Spider web

You need:

1. white drawing paper from 20 by 20 cm
2. oil pastel crayons
3. black paint
4. brushes
5. toothpicks
6. coloured construction paper

In fall you will find beautiful spider webs in the garden and around the school. Especially when the morning dew is glistening on the wires in the sun, a web seems a work of art. In this lesson the students scretch a spider web with a spider, after they first have looked carefully at those webs. How is the web built? How many basic threads do you see? What does a spider look like? How many legs has he? How do they look? Colour a drawing sheet with oilpastels. Choose autumn colours, like orange, yellow and brown. Paint the entire sheet black and let it dry.

Scratch a spider web with a toothpick. Of course you may add the spider! Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Haunted houses

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. tissue paper in two colours
3. brush and water
4. black markers
5. white chalk pastel
6. hairspray
7. black construction paper for background

Haunted houses…. there are many exciting stories in the internet to start this lesson! Discuss the characteristics of a haunted house: partly collapsed, on a quiet place, spider webs, torture tools, graves, bats, black cats, ghosts etc. The background is made with tissuepaper. Kids have to wet their white drawing sheet with a brush and water. Strips of torn tissue paper are put on this - the torn edges must be on the paper, not the straight ones. Make sure the tissue papers overlap a little, so no white paper is to be seen. When ready, wet the whole sheet again. Take a look under one of the tissue strips to see if the bleeding is ready. If so, take of the strips. Then wait till the sheet is completely dry. With a pencil, kids sketch a haunted house on their coloured sheet. They have to thing about the fact that everything has to be coloured in black, so they have to draw just contours. When sketching is ready, the drawing has to be traced with a black fineliner. Then everything has to be coloured with a black marker. Ghosts are drawn in and around the house using white chalk pastel. Fix the ghosts with hairspray and glue the artwork on a black background.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Take a walk with a line

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. markers
3. fineliner

Start with a thick black marker and draw an interesting line horizontally across the paper. Repeat your line with rainbow colors to show emphasis and repetition. Fill your paper up with interesting line patterns in the background. Use a black fineliner. When ready it seems the coloured line looks like jumping off the page. This could also be a nice group project. Children have to discuss with eachother about the places their lines will come together and continuing the patterns.

Autumn prints

You need:

1. pieces of linoleum from 15 x 15 cm
2. lino knife
3. mat
4. block printing ink
5. flat piece of plexiglass
6. linoleum roller
7. construction paper
8. lino press

After searching autumn leaves and taking them in the classroom, we take a careful look. What can you tell about the form, the veins, the colour etc.
Draw a leave or mushroom on your linoleum. Remember what you cut away will not print. It is not important to carve deeply into linoleum, just enough so that carved area is lower than the linoleum surface. Always carve away from your hand, always keep your hand behind the back edge of linoleum. When you want to check your printing block, place a piece of paper on the linoleum and rub over the paper with a crayon. This will create a “rubbing” and will give you an idea of what the final print will look like. Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. Ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet. If ink starts to look velvety/dry, sprinkle a little bit of water over the ink and add more ink. Put your linoleum block on a newspaper. Roll ink onto linoleum printing block, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay the block on a sheet in the printing press and press. Take away the block and your print is ready.
To make a group work, all kids have to cut out their prints. Ask some students to make a collage of all autumn leaves.

Polka dots from Staphorst, Holland

Table cloth, group work

Staphorst is a a town in the eastern Netherlands. The town is famous for about 600 women who are still wearing traditional dress. Until now, utensils and cloths are designed with characteristic 'Staphorster Stipwerk', translated: Staphorst polka dots. Staphorster stipwerk is made by nails stuck in corks and then tipped in paint. The stipwerk is mostly done on a dark surface.

Benodigdheden:

1. black fabric
2. textile paint
3. nails in different sizes

Show some examples of Staphorster Stipwerk (Google image searcher). Discuss what you see: colour use, size of the dots, motives, patterns etc. Let children practice first in making patterns. Use a scratch paper and colour pencils for this. If they understand the principle of making flowers out of polka dots, they can start stamping with the nails. This lesson can be done individually, but making a group table cloth is maybe much more fun! And: in stead of stamping on cotton, it is also possible to stamp on wooden utensils, like a small chipboard box or a wooden plate. Before stamping, the box has to be painted black of course. And, don't use textile paint but use tempera. Lacquer with vernish for shiny result.

Part of the table cloth

Ghosts in the air

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. leftover cardboard
3. scissors
4. white chalk pastel
5. hairspray
6. white pencil

Kids have to cut ghosts and trace the outlines of them with chalk pastels. The ghosts are haunting around a fence. The fence has to be cut from leftovers cardboard. It doesn't need to be as straight as a line, because it's an old fence, so it is crooked and broken. Then three ghosts have to be cut. The instruction is: one ghost is flying above, one behind and one before the fence. Children lay the fence and ghosts on the black paper.Then they scratch with white chalk around the cutout parts and wipe it out. Finally they have to cut a moon and do the same. Draw eyes and a mouht with a white pencil. Fix the work with hairspray.

Pumpkins in moonlight

You need:

1. black constructionpaper A4 format
2. pastel crayons
3. pumpkins or pictures of pumpkins
4. hairspray
5. papertowels
6. construction paper for background

Look with the kids to some brought pumpkins or pictures of them. Discuss shape, texture, size, colours, stem and leaves. Children have to draw at least two pumpkins, and one of them has to overlap another. Kids have to use pastel crayons on black construction paper. Tell them working with pastels will give a lot of smudge: be careful with smudgy fingers. Wipe them on a towell, and not on your artwork! Tell kids also to mix different colours. This will deepen the colours. Using brightr colours on dark ones will suggest the moonlight!

When the artworks are finished, you have to fix it with hairspray. Glue the work on a green or orange construction paper.

Made by students of 11-12 years old

Beautiful anemones

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. tissue paper in different colours
3. brush
4. can with water

With tissue paper you can make beautiful flowers without painting! In this lesson I chose anemones, but any flower will work. To make an anemone, fold a tissue paper three times until you have a rectangle. This rectangle has six lows now. Cut two petals out of this rectangle; this makes twelve petals totally. Six petals make one anemone. Cut petals from different colours tissue paper. Cut small and bigger ones. Take the white sheet and wet the place for the first flower with a brush. Put the petals one by one around an imaginary white circle (this is for the heart of the flower) on the wet spot. The petals will tighten themselves on the wet drawing sheet. Stich all petals this way. Overlap is allowed, working on the edge too. Cut little circles (flowerhearts) out of black tissue paper and stick them with water. The tissue paper has started 'bleeding' yet. The brighter the colour of tissue paper, the better it bleeds. Light colors bleed less. The colours of the tissue paper will blend together. If all is well, you'll see rays from the black heart into the petals. If not, wet the flowers again with a brush and water. Be careful, petals might shuffle. Let the artwork dry a little. When it's still moist a bit, pull of all petals. Your beautiful anemones are ready!

Anemones with tissue paper

Print, without tissue paper

Landscape of tissue paper

You need:

1. tissue paper in several colours
2. wallpaper glue, made with extra water
3. glue brushes
4. white drawing paper A4 size

Look with the students at pictures of different landscapes: mountains, volcanic landscape, coastal landscape, river landscape, hills, flat landscape. Discuss the differences between those landscapes.

Students are going to make a landscape out of tissue paper. They may just tear the sheets, so no scissors! The landscapes have to be constructed from behind, so the front sheets have to be glued at last. While doing it this way, colours can be glued overlapping, which gives more tints. Explain the students to use white tissue paper to make colours lighter. The glaciers on the mountains in the example are created by not glueing the white tissue paper entirely. Dry parts will stay white, wet parts take over the colour that's underneath.

Mothers finest

You need:

1. coloured paper A4 size
2. scissors
3. glue
4. leftovers coloured paper
5. leftovers yarn, wire, pipe cleaner
6. buttons, feathers etc..
7. leftovers of cotton

Traditionally, people love to decorate themselves. With what do people decorate themselves? Is this the same in all countries? What kind of decorations can you mention? Discuss decorations and write different kinds of decorations on the blackboard.

Each student gets two coloured sheets of paper; one for the background and one for the face. Fold the sheet for the face lengthwise and draw half a face against the fold. Don't forget the ears! Cut the face and glue it on a background, letting a bit space between face and background. uit en plak het op de achtergrond met een beetje ruimte eronder. So don't glue it flatly. Cut eyes, nose and mouth out of leftover paper and glue them on the face. Decorate the face with different materials. Thing of earrings, glasses, hair, make-up, chain, necktie etc.

(Photographs: Willem Wienholts)

Leave collection

 

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. tempera and brushes
3. metallic pens and fine markers in several colours

Ask students to bring autumn leaves. Talk about the colours and the shape of the leaves, feel the veins and discuss the patterns of the veins.
Children make a composition of autumn leaves, considering variation between large and small leaves and different leaf shapes. The leaves may overlap eachother. To print the leaves, cover the bottoms with undiluted tempera in fall colours. Press the leaves with a book. If you want to make a print over another printed leave (overlap), you have to wait until the former print has dried. This won't take long , because the veins will give just thin prints.
When all prints are ready, the leave collection has to be complemented with drawn leaves. Use fine colour markers, including metallic. Draw the veins close together. Paste the work on a coloured background sheet.

Both artworks are made by students of grade 5

A spider and his web

In fall you will find beautiful spider webs in the garden and around the school. Especially when the morning dew is glistening on the wires in the sun, a web seems a work of art. In this lesson the students draw a spider web with a spider, after they first have looked carefully at those webs. How is the web built? How many basic threads do you see? What does a spider look like? How many legs has he? How do they look?

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size cut lengthwise
2. crayons
3. water paint
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. black finepointed marker or white pencil
7. coloured paper

Draw at the top of a half sheet a web with a white crayon (be sure the point is sharp). One of the base threads have to be drawin in the middle, because the spider will hang out there. Draw a spider with black crayon and connect him with the web by drawing the middle white base thread down. Paint the whole sheet with water paint in a colour you like. Use lots of water. Crayonlines will resist the paint. Let the work and see the dewdrops on the web! Glue the work on a coloured background. Draw the web further on the background, with black fineliner or white pencil.

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.