Stamping with Mondrian

Goal: reducing the visible world in horizontal and vertical lines and primatr colors.   

Technique: stamping. 

You need:

1. black cardboard 
2. sponges cut in different sizes (squares and rectangles) 
3. tempera paint in red, blue and yellow 
4. brushes
5. white crayons 

View these artworks of Mondrian and talk about how he abstracted a tree. 

Also talk about Victory Boogie Woogie, the painting in which you can see part of the map of New York. Tell students we are going to make our own Mondrian map. Discuss the terms primary colors, square, rectangle, vertical and horizontal lines.

Instruction 

Brushes will not be rinsed, but will remain the same color.

Show how to use a brush to rub the sponge with paint. 

Show how to stamp: do not slide the sponge, but lift it off the paper. This way you'll get a tight shape.  

Stamp horizontally or vertically only. 

Do not stamp two of the same colors next to each other. 

Make sure the shapes don't touch each other. You must be able to see the black roads between them. 

When the work had dried, draw stripes on the black roads using a white crayon. 

Elements of art: shape, color, line. 

Artworks are made by students of grade 1/2. 

Monet's waterlilies pond

 You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint in green, blue, white, red and yellow
3. two brushes per student
4. two spunges per student
5. paper towels
6. oil pastel crayons 
7. schotels  

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is considered one of the most important painters of Impressionism. 

 Typical for Impressionists:

• they choose subjects from ordinary life 
• special attention for light and color
• work in the open air
• smooth brushstrokes
• dashes resemble a sketch
• it's about the impression!

Discuss the term impressionism. Show some paintings by Monet and zoom in on a work with water lilies in Arts & Culture. Do students see the characteristics of impressionism in this artwork?

Monet had a large garden with a pond and a Japanese bridge in Giverny France. He liked to paint in that garden. His works of water lilies are therefore famous and are the basis of this lesson.

Lesson 1

Squeeze some blue, green and white paint onto a saucer. Dipt your sponge into the blue paint. Stamp on the sheet. Do the same with green paint and stamp all over the sheet. Finally do this with white paint. You can use the green side of your sponge,  to get a light green color also. Let the work dry.

Lesson 2

To paint the water lilies: mix a little bit of red with white paint. Paint ovals spread across the sheet. Not too neat, it's all about impression!

Paint a green border at the bottom of the ovals: the leaf. To make it fresher, you can mix some light green paint and use it. You don't have to clean the green brush first. 

Then paint a heart in your flower with yellow. Let the work dry. 

Finally draw lines in your lily with a dark red or purple oil pastel: the petals. 

Artworks made by students of grade 1 and 2.

A lesson in color theory

 You need:

1. 4 cards of drawing paper, 10 by 7 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. felt tip pens of color pencils 
5. black construction paper

Discuss de words primary and secundary colors using the color wheel.  

What are primary colors and why are they called so? What are secondary colors, how do you make them and why are they called so? What are the neutral colors? Discuss the word color nuance. 

What should you do?

1. Draw a frame on the cards at 2 mm from the edge using a thin black marker.
2. Draw a pattern of your choice on each card.
3. Color the cards according to the terms discussed.
4. Outline the patterns with a thin black marker.
5. Stick the cards on a black background.
6. Add the learned words.

Elements of art: color, line, nuance.

Japanese cherry blossom on a plate

You need:

1. paper plates
2. acrylic paint: brown, green, red, white
3. brush
4. crepe paper: pink, white, red
5. glue 

This lesson about the Japanese cherry blossom is an old one, but now the blossoms are made on a paper plate. Too pretty to use for dinner! 

Branches are painted, leaves too. Not too big, because leaves only grow well when the blossoms are gone. 

Blossom is partly painted and partly made of crumpled crepe paper. 

Animals in spring like Hans Innemee

by students of grade 1-2

You need:

1. grey construction paper 21 bij 21 cm 
2. oilpastels

This lesson is for grade 1-2. In 2012 I wrote a lesson for grade 3-4 about Hans Innemee. 

Hans Innemee (1951) is a Dutch artist. View artwork of him with the students. Discover the small stories in his work. Can you tell a small story while looking at these two birds? 

Discuss the artworks: 

1. subject: animals
2. few colors
3. frame
4. simple background

Task for today: draw young animals in spring. Color them with oilpastels. Outline with black around the drawing. 

Patchwork landscape

by a student of grade 4

 You need:

1. white drawing sheets
2. water color paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. crayons

Steps:

1.  Put the sheet in width for you.
2.  Draw a wavy line on 2/3 of the bottom using a crayon.
3. Divide this area in 12 of 15 surfaces by drawing 2 horizontal and 3 o4 r vertical lines. 
4. Draw with a crayon house and trees on the horizon line.
5. Draw patterns in the surfaces.
6. Paint the surfaces in differtent colors.  
7. Paint house, trees and  air. 

With this lesson you can also practice one-point perspective. Place a dot in the middle from the top of the sheet and draw vertical lines towards this dot. 

bij a student 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

Autumn birches

You need: 

1. drawing sheets A3 size
2. painters tape in several widths
3. liquid watercolor paint in red, green and yellow in rood, geel en groen
4. brushes
5. tempera paint  
6. stipple brush
7. old shopping card/customer card
8. saucers
9. jars

Choose thick drawing paper,  to avoid ripping when you remove the tape . 

Look at birch trees. What do you see?   

 

• straight trunks
• trunks are white
• horizontal peeling bark banden
• autumn color leaves: orange, yellow, brown, red

What to do?

Step 1
Palce the sheet on the table with the narrow site down.  Stick strips of tape from top to bottom. Wide for the trunks, narrower for the branches. Note: branches grow up and not down. 

Step 2

Paint the background in strips with diluted liquid watercolor. Let dry. Peel off the tape carefully. 

Step 3

Put some black tempera paint on a saucer. Dip your customer card in the paint. Pull this in several places from left to right (or right to left!) to halfway up the trunk to make the black streaks.

  

Step 4

Spray som warm colors tempera + green on a saucer.  Stipple leaves at the top of the trees using the stipple brush. Do not mix the colors, but use several colors at the brush at the same time.  

Step 5

Hang up! 

Artworks are made by students of grade 1. 

Fun flowers

 

You need:

1. white or colored drawing sheet
2. scraps of colored paper 
3. scissors
4. glue
5. black markers

Cut several circles from scraps of colored paper and paste them om the drawing sheet. Paste smaller circles on the bigger ones. Draw petals using several black markers in several thicknesses.   

Source: Krokotak.com

Water lilies on a plate

 

By a student of grade 1

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is considered one of the most important painters of Impressionism. 

 Typical for Impressionists:

• they choose subjects from ordinary life 
• special attention for light and color
• work in the open air
• smooth brushstrokes
• dashes resemble a sketch
• it's about the impression!

Monet had a large garden with a pond and a Japanese bridge in Giverny France. He liked to paint in that garden. His works of water lilies are therefore famous.

Discuss the term impressionism. Show some paintings by Monet and zoom in on a work with water lilies in Arts & Culture. Do students see the characteristics of impressionism in this artwork?

You need:

1. paper plates
2. tempera paint in blue and white 
3. stencil brush
4. white drawing sheet 
5. tissue paper in green an light green 
6. water and sponge
7. tissue paper in pink and yellow
8. mold of a water lily leaf
9. glue
10. scissors

Step 1:

Dab the plate with blue and white.  

Step 2:

Wet the white paper with a sponge. Cut squares from the green tissue paper. Place them on the wet paper and let the bleed. Let dry.

 

Step 3

Remove the tissue paper. Trace the mold of the lilyflower leaf and cut it out.  

Step 4

Fold the tissuepaper for the lily twice diagonally. Cut a flower shape. 

Step 5

Grab the flower shapes in the middle. Crumple them into a flower. Put a drop of glue on the lily leaf and stick the center of the lily on top. Roll a wad of leftover tissue paper and stick it in the center of the flower.

Elements of art: texture, color, space. 

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. 

Collage in one color

 You need:

1. several things in one color 
2. camera
3. 
   
   
   
   

This is a homeschooling assignment. 

1. Collect small items of the same color in your house. The more, the better!

2. Place them on a white surface. 

3. Your items may touch each other, but don't have to. 

4. Make sure the edges are straight.

5. Take a picture of your collage.

6. Send the photo to your teacher. 

 

Elements of art: space, color. 

The photo's and collages are made by students of grade 2.

Scratch a Christmas ball

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. oli pastels or crayons
3. black tempera paint 
4. brush
5. alufoil 
6. ribbon
7. toothpick or skewer

Color the sheet with crayons. Paint it over with black tempera paint and let dry. Scratch with a toothpick or skewer a Christmas ball and fill it with patterns. 

Cut a small piece of aluminumfoil and paste it on the ball with a folded ribbon under it. 

made by students of grade 6

Elements of art: line (pattern)

Same insect - different colors

 

made by student of grade 1

You need:

1. drawing sheets A5 size
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolor paint 
4. brush

Draw two the same insects and color them with crayons: one with cool colors, the other with warm colors. 

Paint the background with dilluted watercolor paint: warm colors for the 'warm' insect, cool colors for the 'cool' insect. 

Element of art: color.

Keith Haring figures on tissue paper

made by students of grade 3

You need:

1. colored tissuepaper
2. white drawing sheet
3. jar with water
4. brush
5. scissors
6. templates of Haring figures
7. pencil
8. black marker

Choose 2 or more colors of tissuepaper. Fold them in 16 squares. Cut out. 

Take a sheet of drawing paper, make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on this wet sheet and see how they bleed. Fill the whole sheet and be sure to use enough water. 

Let dry and remove the tissue papers. 

Cut two or more Haring templates and outline them with a pencil. Trace those lines with black marker and trace them again to make nice bold lines. 

In 'The Factory' of Andy Warhol

made by students of grade 1

You need: 

1. colored paper 12 by 12 cm
2. black construction paper 50 cm by 15 cm 
3. tempera paint
4. brushes
5. apples
6. glue
7. black marker 

Tell about Andy Warhol's Factory. 

First lesson: "We are going to work today in the factory of Andy Warhol. Choose four colored sheets. Make apple prints in complementary colors: on a blue sheet you print an orange apple, on a red sheet you print a green apple etc."

Let dry and paste the colored sheets on black construction paper.

Second lesson: make a second print in a complementary color: on the orange apple you print a blue one etc. Let dry. Outline the apples with a black marker and add seeds and stem. 

Zebra

You need:

1. drawing sheet A3 size 
2. drawing sheet A3 size
3. tea
4. glue
5. sand
6. brush
7. charcoal
8. wool in black and white
9. scissors

After reading The zebra who ran too fast fro Jenni Desmond we did this lesson. 

Dillute glue with a cup of strong tea and add some sand. Paint the large sheet with this. Color and texture will emphasize the natural habitat of the zebra. 

Fold the other two sheets in half and cut a neck and head (oval). 

Use charcoal to draw vertical lines on the head and horizontal lines on the body. Cut ears and draw lines on them. Cut pieces of white and black wire and paste them. 

Elements of ard: line, shape and texture.
Techniques: cut and glue, draw with charcoal