Rudolph with his red nose

All credits for this great lesson and a full step by step instruction on ArtVenturous. I made these cute Rudolphs last year with my grade 1 students.

Halloween cat and window

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. liquid water colour paint 
3. brush
4. black construction paper 
5. cutting knife and mat
6. glue
7. black marker 
8. white chalk pastel
9. carbon paper
10. pattern

Paint a white sheet with yellow and orange liquid water colour paint. Enlarge the pattern and trace it on the black sheet using carbon paper. Put a cross in the parts that have to been cut. Cut the pattern and paste it on the coloured sheet.

Draw Halloween details with black marker. Use the white chalk pastel for details on the black paper. 

Source: halloweenwitchesflyinmachine.blogspot.nl/

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. 

Buzzzzzing bees

Made by a student of grade 2.

You need:

1. bubblewrap
2. paint roller
3. drawing sheet 
4. yellow and brown tempera 
5. yellow pencil
6. fine black marker 

Roll a piece of bubble wrap in with yellow paint and print it. Let dry.
Make fingerprints in brown paint and let dry.
Draw lines with yellow pencil on the body of the bee.
Draw wings and legs with black fine liner.

Flowers in front of the windows

You need:

1. coloured construction paper  
2. tin foil (cut in pieces before lesson starts)
3. strips of white paper, 2 cm 
4. black  construction paper 
5. white drawing sheets 
6. tempera paint
7. brushes
8. scissors
9. glue 

This lesson is about the flower pots you'll see in spring and summer.
The students get a large piece of oloured construction paper  for the background. Paste the window in the middle of it, with the white strips on it as a inner frame. Cut a pot from black paper. Draw and paint flowers on the white sheet. Cut them after drying with an edge of 1 cm. Paste them in front of the window. Paste the pot on the flowers. Decorate the pot with paint.

Source: Pinterest.

Johooo a dodo!!

Made by Neil, one of my students, who is very interested in the Mauritian dodo's.
He used markers and colour pencils  for this artwork. Thanks Neil!

Funny birds like James Rizzi

I came across this great lesson for our first graders on Deep Space Sparkle. What a fun our students had, making these cute little birds in the style of James Rizzi!

James Rizzi was born in 1950 in Brooklyn. He studied art in Florida (Gainesville), where he started experimenting with printing, painting and sculpting. Rizzi’s work often shows his birthplace New York. His paintings look sometimes childishly naive, with the bright colours and brilliant gaiety. In the art press Rizzi is often described as "Urban Primitive Artist '. Rizzi himself says he is influenced byzelf Picasso, Klee and Dubuffet.

Show some paintings of Rizzi and discuss the characteristics:

• bright colours
• no gradations within colours
• evertything is outlined with a black marker
• the artwork is full and busy
• background is full and busy too

You need:

1. white drawing sheets A4 size cut lengthwise
2. markers
3. scissors and glue
4. blue cardboard A1 size for background

Discuss birds in Rizzi's artwork (google onRizzi + birds) and ask students if the typical Rizzi features are in the bird artworks too. 

The goal for this lesson: 

Use oilpastel to draw a bird just like Rizzi did. Use watercolour paint and paint the bird in one or two colours. Paint the background with several colours.

Artworks made by students of grade 1

Sheep in the meadow

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. drawing sheet 
2. tempera paint
3. stippling brushes
4. masking tape
5. black and white construction paper
6. glue

Make a fence on the sheet with masking tape. Draw a horizontal line above the fence. Stamp with different colours the meadow. Do not mix the paint. Stamp some spring flowers too.

Stamp the air in the same way with white and blue.
Remove the masking tape. Do this when the paint is still wet.
Cut some clouds for the body of the sheep out of a white sheet. Cut heads and feet out of black paper. Paste the sheep before the fence. Draw eyes and beak with white pencil.

Source: Artsonia. 

Stacked birds

 

Made by students of grade 3/4

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 40 cm
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. brushes

Inspirated by a picture on Pinterest.
Draw at least three birds sitting on eachothers back. The birds have to get smaller while getting higher. Colour with crayons.

Paint the background with liquid watercolour paint leaving an edge from about 1 cm. 

The best nest

1. drawing sheet
2. oilpastel
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. 3D tape

The best nest for birds in winter is a colourful one! This birdhouse will protect birdies against snow and cold.

Students draw a birdhouse and colour it in with oil pastels. Perhaps there's also a  peanut pendulum on the house. Draw  snowflakes (white oil pastel) and also a layer of snow on the house.
Paint the background with liquid watercolor. Leave about 1 cm white on the edges for an extra winter look. Draw (or print) a bird on another piece of paper and cut it. Paste it in the house using 3D tape for a spatial effect (the pads that are used to create 3D cards).

Made by students of grade 1/2

Patterned tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet 21 by 27 cm 
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. colour pencils
5. fine black marker 

Draw a grid from 3 by 3 cm. Trace a sourcer for a circle. Draw a tree and be sure the branches are within the cirle. Draw patterns in the the tree using a fine black marker. Colour the squares in the circle in warm colours and the other squares in cool colours. Be sure the difference between under and above the horizon line is visible.

Source: Tiny Artroom. 

Autumn birches

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. masking tape
3. tempera 
4. stippling brushes
5. charcoal
6. chalk pastel 

See photos of birch trees and discuss the salient feautures : the long white stem, the gray black lines as a result of the horizontal peeling the bark, the many autumn colours of the leaves. Talk about the colours of the leaves on the floor: in front uou see a lot of different colours, and looking further away they merge into one colour.

Explain how to work with a stippling brush: no mixing colors, but put the brush in several colours at once and then stamp lightly. 

Paste from above a number of strips of masking tape on the sheet in various lengths. Draw a horizon line. Stamp the bottom in several autumn colours, merging into one colour near the horizon line. Stamp the remaining leaves in the trees. There may be green there too! Leave the artwork to dry and then colour the sky with chalk pastel. Pull the masking tape off carefully . Draw with charcoal the specific birch dashes .

The man with the big mouth - Paul Klee

Made by a student of grade 3

Benodigdheden:

1. drawing sheet A2 size
2. brushes
3. tempera paint
4. pencil
5. black marker
6. scissors
7. glue
8. coloured wallpaper

Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) is a German/Swiss painter. His work belongs to modern art. Klee developed mainly as an autodidact and left more than 9000 artworks. In 1912 he saw the work of Picasso and Malevich and met Robert Delaunay, who believed colour is the most important element in a painting. After a trip to Tunisia in 1914 Klee started to paint more colorful and abstract. He painted landscapes, portraits, animals, mythology, mysterious machines. In his work he combined abstract and figurative shapes. Klee 's work cannot be described in one single word. Surrealism, cubism, abstraction are terms which are applicable to his paintings. He is classified by expressionism. (Source: Wikipedia)

Show the painting 'The man with the big mouth' on the digital board. Write 'yes' on the left and 'no' on the rigth. Type the following sentences on the board:

• He has a big mouth
• His nose is exactly as long as his chin
• He has curls
• He can smell good
• He is afraid
• His nose looks like a knife
• The eyes are blue
• He doesn't seem nice
• He looks pissed off
• He has no ears
• He has white teeth
• His face is composed of puzzle pieces
• The colours are bleak
• I only see bright colors

Have students drag the sentences one by one to the right spot.

The students draw a face from the side. The nose has to be as long as the chin. Draw two eyes. Divide the face in surfaces. Colour each part with tempera using only mixed colours just like Paul Klee did. Only the eyes should be painted in clear blue.
Wait until the work is dry and outline all color patches with a black marker. Cut and paste the artwork on a coloured piece of wallpaper.

This project was done in grade 3/4. For higher grades: draw the face with only one line, so without lifting the pencil.

 Door Zahra, groep 5

Source : Paul Klee voor kinderen, by Birgit Brandenburg 

Singing in the rain

Artwork made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheetA2 size
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brush

Students draw a person under an umbrella and colour it in with crayons. Then they draw raindrops with white crayon. Paint the entire drawing with liquid watercolour.

Be sure that:

• rain falls from top to bottom;)
• under the umbrella is no rain
• rain is transparent, so we draw with white on white!
• rain forms puddles on the ground

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

Eyecatcher

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. colour pencils

See each other's eyes. What components does an eye have? How is the shape of an eye? What colours do you see in the iris? How can you do this in a drawing? What is characteristic for the pupil? How can you draw the highlight in the eyes? 

See videos on YouTube, How to draw an eye / How to draw eyes.

Kids drawing one eye and colour it in with colour pencil. Wipe the colors with your fingers to mix them. Accents can be applied with a black fineliner. 

Artworks are made by students of grade 7. 

Busy bees

You need:

1. white crayon
2. markers
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. brush

Fold the sheet of paper in half. Draw on both halves a bee. Colour the body with black and yellow marker. Colour the head black, keeping two white dots for eyes. Draw with black marker six legs and two wings. Use white crayon to draw veins in the wings.
Paint the background and the wings with liquid watercolour while keeping the edges white for about one cm.

Made by students of grade 3/4

Source: Artsonia. 

This is ME!!!

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. black marker

A great lesson to start a new year of school! Students draw a self portrait using a black marker and colour it with watercolour paint.

Made by students of grade 1

Castle and Sun, like Paul Klee

Artworks are made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. printed drawing sheet 
2. crayons
3. watercolour paint 
4. brushes
5. jars with water

On the Italian art blog  Arteascuola from Miriam Paternoster, I came across this terrific art lesson about Paul Klee. Be sure to visit Miriam's blog, it's great!

Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) is a German/Swiss painter. His work belongs to modern art. Klee developed mainly as an autodidact and left more than 9000 artworks. In 1912 he saw the work of Picasso and Malevich and met Robert Delaunay, who believed colour is the most important element in a painting. After a trip to Tunisia in 1914 Klee started to paint more colorful and abstract. He painted landscapes, portraits, animals, mythology, mysterious machines. In his work he combined abstract and figurative shapes. Klee 's work cannot be described in one single word. Surrealism, cubism, abstraction are terms which are applicable to his paintings. He is classified by expressionism. (Source: Wikipedia)

Print any text on drawing sheets or choose an old book page. I had chosen the Wikipedia page about Paul Klee. Show Klee's artwork 'Castle and sun' and discuss the characteristics: Klee used just squares, rectangles and triangles. What colors are used?

The students use a crayon in a color that contrasts with the watercolor paint (sharp point to make thin lines) and draw a frame around the text. Then they draw a building consisting only of rectangles, squares and triangles. Do not use a ruler, because the text provides sufficient support.
Paint with watercolour. Choose cold or warm colors. Do not allow the same colour next to each together.

Houses - like Ton Schulten

Made by a studenty of grade3

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. tempera paint in red, yellow, blue and black
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. pencil 
6. ruler

Ton Schulten (1938) is a Dutch painter living in Ootmarsum. After his work as a graphic designer, he decides in 1989 to try to make a living as a painter. His main inspiration is the open landscape of Twente (a part of Holland):  an open landscape divided in parts by hedges and hedgerows, looking like a stage with curtains.

Painting like Ton Schulten in lower classes can be done, but you have to keep it simple. Show artworks from Ton Schulten and discuss them.

• his use of colours  
• the 'curtains' on the sides
• simple shapes
• divided in rectangles

The students divide the sheet of drawing paper in 24 squares (4 by 6). With the primary colours yellow, red and blue and the mixed colours, they paint the squares. Each colour may be used just three times. If the work is dry, paint simple houses across the dividing lines with a small brush and black paint.