretel

You need:

white drawing sheet A5 size
pencil
markers or colour pencils
fine black marker

The goal for this lesson is to convert a famous fairy tale into a comic. Students may draw only four pictures, so they should think very carefully about the most important scenes in the story. The story should be obvious from just those four pictures!

Divide the sheet into four sections. Draw four scenes and use speech bubbles if you want to. Colour the drawings with markers or colour pencils. Outline them with a fine black marker. You can choose to colour the drawings completely, but also a black and white strip with a single accent colour is nice.

All artworks are made by students of grade 6

Puss in boots?

2011-03-30T21:41:00.003+02:00

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
pencil
ruler
indian ink
brush
saucer
dip pen

Master Cat or The Booted Cat commonly known as Puss in Boots, is a French literary fairy tale about a cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for his penniless and low-born master. The tale was published in 1697 by Charles Perrault as part of his collection Mother Goose's Tales.

How would it be if the animal you like most, wears boots? What kind of boots would he wear - rain boots, cowboy boots, thigh boots, high-heeled boots?

Draw a frame at 1 cm from the edges with a pencil. Sketch the contours of an animal in boots with pencil. Make sure the boots stand out well. Trace the pencil lines with a dip pen and indian ink. Draw details and a simple background.

The colouring has to be done with indian ink too. Put a few drops of ink on a plate and dilute it with water. More water will give a ligth grey, a little water will give dark grey. Finally, fill the page edge with a pattern or a shade of gray.

Both artworks are made by students of grade 6

Mirror mirror on the wall...

2011-03-29T13:30:00.003+02:00

Mirror mirror on the wall ... made by a student of grade 4

You need:

piece of wood
mirror
bathroom tiles (ask a DIY market)
hammer
newspapers
silicone glue
painters tape
grout
plastic bags
cotton cloth
sponge
security glasses of old sunglasses

The fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm is the basis for this lesson mosaics.

Snow White tells the story about a wicked stepmother who is jealous of the beauty of the daughter of her husband. The stepmother tells a hunter to kill Snow White, but he feels sorry for her and let her escape. Snow White ends up with the seven dwarfs in the forest.

The stepmother finds out through her magical mirror that Snow White is still alive, and poisons her with an apple. The sad dwarfs put her in a glass coffin assuming she's dead.

Time passes and a prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He is enchanted by her beauty and falls in love with her. He begs the dwarfs to let him have the coffin. The prince's servants carry the coffin away. While doing so, they stumble on some bushes and the movement causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her. The prince then declares his love and a wedding is planned.

In this lesson students are going to make the magic mirror of the fairy tale of Snow White. They learn the several steps to create their own mosaic.

Step 1
Determine the place for the mirror and paste it on the piece of wood. Draw a design on the shelf of leave it empty to create a free design later on.

Step 2

Breaking the tiles

Go outside. Choose the tiles you like and put them on a newspaper. Put on glasses to protect your eyes. Hit the tiles with a hammer gently into pieces. Choose the pieces you like and put them in a plastic bag. Put pieces you don't need in a container (they can still be used by other children).

Clear the table for the following student.

Step 3
Go back in the classroom with your plastic bag. Paste the pieces of the tiles on the shelf, using silicon glue. Plak de stukjes tegel met siliconenlijm op de plank. Leave 3 to 5 mm space between the different pieces. If the pieces have different heights, then use more or less glue. Remove excess glue and leave the work to dry for 48 hours.

Pasting the pieces

Step 4
Go outside if this is possible. Make grout according to the instructions on the package; it should be as thick as yogurt. Use a disposable container. Put newspapers on the table. Mask the mirror with painters tape. Apply grout with a sponge. Rinse the sponge regularly in a bucket of water and then wring out well. When ready, leave the work to dry for half an hour and remove excess grout away.

Sponging the grout

Step 5

Polish the stones and the mirror the next day with a cotton cloth.

Rapunzel

2011-03-27T22:07:00.006+02:00

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

drawing sheet A4 size
fine black marker, waterproof
watercolour paint
brushes
jar with water
wool
cutter
cutting mat
scissors
magazine
glue

Rapunzel is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812. The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont, originally published in 1698.
In the tale, an enchantress separates Rapunzel from her parents and puts her away in a room at the top of a tower in a remote part of a forest. The tower has no door or stairs and only a window. The enchantress would climb Rapunzel's long braid of golden hair to visit her. The enchatress would call out to Rapunzel saying: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair". One day a prince hears Rapunzel's beautiful singing voice and wants to meet her. He secretly observes how the enchantress is able to visit Rapunzel in the tower. The prince climbs in the tower, meets Rapunzel and they fall in love. The wicked enchantress attempts to separate them, but eventually they reunite, and live happily ever after.
After telling the fairy tale, students start to make Rapunzel's braid of wool threads. Then they draw a tower with a top hatch, using a waterproof fine black marker. Colour it with waterpaint colour. Cut the sides of the hatch (teacher has to do this!!) and fold them. Cut a picture of a woman of girl out of a magazine and paste it on a piece of paper. Paste the braid on the head. Paste the piece of paper behind the hatch, looking carefully to get the woman's head in the middle of it and hanging the braid through the hatch.

Made by students of grade 1

The princess and the pea

2011-03-26T11:04:00.007+01:00

You need:

coloured construction paper
fabrics
a pea
glue
scissors
scraps of construction paper, including gold and silver
markers and/or colour pencils

Read the fairy tale 'The princess and the pea' of Hans Christian Andersen. Discuus after this what a princess bed would look like. The students make the bed of the princess in this story. The bed has to be made of stripes of paper. At the bottom of the bed is a real pea, of course. Cut strips of fabrics for the matrasses (use special scissors for fabrics) and make a princess on top of this whole pile. Maybe the bed has even curtains or a little golden crown?

Made by students of grade 1

Greek pottery

2011-03-22T17:13:00.035+01:00

You need:

brown paper bag or wrapping paper
black markers (different sizes)
coloured paper for background
glue
scissors

In ancient Greece pottery in daily life was very important. It was used to store and preserve all kinds of food, like wine, olive oil and water. The pottery was often decorated. There is red-figure pottery with red figures and the background black, and black-figured, with this just the other way. Wikipedia has more information about Greek pottery, especially on the different styles in the decoration of the vases.
View images of Greek pottery. Discuss several forms:

amphora - jug with a handle on both sides so it could be easily lifted. Amphora's were used to store liquids and solids.

crater - mixing vessel for wine and water. The Greeks always mixed their wine with water and sometimes they added spices to change the flavour.

kylix - bowl, flat or on an ornate base with two horizontal handles to pass the scale easily.

Discuss the different designs on the vases: animals, plants, people, flowers, triangles, spirals, mythical creatures etc.
The students fold a piece of brown wrapping paper in half and draw one half of a Greek vase of their choice against the fold. Cut the vase and draw figures and patterns on it using black sharpies. Paste the vase on a coloured sheet.

Made by students of grade 5

Fairy tale caste

2011-03-19T22:10:00.002+01:00

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
indian ink
dip pen
watercolour paint
brushes
jar with water

See some pictures of castles and talk about the several parts: battlements, high thick walls, drawbridge, towers, schietgaten, portcullis etc. Talk about the location of a castle: often a high point, so oversee the area. Show that many castles were surrounded by a moat and discuss why this was.

Students draw their castle directly with indian ink on ther sheet. Add details like shutters, torches or flags. Draw the background, the surrounding of the castle. Colour the drawing with watercolour paint. The combination of indian ink and watercolour paint will give a perfect aged feeling.

Surrealistic collage in the style of Dalí

2011-03-15T22:30:00.016+01:00

By Tristan, 10 years old

You need:

white drawing sheet A3 size
magazines
scissors
glue
tempera paint
brushes

About Dalí

Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904 – 1989) was a Spanish painter and versitile artist. in his younger years he was interested in painters like El Greco, Michelangelo and Diego Velázquez. He focused his attention at that time to Impressionism and Cubism. Dalí studied in Madrid from 1921 to 1924. In 1929 he moved to Paris. He met Pablo Picasso and André Breton and joined with surrealism. In 1940 he moved to the USA and lived there for 15 years. After this he went back to Spain. Dali's work can be divided in four periods.

Early period (1917-1927) - In this period Dalí made paintings of the landscape around Figueres. These works already show his kinship with Impressionism and Cubism.

Transition period (1927-1928) - This period is characterized by experimentation. He uses different textures, made with paint resins, sand, stone, cork and gravel.

Surrealistic period (1929-1940) - The Surrealists were not sufficient to logic alone. They focused on dreams and the subconscious. Dalí explored his own fears and fantasies and painted them on canvas through symbolic images in a very realistic, almost photographic style. He called his paintings "hand painted dream photographs'.

Classical period (1941-1989) - Dali stopped in 1941 with the surrealist style. He became fascinated by religion and modern science and found his inspiration in the ancient and Renaissance art.

Back to work

Show some surrealistic works of Dali and discuss the salient features: his work looks like a photo, contains 'strange' elements - things lijkt op een foto, bevat 'vreemde' elementen - things that can not actually. The work will surprise or a shock sometimes. Explain the difference between realism (reality painted on canvas, like a photo) and surrealism - realism with strange elements. Tell students that they have to make a surreal collage today. For this they cut pictures from magazines, arrange them on a sheet and paste them. They may, if no proper background is to be found, paint a part of this background.

When ready

Discuss the artworks: what surrealistic elements do you see? And what are the realistic elements? What do you think of the combination of both?

Baby and blanket, in the style of Gustav Klimt

2011-03-13T19:39:00.004+01:00

Made by Debbie, 11 years old

You need:

white drawing sheet A4 size
pencil
colour markers
chalk pastel

Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862 – 1918) was born in the neighbourhood of Vienna. In 1876 Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts . His work consists of paintings of mostly women, but also wallpaintings, drawings and collages. Klimt is much praised for the use of gold in his paintings.

Show some artwork of Klimt, and especially the painting 'Baby'. Discuss the distinctive features in the work: different patterns in the blanket, many colours, the blanket is more important than the baby, wavy lines verschillende patronen in de deken, veel kleuren, de deken is belangrijker dan de baby, wavy lines to express the folds of the blanket.

Students draw a baby in its bed, covered by a patchwork blanket. The blanket has to be divided into sloping surfaces. All different patterns should be coloured with markers. Drawing little black stripes at the edges of the fabrics, will make the patchwork blanket look more real. Use chalk pastel for the a wallpaper behind the bed.

Rainbow fish

2011-03-05T17:12:00.005+01:00

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

drawing sheet A5 size
ruler
pencil
colour markers

The students put the sheet in the width and draw from top to bottom pencil lines 1 cm apart. Good to practice measure skills!

Draw a fish and a sea bottom line. Colour the fish with markers keeping the same sequence of colors. We chose the order of the colours as they were in the box. Fins, background and bottom should be coloured in the same order, but of course the colours here are staggered to those of the fish.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac

2011-03-01T20:30:00.008+01:00

You need:

drawing paper A3 size
tempera paint in primary colours
brushes
jar with water
paper towels
bold black marker
black construction paper
glue or stapler

The French painter and writer Gaston Chaissac was born in 1910. He came from a poor family and was often ill. In 1934 Chaissac moved to Paris and worked as a shoemaker. He lived in the same house as the German artist Otto Freundlich. It was through the friendship with Freundlich that Chaissac developed the desire to become an artist. He trained himself as an autodidact, supported and promoted by Freundlich. Freundlich also introduced him to the Parisian art scene.

Chaissac exhibited his works in 1938. During his stays at a sanatorium because of his tuberculosis in 1938 and 1939, Gaston Chaissac used the time to paint and draw. After his wedding he moved to the Vendée.

The artist bridged this isolation in the countryside through lively correspondence with gallery owners, authors and artists in Paris. Although Chaissac endeavored to establish a connection with the artist community, he was only valued as an artist by a small circle of gallery owners, journalists, and friends.

As a result, he didn't receive the expected recognition during his lifetime. Chaissac worked as a tireless experimenter and used materials that he found for his works of art - newspapers, shells, peels etc. He painted on every substrate available to him, created pen and ink drawings, watercolours, oil paintings, collages and unusual three-dimensional works. The artist was sometimes classified by Jean Dubuffet with the 'Art brut'. Chaissac himself called his work rather rustic modern.

Gaston Chaissac died in 1964.

View photos of the work of Chaissac and especially the work above. Discuss the salient features: bold black lines that separate colour planes, little depth, simply drawn faces, white planes. What would those white planes mean?

I chose this painter also to repeat colour mixing skills. The students draw on their sheet one head and one or more limbs. Put a pencil mark in these planes, because they have to stay white. Then divide the sheet with wavy lines into small areas. Students choose two primary colours and use them to mix several colours. Paint the different planes with these mixed colours. Start with the brightest colour and and add more and more of the darker colour.

When the work is dry, outline every colour with a black marker. Bumps will disappear. Finally draw eyes, nose and mouth in the face. Paste or staple the work on black paper.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac, by students of grade 3

Paper mache figure on a bottle

2011-02-28T19:48:00.010+01:00

You need:

wine bottle
newspapers torn in strips
paper tape
wallpaper paste
tempera paint
brushes
varnish
fabrics
wool, cotton, feathers etc.

Students make a ball of newspaper and tape it on the bottle with paper tape. Tear newspapers in strips and paste them with wallpaper paste on the ball far over the bottle so that the tape is not visible anymore. Be sure to use a lot of wallpaper paste. If the ball on the bottle is smooth, students make eyes, nose, ears and paste them on the head. Fix them with paper strips and paste. Let dry for at least 24 hours.

After drying the figures can be painted. Start with the brightest colour. Paint several times to be sure the ink of the newspaper is not visible anymore. Varnish the dolls to make them shine.

After drying the doll has to be dressed and beautified. Use fabrics, wool, cotton, feathers, beads, lace etc. Paste them on the bottle and head with strong glue.

All artworks are made by students of grade 3

Thanks to Ruth Megens

Making masks

2011-02-27T15:22:00.005+01:00

You need:

white cardboard
rectangular aluminum containers
paint
brushes
scissors
glue
cutting knife
oil pastels

We look at masks from Venice, masks from Africa and the culture of the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs through photos on the internet. We discuss the form of the masks and look for the differences between the African, Venetian and those of the Incas. We look at the position of the eyes, nose and mouth.

Let students choose the style and material they want to use. The aluminium containers are meant for students who want to make an Inca mask, since Incas often used silver or gold. Draw with pencil the shape of the mask and cut it out. Mark the spot where the eyes should be (at half or slightly above or below the half) and cut them out. Draw a nose and cut it partly in order to create some relief. Colour the mask with oil pastels. For an Inca mask: cut the aluminum container, cut the eyes, cut a nose and paste it on, cut a mouth. Paint the mask with tempera, making sure there will be some shiny material to be seen.

Look at each others masks at the end of this lesson and discuss what style or influence you recognize.

Artworks made by students of grade 3

Thanks to Ann de Naegel (Belgium) and her students

Longing for spring: printing flowers!

2011-02-26T11:43:00.004+01:00

You need:

piece of linoleum of 12 by 12 cm
several sorts of paper
lino knives
block printing ink
flat piece of glass
linoleum roller
lino press
coloured cardboard 34 by 12 cm
scissors
glue or stapler

Students draw one or more flowers on their piece of linoleum and cut it out. Then the flower has to be printed on three different sorts of paper. In this lesson I choose for coloured construction paper, a brown paper bag and white white woven towels from the dispenser. Cut the prints with 1 cm around. Paste or staple them on coloured cardboard. Spring can come!

Both artworks are made by students of grade 4

Weaving a pencil box

2011-02-22T12:27:00.007+01:00

Pencil boxes, made by students of grade 3

You need:

coffee cups
pencil
ruler
scissors
yarn
weaving needle or stir stick with a whole

Begin by cutting a cup from top to bottom in an uneven amount of vertical strips. We used paper cups, because these won't tear so fast. Place the other cup inside of the cup with the cuts to hold its shape. This will allow the cup to hold its shape. Tie a piece of yarn around one of the vertical cup pieces. This will hold the yarn in place. Then begin weaving, by placing the yarn over one piece of cup and under the next. Continue weaving all the way up the cup. Use your fingers to push the yarn down. When you get to the end, tie the yarn around the final piece of cup.

Woven key chain

2011-02-22T11:32:00.011+01:00

You need:

piece of cardboard 8 by 12 cm
key chain
pencil
ruler
scissors
cotton
wool
needle or stir stick with a hole in it
coloured beads

Weaving is fun and should be learned, but what to do with all those little patches? Our students made a nice key chain of them! The local grocery store delivered us 50 key chains for free! Unfortunately my students already took their key chains home before I could photograph them. So, I had to take the one above!

Mark the middle of the two small sides of the cardboard. Draw 5 little stripes on both sides of the middle, every half centimeter. Cut into the cardboard at each mark. Wrap cotton thread around the cardboard tabs and make sure it runs right. Take a weaving needle or a stir stick (see picture) and weave threads through the cotton. Use one or several colours. Weave until 2/3 part of the cardboard is covered.

When the weaving is done, thread the tails onto a needle and pass it under the block of weaving. Then cut the end close to the block.

Remove the weaving from the loom by bending the cardboard tabs and pulling off the loops. Pull the loops through the ring of the keychain. Cut the threads below and thread some beads on them.

Stylish Blogger award

2011-02-22T09:07:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I received the Stylish Blogger award! What a surprise. Thank you very much, Christie from http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/ What a surprise!

The three requirements to receiving this "shout out" are to

Link back to the person who awarded you
List 7 things about yourself
Pass the award along to 5 other blogs that I enjoy reading.

Seven things about myself... that's a hard job. What would be interesting to read for you? Well, let's give it a try.

1. I'm an elementary teacher in Holland, grade 6. I teach three days a week. On Friday afternoon I give art lessons to all grades in our school. One day a week I work at Cito, who developed a monitoring and evaluation system for primary pupils. I write for the language section.

2. When I saw an art lesson blog for the first time, I was so excited that I decided to make on of my own. This would be a great way to share the lots of lessons I gave in the past years.

3. I love travelling. We travel a lot, and the USA is my favourite destination. We've been there five times now. Our greatest trip was in 2007, a road trip from New York to San Francisco. I also like city trips in Europe; Istanbul, Paris, Londen, Berlin, Amsterdam of course! Our next city trip will be to Barcelona, in two weeks from now. I'm looking forward to it! Any tips for me?

4. My favourite seasons are spring and summer, so good times are on their way now!

5. My favourite food: lasagna, spinach blue cheese pie, chocolate!

6. My favourite TV series are English detectives and talkshows.

7. Before I started this art lessons blog, I made a Harry Potter website. When the last book was released, I lost this hobby. Remaining is my collection of Harry Potter books from 42 different countries!

Choosing five of my favourite blogs, what a difficult task. I have a long list of blogs I follow, it's one of the thins I do first when I start my computer. Well, the five I like most then:

1. That artist woman, because of her great tutorials and original combinations of art supplies.

2. Kunstraum, a German site with lots of original lessons.

3. Painted Paper, Who doesn't love Laura's originial art ideas, often with bright coloured painted papers?

4. There's a dragon in my artroom, for the great lessons and also for the way Phyl always write her comments on several blogs.

5. Art with Mrs. Smith, a great source of lessons to explore, with clear instructions how to do them.

Well, this was it. Let's follow this up!

Winter trees glimpse

2011-02-16T21:04:00.004+01:00

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

cardboard in three colours, 15 by 20 cm
ruler
pencil
cutter
cutting mat
double sided foamtape
hook

Draw a rectangle on each sheet of cardboard 2 cm from the edges. Draw wintertrees in these rectangles. The trunk must be on the bottom, the branches must reach the left, right or upper edge. Make sure the three trunks slightly stagger. Cut the parts between the branches/trunk and the frame using a cutter. Use double sided foam tape to paste the three windows together. The lightest colour in the front, the darkest colour on the back.

Attach a hook to the window to hang it.

Wild flowers

2011-02-15T15:35:00.004+01:00

You need:

black construction paper 20 by 8 cm
colour pencils
tempera paint
q-tips
saucer

A short lesson with great results! Draw a lot of flower stems on the black paper with several colours green. Stamp the petals above and between the stems, using tempera and q-tips.

Patterned landscape

2011-02-13T15:08:00.005+01:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A5 size
black fine marker or Indian ink
coloured paper for background

Children sketch a simple mountain landscape with grey pencil. Use different patterns to colour the mountains: spheres, lines, triangles, squares, leaves - as different as possible. Patterns can by filled negatively of positively: fill a moutain with circles and colour the space between them with black, so the white circles will remain. Paste the drawing on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 3

Connected hearts

2011-02-09T04:11:00.001+01:00

You need:

white drawing sheet A5 size
piece of cardboard
scissors
oil pastels
colour pencils
watercolour paint
jar with water
brush
coloured paper
glue
metallic gel pen or marker

Draw a heart on a piece of cardboard and cut it out. Trace the heart several times on the drawing sheet. Hearts should overlap. Trace the heart also on the edged of the sheet. Draw smaller hearts within the traced ones; be sure there is about half cm space between the two lines. Draw and erase the the pencil lines of the overlapping hearts as if they weave together: below - above - below - above. Colour the hearts between the double lines with oil pastels. Paint the sheet with diluted watercolour paint and leave the work to dry. Trace the oil pastel harts on both sides with coloured pencils. Paste the artwork on a coloured sheet and finish the hearts on the frame, using a silver metallic gel pen or marker.

Advertising poster

2011-02-08T14:51:00.006+01:00

New Dutch products, by students of grade 3

You need:

white drawing sheet A3 size
watercolour paint
brushes
jar with water
markers
set of rubber stamp letters
stamp pad

We look at advertising posters and advertisements for food. Why are some advertisements more attractive than others? What products would you buy after seeing the the ad, and which not? How to attract attention to a new product? What kind of letters are used, and why these? What can you say about the use of colours in the advertisements? Students invent a new food including the name of it and make an advertising poster. Materials: water paint and markers. Because making block letters may be too difficult for young children, I gave them a set of rubber stamp letters to use.

Patterned hearts like Jim Dine

2011-02-05T13:36:00.006+01:00

You need:

drawing sheet A5 size
crayons
liquid water colour
brush

Fold the sheet of paper into quarters. Cut a heart out of a piece in the hearts: Trace this heart four times with a pencil. Draw patterns in the hearts with crayons: stripes, circles, zigzag lines etc. Draw different patterns around the hearts.

Paint the whole sheet with liquid watercolour. The crayon will resist the ink.

Concentric circles in the style of Kandinsky

2011-02-04T22:25:00.007+01:00

You need:

drawing sheet A3 size with 12 squares of 10 by 10 cm
temperea paint
brushes
paper towels
jar with water

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) was a Russian-French painter. His style of painting originally belonged to expressionism, and is sometimes included in symbolism. Kandinsky was one of the artists who gave shape to the abstract art in the early twentieth century.

Kandinsky was inspired by music. According to his own timbre theory, each colour has its own language and expression, and each colour has a soul. Kandinsky tried to convert musical compositions into paintings. He heard colours in music and he saw music in colours. This correlation between music and colour is the starting point of this lesson. Show students images of by Kandinsky. Tell that he listened to music while painting. Look at the painting 'Squares with concentric circles'. Which circle would belong to cheerful music? And what kind of music did Kandinsky hear while painting the dark circle?

Students are going to make a painting in the style of Kandinsky while listening to classical music. During this lesson they listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Each student gets a white sheet with 12 squares of 10 by 1o cm. Tell them to work from the outside to the middle. We may see no white anymore. Try to avoid two the same colours in one circle. Hang all paintings together on a bulletin board for a great group project!

Made by students of grade 1

In the style of Burton Morris

2011-02-02T22:10:00.016+01:00

You need:

several colours construction paper
black cardboard 20 by 20 cm
coloured cardboard 20 by 20 cm
scissors
glue
black thick marker

During our USA trip in the summer of 2009, I visited in the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, There I saw the artwork of Burton Morris for the first time: five paintings of cola bottles in pop-art style surrounded by light blue bubbles. So beautiful! Now I found a way to do this in school. And I think I'm the first blogger with a Morris lesson!

Burton Morris (Pittsburgh, 1964) is an American pop-art artist. He is influenced by pop-art artists from the 60's and 70's, like Warhol, Lichtenstein and Haring. Now he is one of the most famous modern post pop-art artist. Morris's work shows a contemporary twist to traditional pop-art. His work is cheerful, energetic and colourful. His characteristic lines with the bright colours give his work a fantastic energy. Morris's work is known of tv-series like Friends and also appears in major advertising campaigns by U.S. companies like AT & T, Pepsi and Heinz.

Source: www.burtonmorris.com

Show artwork of Morris on the digital board. Discuss the features: bright colours, black outlines, little detail, movement by little lines, white lines that suggest light and the distinctive black star shape around or in much of his work. Students are going to make an artwork in the style of Burton Morris with the subject: Valentine's Day.

Step 1. Take two colours cardboard: black for the edge and one colour for the background. take a construction paper for the big heart.

Step 2. Cut the edges of the background cardboard sloping away, to make a sort of rug. You have to cut at least 1 cm around.

Step 3. Cut a large heart from the second coloured cardboard. Cut white 'light lines' from a white sheet for on and around the big heart.

Step 4. Cut some smaller hearts from several colours of construction paper. Cut white 'light lines' and paste them on the little hearts; all on the same side.

Step 5. Paste the big heart on the coloured cardboard. Paste the light lines on the heart and around it.

Step 6. Cut long triangles from the sides of the rug, the 'flashy stripes'. Paste the rug on the black cardboard.

Step 7. Paste the small hearts around the big heart; you may k de kleine hartjes rondom het grote hart, where you can go over the triangles. Outline the small hearts with a black marker.

Step 8. Cut the black background away, leaving about 2 mm on the edges.

Step 9. Paste the work on a coloured sheet (A4 size) and cut it into a square.

Made by students of grade 4 and 5