Wacky witches

You need:

1. charcoal
2. chalk pastels
3. drawing sheet 
4. black construction paper
5. hairspray

How do you recognize a witch? What animals or things do you associate with a witch? What does an angry witch look like? Think of characteristics like mouth, eyes and eyebrows.

Tell students how to use charcoal. Explain how we make differences in colors. Show how to use an eraser to erase the charcoal lines and a tissue or  to sweep out the color.

What should you do?

• Draw the contours of a witch face with charcoal. 
• Color the face with chalk pastel in a cool color. 
• Draw a mouth, eyes and nose with charcoal. 
• Add some typical witchy things like a cat, bat, spiderweb etc.
• Use hairspray to fix the drawing. 
• Stick the drawing on a black sheet. 

Works of art made by students of grade 4.

Robots rule

 You need:

1. drawing sheets
2. pencil
3. markers
4. water color paint
5. brush 
6. jar with water
7. chalk pastels 

Draw a robot. Trace all pencil lines with a black marker. Color the drawing with markers, except the parts that should become metallic look. 

Paint the body of the robot grey (metallic) with water color paint. 

Let dry and color the background with chalk pastels. 

by students of grade 3

One pumpkin, four materials

 

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. color pencils
3. watercolor paint
4. oilpastels
5. soft pastels

Fold the sheet in four. Draw 4 pumpkins. Color them with different materials. 

Dutch canal houses: indian ink and soft pastels

You need: 

1. drawing sheets
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. indian ink
5. dip pen
6. soft pastels

Dutch canal houses are famous for their facades: stepped gable, neck gable, bell gable, clock gable or spout gable. Show pictures of those five gables and discuss them. Show photographs from canal houses and discuss the other features of canal houses: the stairs, symmetry, windows, ornaments, shutters. 

Students draw a line on their sheet about 5 cm from below. This is the canal. At the end you can glue all drawings together to get a long street full of canal houses. Sketch the houses lightly with a grey pencil. Indicate the places of windows, stairs, doors and shutters. Draw small boats in the canal. Draw the houses with indian ink and color them with soft pastels.

by students of grade  6

Tropical birds in chalk pastel

 

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. black oil pastels
3. chalk pastels
4. fixative spray

View photo's of tropical birds and discuss them. 

Draw on the black sheet a bird on an branch using black oil pastel. Color with chalk pastels and finish it with fixative spray. 

Snowdrops

 You need:

1. white construction paper 10 by 10 cm and 15 by 15 cm
2. oilpastel
3. soft crayons
4. white drawing sheet

Draw a frame around the drawing sheet at 1 cm from the edge. Color the background with oil pastel, pastels or a combination of these. Only use the colors yellow, green and blue.

Draw two flower stems with green oil pastel. 

Fold two snowdrops from the white sheets. Stick them on the work. 

Elements of art: color, nuance. 

Mondrian in chalk pastels

 You need:

1. black construction paper 
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. chalk pastels 
5. Elmer's glue 
6. fixing spray

Look at and discuss about the artwork of Piet Mondrian.

Draw squares and rectangles on the black sheet using a pencil and a ruler. trace the lines with Elmer's glue. The glue will become transparent when it has dried. 

Color the squares and rectangles with soft pastels in white, black, red, yellow and blue. Instead of black pastels, you can leave some areas open. Be sure you don't get two areas of the same color next to each other. 

Fix the work with hairspray or fixative spray. 

Elements of art: color, shape, line. 

Dancing Christmas trees

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. markers
4. chalk pastels

Dancing Christmas trees are Christmas trees who look like them only because of the shape (rectangular) and decorations (balls, garlands and stars)! The trunks are much longer than the  the ordinary trees and because of the curves in them it looks they are dancing.  

Draw with pencil, colour with markers, outline with black marker and colour the background with chalk pastels.

Landscape with chalk pastels

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. black oil pastels
3. soft pastels
4. hairspray

Show several hillsides and discuss what you see:  light/shadow, depth, overlapping, colours, pointed/rolling. 

Students draw with pencil a simplified hillside on the black sheet. In the blogpost 'Peaks and Valleys' a step by step explanation how to draw this. Give students a maximum of 5 minutes for this part of the lesson, to prevent them of drawing all kinds of details.

Trace the pencil lines with black oil pastel. Colour the hills and sky using chalk pastels. Color and mix, smear and blend until you're satisfied. Be sure the difference can be seen between the light-iluminated parts of the hills and the parts that are in shadow. 

Trace after coloring the black lines again if necessary. Fix the artwork with hairspray. 

Moon behind tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. charcoal
3. chalk pastels 
4. indian ink
5. brush 

Use a saucer to draw a moon in the center of the sheet. Colour it with yellow chalk pastel. Colour the rest of the sheet grey using charcoal: around the moon it's brighter than further away.
Draw a branch and paint it with Indian ink.

Giraffes can't dance

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. soft pastel
3. oilpastel
4. scissors
5. glue

Gerald would love to join in with the other animals at the Junge Dance, but everyone knows that giraffes can't dance ... or can they?

This lesson can be used by the book  'Giraffes can't dance' by Giles Andeae and Guy Parker-Rees.

Read the book of Gerald the Giraffe. After this children draw a giraffe that's trying to dance. Colour with oilpastels. Colour a background with soft pastel. Cut the giraffe and paste it on the background.

Made by students of grade 1 and 2. 

One colour city - group work like Alisa Burke

You need:

1. drawing sheet A1 size
2. drawing sheets 10 by 20 cm (A4 size cut in three) 
3. various colouring materials: crayons, oilpastel, colour pencils, watercolour paint, markers, tempera etc. 
4. fine black marker 
5. liquid water colour paint 
6. big brush
7. scissors
8. glue

An artwork I came across on Pinterest from Alisa Burke was the inspirations for this lesson. Show Burke's work and discuss it: all houses in the same colour, windows are white, everything is outlined with black marker, houses uizen hebben één kleur, de ramen zijn wit, alles is zwart omrand, the houses aren't just next to each other but behind each other and (overlap). That means you cannot see the bottom of the houses that are not on the first row. 

Students form groups of four and discuss together the colour they'll choose. One of the students paints the background: use white crayon to draw stars or clouds and then paint the entire sheet with with liquid watercolor. Leave about one inch white along the edges.

On the smaller sheets students draw high houses, with windows and doors and decorations. Colour with the material of you choice. Outline the house and windows with black fineliner and cut it out. Be sure the group draw together about 15 houses.
Lay the painted houses on the large sheet to get a beautiful collage. Note that you do not see undersides of the houses that are not in the front row.

Made by students of grade 5/6

High legged elephant like Salvador Dali

A great lesson from colleague blogger of Artisan des Arts.

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. markers (not waterproof)
3. brush
4. jar with water
5. chalk pastels
6. felt
7. scissors and glue 

Show some surrealistic artworks of Dali. Show The elephants. Discuss the realistic (the body of the elephant) and the surrealistic parts (house on the back, high legs) of this work.

Students draw a Dali inspired elephant and trace it with a marker. I gave them some 'how to draw' templates. Take a wet brush and go over the lines, so the water turns into watercolour. Let dry.

Draw a horizon line and a sun. Colour the background with chalk pastels and blend with your fingers. Draw shadows of the elephant's legs. Maybe they don't have the right direction, but that's part of surrealism!

Cut a piece of felt for a blanket, decorate it and paste it on the elephant.

All artworks are made by students of grade 4

Small animals like Hans Innemee

You need:

1. three sheets of coloured paper 12 by 12 cm
2. pencil
3. chalk pastel
4. hairspray
5. white sheet for background
6. glue 

Hans Innemee (1951) is a Dutch artist. He studied graphic arts and worked for some time as an art teacher.
Innemee's art is a kind of collage made from monotyped drawings. After monotyping a lot of drawings, he makes his artwork by ripping parts of them and pasting them together on home made sheets. Coloring is done with oil pastels.

View artwork of Hans Innemee. Talk about the small stories in his art. Ask students which story they have in mind while seeing the artwork.

Discuss the characteristics of Innemee's work:

• Drawings of animals.
• Simple shapes.
• No details.
• Few colours.
• Black outlines.
• Simple background.
• Text / Title under the drawing.

The goal for this lesson is: draw a story in three steps on three sheets. Color with chalk pastels. Work like Hans Innemee.

Paste the three sheets on a larger sheet. Fix with hairspray. Write under the small sheets in as few words as possible the text of the story you had in mind.

Made by students of grade 4

Thanks to Hans Innemee for permission to publish his artwork in this blog post and his kind words about the artwork of my students! 

Pastel planets

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. 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.

 

Northern lights

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. white wallpaper with texture
4. scissors
5. glue
6. 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

Sunflowers in five different materials

You need:

1. sunflowers or pictures of them
2. white drawing sheet A1 size, cut in strips of 30 by 65 cm
3. five different colouring materials, like colour pencils, tempera paint, watercolour paint, oil pastels, crayons, coloured ink, aquarell pencils etc.
4. brushes
5. pencil, ruler
6. coloured paper
7. 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

Easter eggs with lines

You need:

1. cardboard egg shape 10 cm high
2. pencil
3. white drawing sheet
4. several colour materials, like markers, colour pencils, crayons, chalk pastel 
5. coloured paper 20 by 14 cm
6. gekleurd papier 14 cm hoog, 20 cm breed
7. glue
8. scissors
9. 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

Baby and blanket, like Gustav Klimt

Made by Debbie, 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. pencil
3. colour markers
4. chalk pastel

Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862 – 1918) was born near 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.

Stuffed animal

You need:

1. white or coloured drawing sheet A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. pencil
4. hairspray
5. stuffed animal

Ask students to take their favourite stuffed animal for this lesson. Let them choose their own drawing sheet. In my class students had to choose from grey, brown or white.

Tell students how to work with chalk pastel: you have to colour lightly and then smudge the chalk with your fingers. Don't produce to much powder, because you won't be able to smudge it away anymore. Vary with colours; you may use two colours and smudge them together. Tell students about light and show them lighter and darker parts of the stuffed animals. Use white chalk to lighten up parts of the stuffed animal, and black chalk to darken colours and make shadows.

Draw a horizon line and sketch your stuffed animal lightly with a pencil. Colour it with chalk pastel. Chalk pastel will emphasize the softness of the animal. Create a background and colour it completely. Use hairspray to fixate the chalk and paste the work on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 6.