Cats like Rosina Wachtmeister

Rosina Wachtmeister (1939, Austria)

Wachtmeister (1939) is an Austrian artist who is specialised in making collages with various. She uses often gold or silver metal paper in her work. The early work of Rosina Wachtmeister are sculptured puppets. She used these puppets in her own puppet theatre.

In 1974 Rosina Wachtmeister moved with her husband to Capena, near Rome. She gets inspired from daily things: the silence of Capena, the sun, her cats and music.

We look at some paintings from Wachtmeister and we name the distinctive characteristics:

1. she uses silver in every paiting
2. faces are divided into colour patches
3. she uses often warm colours
4. backgrounds are decorated cheerfully
5. figures are outlined with black or coloured lines
6. eyes are very expressive because of those (black or coloured) lines

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera in different colours, including silver
3. brushes
4. newspapers
5. jars with water
6. tissues to clean and dry the brushes

Students draw with pencil a quick sketch from one or more cats on their sheets and start painting right away, considering the characteristics of the style of Wachtmeister: silver paint, big eyes, warm colours, divided faces etc. Outlining the figures has to be done also with tempera and a thin brush. This has to be the last chore, of course. So you get a good separation between the foreground and background and you can remove some stains. If the paintings are dry, we stick them on a matching background sheet. And of course we sign our work, just like Wachtmeister, with a black signature!

Deep in the ocean

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. white crayons
5. salt

There is more then fish in the ocean! Make a wordtree with the students with various ocean animals, except fish! Show photos of ocean animals and discuss them.
Students draw an ocean animal using a white crayon on a white sheet. Details should also be drawn with the crayon. The animals have to be painted with watercolour paint and a small brush. You may touch de lines, but do not cross them. When ready, paint the background with a large brush, watercolour paint and lots of water. Try different colors blue or green (by adding water) and make sure they mix up a bit - wet on wet technique. Sprinkle salt on the background while it is still wet. The salt will absorb water and it gives a nice effect. When the drawing is completely dry, you can wipe the salt with a clean hand.

Hot air balloons

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. markers
3. fineliner
4. watercolour paint
5. brushes
6. coloured paper for background
7. scissors and glue
8. yarn

Look at several photo's of hot air balloons and discuss what they look like: use of colour, shape, size, advertisements. Look at the baskets and discover that, when we look up in the air we' ll see the bottom of the baskets. We also note that hot air balloons look smaller when they're further away.
Students paint their white sheet light blue with watercolour paint, using lots of water. When the sheets are drying, balloons have to be drawn and coloured on another sheet: a big one, a midsize and one or two small ones. After this students have to draw some baskets, with silhouettes of people (use a black fineliner!). Cut the balloons and the baskets.
Paste the painted blue sheet on a background paper. Make a composition of the balloons with one or two overlaps. Use the frame too. Paste balloons and baskets, but do not paste the people. Just bow them a bit, as if they're looking over the edge of the baskets. Glue small pieces of yarn between balloons and baskets. Eventually clouds can be made out of cottonwool.
This is also a nice assignment for the whole class or a group of children.

Delfts blue plates

You need:

1. white paper plates without plastic coating
2. feltpens, fineliners of markers in different colours blue
3. examples from Delfts blue decoration

Delftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around the city of Delft (Netherlands) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Delftware became popular and was widely exported in Europe and even reached China and Japan. Chinese and Japanese potters made porcelain versions of Delftware for export to Europe. Delftware ranged from simple household items - with little or no decoration - to fancy artwork. Most of the Delft factories made sets of jars, the kast-stel set. Pictorial plates were made in abundance, illustrated with religious motifs, native Dutch scenes with windmilles and fishing boats, hunting scenes, landscapes and seascapes.

Nowadays there is still one factory in Delft that produces real Delftware: De Porceleyne Fles. All plates, vases, bowls, teacups, tiles etc. are painted by hand here. You'll find a lot of photograps on the website of Porceleyne Fles (online shop). See some of these photographs with the students and discuss what decorations they see. Discuss the different colours of blue and look how you can make a good illustration by just using blue. Show the students some plates with different edges and make them tell about the recurring motifs

What to do? Students will design their own Delfts blue plate with a regular pattern around the plate and a free drawing in the middle. They have to use markers, feltpens and fineliners in different shades of blue. First practice a bit on the back side of the plate to see how the ink will flow. The edge of the plate has notches. Count them to know how many notches your pattern must have.

Desert

You need:

1. brown construction paper A4 format
2. pastel crayons
3. hairspray
4. wood glue

Look with the students at photographs from deserts and discuss what they look like. What kind of plants do you see? What about the colours?

Sketch with a pencil a simple desert landscape with little details. Cover the lines with wood glue. Try this first on a another sheet. Wait until the glue is dry; it has to be transparant instead of white. Colour your drawing with pastel crayons. Use different colours together and make sure you blend them with your fingers. Fix your drawing with hairspray.

Lines in motion

You need:

1. white drawing sheets A4 format
2. grey pencil
3. black fineliner
4. coloured markers

A lesson to experience how lines can accentuate a movement. Draw with a pencil four or five figures in motion on the paper. Make them simple, just out of lines and circles. Watch movements with the students by asking one of them to show some movements. Look especially to the limbs. Trace the figures with a black fineliner, leaving the inside of the circles white. Draw lines around the figures with markers in two colours. Try this first on a piece of paper to see how the two colours flow together when reaching eachother. The lines will become more and more smooth, accentuating the motion from the figures. I chose two colours close to eachother. Less spectacular, but less messy also!

Birthday calendar, like Wayne Thiebaud

You need:

1. white sheets A4 format
2. colour pencils

At the beginning of a schoolyear, our students make their own birthday calendar. This is a good reason to show and discuss some paintings from Wayne Thiebaud. Each child draws his own birthday cake, surrounded by his birthdate and first name. Arround this drawing they have to draw a frame as broad as the ruler and draw festive stuff like little cakes, lollipops, candy, little flags, presents etc.

The spirit in the bottle

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. black construction paper A 4 size
3. watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. salt
6. scissors and glue
7. oilpastel crayons

The Spirit in the Bottle is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

The fairy tale, shortly: A woodcutter saved his money and sent his son to school, but before his son's studies were complete, his money ran out. The son insisted on borrowing an axe from a neighbor and coming to help his father in the woods. When his father rested, he walked about and discovered a bottle with a voice coming from it. He opened it, and a spirit sprang out and declared it would break his neck. The son said first he had to see that the spirit really came out of the bottle; the spirit went back in to show him, and the son stopped it up again. The spirit pleaded with him and offered to make him rich. The son decided it was worth the risk and opened it. The spirit gave him a plaster that would cure all wounds and a stick that would turn iron to silver. The son tried the plaster by cutting a tree and using it, and it worked. He turned the axe to silver, and it bent on a tree. He persuaded his father to come home with him, because he did not know the way, and sold the silver for far more money than was needed to repay the neighbor for the axe. He went back to his studies, and with the plaster became a famous doctor.

(From http://www.wikipedia.org/) You'll find the he full story at http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/99spiritinbottle.html

Paint the white sheet with blue and green watercolour paint, using lots of water. Make sure the different colours mix up. Sprinkle salt on the background while it is still wet. The salt will absorb water and it gives a nice effect. When the painting is completely dry, wipe the salt with a clean hand. Cut a circle out of white paper and paint it yellow/ocher with watercolour paint. Let dry. Draw a spirit at the back of the sheet and cut it. Draw a face on it. Take a black sheet and draw a bottle with white oilpastel. Draw blades of grass at the bottom of the sheet around the bottle. Paste the spirit and the moon on the black paper.

My collection from the sea

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawingpaper A4 size
2. aquarel pencils or watercolour paint
3. brushes and water
4. black paper
5. scissors and glue
6. black fine marker

After summer holiday it's fun to draw what you've found on the beach: shells, starfish, crabs etc. Divide a white sheet in four strips of 7 cm. Draw horizon lines in those strips. Draw several things you may have found on the beach and sketch as lightly as possible. Colour the shells with watercolour paint or aquarel pencils, trying to make shades by diluting the colours more or less. Paint the beach yellow/gold and the air light blue. When dry, outline the shells and horizon with a black fine marker. Cut the four strips and glue them with 1 cm between them on a black piece of paper.

Dutch canal houses

Made by Anne, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. indian ink or fine black marker
3. dip pen

Dutch canal houses are famous for their facades: stepped gable, neck gable, bell gable, clock gable or spout gable. Search the internet for photographs from canal houses and discuss the features of canal houses: the facades, the stairs, symmetry, windows, ornaments, shutters. 

Let students draw a line on their sheet about 5 cm from below. This is the canal. Sketch the houses lightly with a grey pencil. Indicate the places of windows, stairs, doors and shutters. Draw the houses with indian ink.

At the end stick all drawings together to get a long street full of canal houses.

Remembering summer

You need:

1. square drawing sheet 20 x 20 cm
2. colour pencils

Divide the sheet in four squares. Draw in every square your own summer memory! Decorate the edges in four different ways.

Seahorse

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 format
2. watercolour paint
3. white crayon
4. brushes
5. salt

Show various photos of seahorses and discuss the characteristics of these remarkable animals. Children draw a seahorse with a white crayon on a white sheet. Details should also be drawn with the white crayon. The seahorse has to be painted with watercolour paint and a small brush. You may touch de lines, but do not cross them.

When ready, paint the background with a large brush, watercolour paint and lots of water. Try different colours blue or green (by adding water) and make sure they mix up a bit - wet on wet technique. Sprinkle salt on the background while it is still wet. The salt will absorb water and it gives a nice effect. When the drawing is completely dry, you can wipe the salt with a clean hand.

Warm sun, cool moon

You need:

1. black paper A4 format
2. pencils
3. gold and silver coloured markers

What colour is the sun? Do you see warm or cold colours? What colour is the moon? And the rays of the moon? How come you see the yellow moon often as cold? How would you use the colours gold and silver in the sun and the moon? All these questions can be asked in a class discussion about the sun and the moon and the differences between them. The children draw a circle on black paper around a saucer or pot. This circle is a face of a sun and a face of a part of the moon. Using warm and cool colours these two parts should me coloured. Met behulp van warme en koude kleuren worden beide helften ingekleurd. The rays of the sun and moon should clearly differ. If the colouring is finished, the parts of the sun should be outlined with gold marker, and the moon with silver marker. The backgrounds from the sun and the moon should be different too.

Funny fishes

You need:

1. white drawing paper (A4 format)
2. water paint
3. black marker

Divide the sheet in nine rectangles from 10 to 7 cm. Draw a fish or shell on a small piece of cardboard that fits in the rectangle. Cut out the fish or shell, this is your template. Outline that mall in all rectangles.

Choose three colours to paint the figures. You may make patterns in them. Paint the backgrounds with the same three colours and make patterns if you want. Outline everything (fishes, patters and rectangles) with a black marker.

Famous name

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. black marker
3. wasco crayons
4. black sheet for background

Write your name with a black marker several times on a white sheet. Upside down, from the top to the bottom, it doesn't matter. Write your names disorderly, taking care the letters will mix up.

When your sheet is full enough, choose a couple of colours you like. Colour just the white spots who are completely surrounded by black lines. This might be small spots from the letters, but they could be tall as well because they are between the names.

Glue your work on a black background.

Your name in a frame

You need:

1. white sheet
2. black marker
3. wasco crayons
4. black construction paper for background

Another fun idea with your own name!

Draw four diagonal lines on your white sheet to make five compartments. Use capital letters to write your name in the compartments, and take there that the upper and bottom side of the letters will touch the lines.

Colour the letters with a black marker. Colour the compartments with crayons. Glue your drawing on a black sheet.

Radial name design

You need:

• white drawing sheet from 21 cm by 21 cm
• black marker
• black fineliner
• black or coloured construction paper for background

There are many fun things to do with your own name! Draw a spot in the middle of the sheet (use a ruler!) and draw an even amount of lines to the sides of the sheet. In the example are ten lines, producing nine compartments. Write your name in capitals within a compartment, while the bottom and upper side of the characters reach the lines. Colour the characters with a black marker.

Then write your name with a fineliner as often as you can in small characters in the next compartment. You may write horizontally of diagonally, as you wish. You can even write in squares.

Fill the compartments alternate with big and small names. If you like it, you can colour the compartments with the big names with wasco crayons.

Country vanes

You need:

1. white drawing paper (A4 format)
2. felt pens
3. black fineliner

Each country has its own specific things: an anthem, a flag, one language, national food, a certain building, an event. What do you think when you think the Netherlands? Of course there are the requisite stereotypes, like wooden shoes - no, we don't walk on them anymore! Yet the wooden shoe is something special about Holland. In this lesson children will make a vane, a little flag with characteristics about a self chosen country. The vane should have four distinctive things to recognize a country, so other children will instantly know to which country the vane belongs.

Discuss with the children some examples from countries and significant things who belong to that country.

After this children choose a country. In their table groups the children help eachother to consider the four typical things for the chosen countries.

Vanes come in different forms. Show some forms on the digital blackboard. The vane has to be symmetrical. To avoid ugly wrinkles, it's better to divide the sheet with thin lines in four pieces. After this, outline a symmetrical vane.

Draw four different things in the compartments and colour it with felt pens. Outline every drawing with a fineliner.

Picknick quilt

What kind of things do you think of when you hear the word summer? Which of those things are easy to be drawn? An ice cream will be easy to draw, but a drawn beach will be less clear as part of a quilt. Is it better to choose objects that belong to the beach such as shells or beach toys. Each group receives a large sheet of coloured paper and white squares of paper from 11 by 11 cm. We're drawing summerquilts together!

Discuss how you can get a group work: choosing matching colours or choosing the same subject.

You need:

1. pencils
2. sheets of paper from 10 by 10 cm
3. scissors and glue
4. big cardboard for background

Every member of the group makes some drawings for a summerquilt. Those little drawings have to be coloured with colour pencil. When all drawings are ready, they have to be glued on the coloured background. Possibly the edges of the large sheets can be decorated with sticky buttons or drawn patterns.

Picknickkleed, door Oscar, Ozan, Yorn, Fabian en Richard, groep 7

Graffiti

Juf Lisette is the maker of this lesson! You need:

1. Grey drawing sheet
2. Wasco
3. White drawing paper
4. Felt pens
5. Scissors, glue

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted. All children get a grey sheet and some white sheets. To get a wall texture, use wall bricks to scratch over with wasco crayons. Cut those bricks and glue them on the grey paper sheet.

Design your own name in graffiti characters and colour it with felt pens. Cut it out and glue it on your brick wall. Of course children can choose for a slogan of a pop artist instead of their name.

Graffiti, made by children from 10-11 years old