Rembrandt's Cabinet of Curiosities

You need:

1. drawing sheet 12 by 12 cm
2. indian ink
3. dip pen
4. pencil
5. black construction paper
6. glue
7. various shells

Rembrandt was a painter, etcher and draftsman, but also an art dealer. In 1656 he went bankrupt and to pay the creditors his possessions had to be sold. An official made a list of all the things that were in Rembrandt's house. There was, for example, a large collection of objects from various continents in the art chamber, also known as 'cabinet of curiosities'.

In the room were dried animals, shells, spears from Indonesi, glass from Venice, a lion's skin and a box with coins and tokens. Sailors of the VOC often took the objects with them to the Netherlands as souvenir.

Etching of a shell, Rembrandt, 1650 (Rijksmuseum)

Discuss how ethings are made. Why does an etching make more money then a painting or drawing? Why does the artist have to scratch his signature in reverse on an etching?  

View etchings by Rembrandt. What stands out? 

• very detailed
• there are just lines
• shading for dark areas
• lifelike
• black and white

First let students practice in using indian ink. How do you make thick or thin lines? How do you make light or dark areas? What is hatching? 

Students draw a shell like Rembrandt did.  Draw with pencil, trace it wiht ink. Make hatch lines for the dark area's.

Paste all student art works together on a black construction sheet: Rembrandt's Cabinet of Curiosities. 

Life-size Keith Haring groupwork

Show Haring's works and discuss them: 

• comic like people
• few details
• thick black outlines
• bright colors
• dashes that indicate movement 

You need:

1. life-size drawing sheets.
2. tempera paint
3. brushes grote vellen schetspapier 

Paste drawing sheets together. There must fit a child on it. 

Make groups of 4 students. Trace one student of each group using a black marker.

 Students paint the traced figure in one color. Fill the rest of the sheet with patterns in black paint. 

How to make an impressionist painting

You need: four pieces of drawing paper (briefkaart)

1. tempera paint
2. brushes
3. jar with water
4. paper towels
5. dark blue construction paper

Famous impressionist painters are Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Renoir, and Edouard Manet. The last one once said: "I paint what I see and not what others want to see. "
Impressionist paintings are snapshots, a quick impression. Up close you only see dots,  from a distance you see these dots together make an image.
View and discuss impressiont paintings. What do you see? Why do wel call this impressionistic? What is an impression?

To do: 
Step 1: Paint on the 4 sheets a beach in yellow and 3 colors. Be sure your 4 sheets are all the same.
Step 2: Put one of the 4 sheets away, it's ready.
Step 3: Paint a yellow sky on the other 3 sheets. Pick white and yellow at the same time on your brush.
Step 4: Put one of the 3 sheets away, it's ready.
Step 5: Take a smaller brush and make dots in the water using blue and white. Make dots in pink, orange and white in the sand.
Step 6: Put one of the 2 sheets away, it's ready.
Step 7: Paint on the last sheet a simple sailing boat in the water.
Step 9: Paste the paintings on a sheet of dark blue construction paper

I once came across this art work on Pinterest, but can't find it back Is this your lesson? Please contact me so i can add your name. 

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

Son of Man - Like Magritte

You need:

1. white drawings sheets A3 size
2. white and blue tempera paint 
3. paper with stone print
4. white round paper
5. camera
6. bowler hat and black coat 
7. brushes
8. small dishes
9. sponges

René Magritte
Rene Magritte is born in 1898 in Belgium. When Magritte is 13 years old, his mother commits suicide. She jumps in the river Samber and is found with her dress covering her face. This image has been suggested as the source of several paintings from Magritte: people hiding their faces with several objects.
In 1924 Magritte became friends with members of a surrealism group in Brussels: André Breton, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. These artists influence Magritte's work. In the end Magritte became famous with surrealistic paintings.
Magritte gave his paintings a realistic effect of surrealism. He painted simple objects, like a shoe, an apple, a pipe or a tree. Magritte took these things out of their ordinary environment and placed them in a special surrounding.
One of Magritte's most famous works is "La Trahison des Images" (The Treachery of Images). This is a very realistic painting from a pipe, with the text: Ceci n'est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe). The painting is not a pipe, but rather an image of a pipe. As Magritte himself commented: "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe,' I'd have been lying!"
By putting us constantly on the wrong track, Magritte forces us to think about art. Magritte thought it the task of an artist to place reality in a different context.

Look at the artwork
Discuss the painting The son of man. What do you see? What does the man wear? What's on his head? Why can he see little? Can he see nothing of can he peek at the edge of the apple? What's wrong with his left arm? (his arm appears to bend backwards at the elbow). What do you see at the background? What does the sky look like?

How do you make this artwork?
Take photographs of the students wearing a bowler hat and a dark coat; arms hanging beside the body. Students paint their sheet blue and let it dry. Cut a wall out of stoneprint paper and stick it on the blue sky. Stamp white spots on the artwork using a sponge. Let dry againg. Cut the photo neatly along the edges and paste it on the blue sheet in front of the stoneprint paper. Draw a piece of fruit on the circle sheet and show color transitions, just like real fruit. Paste it on the face.

Both artworks are made by students of grade 1

The fall of Icarus - like Matisse

You need:

1. dark blue construction paper
2. black construction paper
3. leftovers of construction paper in several colors
4. scissors
5. glue

In this lesson students cut a performance out of paper just like Matisse did with his work: The fall of Icarus. 

Matisse (1969-1954) was a French sculptor and painter. He is seen as the founder of fauvism. In his last years of life Matisse wasn't able to paint anymore. A pair of scissors was the tool he used to transform painted papers (painted by assistants) into a world of plants, animals, shapes and figures. 

One of these cut-outs is the artwork Icarus (1947). 

Read the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. 

Then look at the original artwerk Icarus.
What do you see? At what time of day were  Daedalus and Icarus flying and how can you see that? (at night - dark blue paper, stars). What do you notice about the body of Icarus?  (limbs have different thicknesses) What can you deduce from that? (no drawing in advance but cut out of the hand) What could be the red dot? (heart)  How do you know Icarus is falling? (arms spread, head not straight on the body) Can you see that Icarus is falling into the see? (no) What else could he fall in?

Task
The real Icarus fell into the sea, but our Icarus falls into something else ... and you  decide for yourself into what! Trees? A city? On a church?
Cut a falling human out of black construction paper.  You're not allowed to make a drawing in advance, just cut 'out of the hand'. If the first time fails, you take a new black sheet. Cut some stars. Cut a surface: in what is Icarus falling?  Place the loose parts on a blue sheet and stick all of them.

All artworks made by students of grade 3. 

Transport - like Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian artist and architect who is best known for the colorful buildings he designed, built with attention to the environment and nature. The buildings of Hundertwasser are very recognizable: straight lines are missing, there is use of bright colors and many of his buildings have typical turrets. The influence of architect Gaudi is obvious.

The paintings of Hundertwasser have exuberant colours too and mainly undulating lines.

Show buildings of Hundertwasser on the digital board. Discuss the salient  features: bright colours, undulating lines. Then show some paintings and discuss the things that stand out:

• the use of small areas outlined with black

• no straight lines, usually parallel lines
• recurring spiral shapes
• bright colours

Tell students they are going to draw means of transport in the style of Hundertwasser. 

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. markers

Draw a car, plane, boat or something you think is a mean of transport. Fill it with lines and patterns like Hundertwasser did. Cut your drawing and paste all means of transport on a great colored sheet. 

Source: Dutch website Laat maar zien. 

Op art - like Henrique Matos

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. liquid water colour
3. jar with water
4. compasses
5. ruler
6. pencil
7. 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.

Op art hands

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. markers 

Draw a grid on the sheet with squares from 2 cm by 2cm. Draw your hand or an object with a pencil. Color this alternately with black an a color of your choice.  Color the background squares with the same colors, but so that the checkerboard pattern reverses.

Where Keith Haring meets Piet Mondriaan

You need:

1. drawing sheet A2 size
2. black strips 1,5 cm wide
3. colored construction paper in red, yellow and blue
4. ruler
5. scissors
6. glue
7. black marker

This is a teamwork lesson for two students. 

Draw squares and rectangles of various sizes on the colored paper. Make sure they are straight: start from a right angle and measure carefully. Cut the squares and rectangles and spread them on the white sheet.  Make sure same colors do not touch each other and stick them. 

Continue with the black strips. Decide by yourself how many strips and where you want them, but there are four requirements:

• the strips must be sticked straight! (use your ruler)
• black strips must be sticked around all colored area's
• use the black strips to create white area's (squares and rectangles) 
• don't use to much glue. Let some strips stay loose so you can put a Haring figure behind it

Draw three or more Keith Haring  characters on the colored paper. Cut them and paste them on the Mondriaan sheet. Be sure there is no yellow character on a yellow area. 

Outline the characters with a black marker and draw some 'move stripes' around them.

Picture book illustration

Students of grade 6 made this illustration. After a good study of the original illustration in a Dutch picturebook, they made a list of required materials to use for this artwork. The faces and arms are painted, the clothes and curtains are cut out of fabric, the wallpaper comes from a sample book for wallpaper and the flags are from scraps of paper.

Popart like Burton Morris

You need:

1. several colours construction paper
2. black cardboard 20 by 20 cm
3. coloured cardboard 20 by 20 cm
4. scissors
5. glue
6. 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

Cat on head - like Corneille

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

1. drawing sheet A3 size
2. oil pastels
3. liquid watercolor paint
4. brushes

Corneille painted often cats, birds and women. There are some paintings where he painted the cat on the head of a woman!
Show Corneille paintings on the digital board or use google: 'Corneille woman cat'.

Who of you has a cat at home? Does it ever lie with you? Does your cat ever lie on your head?

Look at these artworks. What do you see? Why would the painter left the cat's eyes white?  Do the women on the paintings have hair? 

Draw a head on your sheet with oilpastel (dark color). Maybe your own head, but you may choose another head too. Draw a cat sitting, standing or lying down on the head. The cat looks like hair! What hairstyle it is, had to do with the position of the cat. 

Color your drawing with bright colors. Trace the outlines with a dark color if necessary and paint the background with liquid watercolor paint. 

Made by a student of grade 3

There are more lessons about Corneille on this blog! Use the search function. 

Corneille China

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. paper plates)
2. black markers
3. acrylic paint
4. small brushes 
5. jars with water and paper towels

Show some pictures of animals in Corneille's artwork. What do you see? What can you say about the colors? Do you like it? Why or why not? What animals do you see on the china?

Choose an animal. Use a black marker to draw it on your plate. You can also decide to draw just the head of the animal. Your drawing has to be large, it has to fill almost the entire plate. Can you think of anything else? Does the moon shine? Is your animal with others? Or is it in the grass? You can make it!

Color your drawing with acrylic paint and a brush. Choose bright colors and make sure it's opaque. Rinse your brush with each new color and dry it well in a paper towel; the acrylic paint shound not get wet.

Trace the marker lines again if necessary but only if the paint is really dry.

More information about Corneilla and the Cobra group on this blog:  Lesson 1 en lesson 2.

Happy new year!

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. water paint color
3. brushes
4. liquid water color paint
5. crayons

Draw some Dutch canal houses and color them with water color paint. Use crayons to draw fireworks. Then paint the sky dark blue with liquid water color leaving  the edges white. 

We wish you a merry Xmas

You need:

1. green construction paper, 20 by 20 cm
2. white tempera paint
3. white pencil
4. fine markers in white and black
5. colored markers

Draw staves on the sheet using a white pencil. Make fingerprints for the snowmen: use the tip of your finger for the head, use your thumb for the body. Wait till the paint has dried. Use a black fine marker to draw brooms, branches=arms, stones=eyes+mouth. Draw the carrot = nose with orange marker and draw caps of hats on some of the snowmen.
Finally, draw the text of We wish you a merry Xmas (or another Christmas song) under the staves. 


Source: 50 Xmas things to make and do, Usborne

Silver and white Xmas tree

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. green construction paper
2. silver marker
3. white pencil

Draw the trunk of a tree in the middle of a sheet, starting at the bottom and ending about 2 inches from the top. Color the trunk with silver marker. 

Draw lines from the trunk to the right and left. Don't use a ruler! The lines become shorter to create a triangle.  

Draw Xmas decorations on the branches using a white pencil. 

Colourful Christmas trees

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You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. ruler
9. pencil
10. gold or silver marker
11. white correction marker
12. glitter

Paint a background for the Christmas trees with water paint. Use different colours and let them blend into each other. Use plenty of water for nice bright colours.
Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a sheet of drawing paper and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on this wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. Then make it wet again with a brush with water. Fill the sheet with these tissue paper parts and leave it to dry. Remove the pieces of tissue paper from the sheet when it is completely dry. The sheet will look like this:

Cut long triangles from the sheet that was coloured with tissue paper. You may use the schedule above (based on A4 size sheet of 21 by 29 cm - half cm will remain on both sides then). You can cut a piece from the bottom of the triangles if you want trees of various heights. Paste these three trees with overlap on the water paint background. Don't paste the trees all at the same height, so you get depth. Cut some smaller triangles from the left overs if you want more trees.
Outline the trees with silver or gold marker. Draw a simple branch structure. Draw the strains with brown pencil or use the metallic pins. Draw snowflakes around and on the trees with a white (correction) marker or use chips from the punch. rond en op de bomen. Paste the artwork on a coloured background. Sprinkle some glitter on the forest floor.

All artwork is made by students of 11-12 years old

Catching leaves

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. oil pastels
3. liquid water color paint
4. brushes

Students trace their hands (thumbs point to each other) on the bottom of the sheet and color them with oil pastels. They draw swirling autumn leaves above the hands and color them with oil pastels too. Paint the background with diluted liquid water color paint and leave some space on the edges.

Collage like Karel Appel (CoBrA)

On black background, made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. black or white drawing sheet A3 size
2. colored construction paper, 5 colors for each student 
3. glue
4. black tempera paint
5. small brush
6. liquid water color paint for background 

Karel Appel (1921-2006) was a Dutch expressionistic painter and sculptor, famous as one of the founders of the CoBrA movement. CoBrA stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
CoBrA artists were inspired by children's drawings and the art of mentally disturbed.

Tell your students about abstract and figurative art. Show abstract and figurative artworks and ask which word belongs to them.
Then view some of Karel Appel's works: Little Boy, Some people together, Blue faced beast and Saarbrücken (Google pictures). Are these figurative or abstract? Put your hand on the eyes of the painting. Is the artwork still figurative? Students will discover the Appel's art is very close to abstract. 

When we see Karel Appel, we discover:

• large surfaces
• bright colors
• a few colors
• thick black lines

Students tear (using two thumbs and two fingers, show well how they have to tear)  organic shapes from the construction paper.  It's absolutely not the intention to tear a human of animal. The shapes have to be 'just like that'.  Some students will smuggle a little bit and stick an eye somewhere. Then squeeze an eye :) but do not accept clearly laid human figures.

When they have torn enough pieces, students make a composition of the shapes and paste them on the black or white sheet. The pieces may also be stuck over or on top of each other. Then the most exciting part of this lesson: what do I see in my collage? Ask a classmate to keep your work up. What do you see? Turn the work 90 degrees, and again and again. Do you see an animal or a human?
Use black paint and a thin brush to draw lines on your artwork so that your human of animal is also visible to others. Not too much lines, there must be some guesswork too!

On a painted backgrond, made by student of grade 5