Totem poles

Made by three students of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing paper A4 size
2. coloured markers
3. coloured cardboard
4. pencil
5. potlood
6. scissors
7. glue

A totem pole is a wooden statue that was made by native tribes and was seen as a sanctuary. The pole was usually made of wood from the cedar tree and was often painted in bright colors. Show different pictures of totem poles. View and discuss the images that are cut in the totem poles.

In this lesson groups of students draw a totem pole together. To make one drawing together, some appointments should be made: the width, the colours, which drawing on which place etc.

Create groups of three or four students. Each student draws a portion of the totem pole and colours it in with coloured markers. Outline each colour with a thick black marker. Each student cuts his totem pole piece. The parts should be pasted into a whole picture on coloured cardboard. Finally, outline the exterior of the totem pole with a thick black marker.

Cool web, big spider

You need:

1. white drawing paper 20 by 20 cm
2. left overs of white drawing paper
3. yellow crayons
4. liquid watercolour
5. thick brush
6. jar with water
7. scissors
8. glue
9. black construction paper

Students draw a web with a yellow crayon. The easiest way is to first draw diagonal lines from the corners of the paper. Then draw more lines from top to bottom, left to right. The lines must all go through the center. After this draw circles around the center, until the sheet is full.

Paint the sheet using liquid watercolour ink in cold colours. Take two colours. Leave the work to dry.

Draw some leaves with a warm colour crayon on a white sheet. Draw the veins. Paint the leaves with warm colours liquid watercolour. Let the leaves dry.

Make a spider of black construction paper. In the example above, the spider is made of a circle with a diameter of about 4 cm. Cut the circle in to the center and stick the cutting edges on each other so the center rises. Draw a cross on the back if you want to. Cut a smaller circle for the head, draw eyes on it and paste it on the body of the spider. Cut the feet: 8 strips of 8 cm by 1/2 cm. Glue the legs on the underside of the body. Make a fold inwards on the mid of the strip, and 1 cm from the end a fold outwards.

When the work is completely dry, cut the leaves and paste them on the web. Put the spider in the web by pasting the lower parts of the legs and the head.

Paste the artwork on a black background. You may draw the spider web lines on the background too.

City waterfront

You need:

1. blue construction paper A4 size
2. white drawing paper A3 size
3. construction paper and/or ribbed cardboard in several colours
4. scissors
5. glue
6. watercolour paint
7. brushes
8. jar with water

I found this lesson once on a German school website. The combination of cutting/pasting and painting is exciting! Students paste tight cut houses, and the reflection in the water is made with water colour paint, which is not tight at all - just as it should be!

Students cut rectangles of different heights and widths out of coloured paper. These are the bodies of the houses. Cut several triangles out of red construction paper, these are the roofs. Cut windows and doors.

Draw a line on 1 cm from the bottom of the blue sheet. Make a composition of the houses on this line, starting with the highest ones. Place the shorter houses in front of them (overlap). Paste the houses and roofs on the blue sheet. Paste windows and doors on them in different colours.

When ready, paste the blue sheet with houses on a white A3 size sheet. Use watercolour paint to paint the mirror image of the houses in the water. Paint as precise as possible, but don't use a ruler: reflections in water aren't that straight! Paint the water blue.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Which witch is this?

I saw this lesson on Artsonia in several variations.

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. pencil
3. markers
4. white pencil or silver gel pen
5. black paper for background

Start this the lesson with a class discussion about witches. How can you recognize a witch? What things belong to a witch? What can you say about the clothing of a witch?

Students draw with pencil the lower half of the body of a witch: skirt and legs. Around this body they draw things that belong to witches. Draw a horizon line at about 1/3 part from the bottom. The drawing should be coloured with markers. Colour the background with markers or chalk pastel. The latter is obviously faster than colouring the background with markers.

Paste the drawing on a black background and decorate the rim with theme-related little drawings. Use a white pencil or a silver gel pen.

In the debriefing should be clear that you only need a half drawing to recognize a witch: Which witch is this?

Made by students of grade 3

Collage of geometric and organic shapes

Made by students of 8-9 years old

A lesson I found on Artsonia. It's a great lesson to explain the different shapes and to practice cutting and pasting skills.

You need:

1. black construction paper 18 by 18 cm
2. four coloured sheets 16 by 16 cm in different colours
3. scissors
4. glue
5. left overs black construction paper

Start this lesson with an instruction on geometric and organic shapes. A geometric shape is a shape with a name, like a rectangle, circle or square. It's shape is regular. An organic shape is a shape from nature, without a real name. The shape of a leave or animal is organic, but cloud shapes are organic too. An organic shape is a shape you can not describe, that has no name. It is irregular.

Choose four sheets with matching colours and fold them in four quarters. Cut the folding lines to get 16 squares of 4 by 4 cm. Put four rows of four squares neatly against each other on the black sheet. Do not place two of the same colours side by side. Glue the squares. Cut a number of organic shapes out of black paper. Create a beautiful composition on the sheet with squares and paste the black shapes. The shapes should not overlap.

Whirling leaves

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. small and broad black marker
6. col0ured construction paper for background
7. glue

Ask students a week before this lesson to take some flat dried leaves. Every student chooses one of his own leaves and outlines it several times with a pencil. Remember to draw not all the leaves in the same way on the paper, because they whirl down from the tree. Make sure some leaves go over the edge; those leaves will later be finished on the background.

Paint the leaves with watercolour paint. Use water to dillute the paint less or more. Choose real warm fall colours and try to make transitions in the colours by using wet in wet technique.

Paint the background blue. Use again the wet in wet technique, and/or choose for wet on dry. You don't have to paint exactly against the leaves, because they will be outlined with a marker.

Leave the work to dry and paste in on a coloured background. Outline the leaves with a thick black marker. Use a fine black marker for drawing the veins, while observing carefully the real leaves. Don't stop with outlining and drawing veins when you reach the background, but go on with it there.

Both artworks are made by students of 11 years old

Autumn leaves in cubist style

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. tempera paint
5. brushes
6. gold colour marker

Ask students to take autumn leaves. Watch them together, paying particular attention to the form: heart-shaped, oval, round, oblong, etc. The composition of the leaves may vary: a leave can be single or composed of several leaflets (pinnate or palmately).

Students draw several leaves on their sheet. The leaves should not overlap. Draw parts of leaves against the edges. Only the outer form of the leaves have to be drawn, so no veins. If the leaves are drawn and the sheet is largely filled, draw four diagonal lines with pencil and ruler: two lines from left to right and two lines from top to bottom. Make sure these lines pass through the leaves. Do not press too hard with the pencil, otherwise they'll come through the paint!

The drawing has to be painted with four warm colours tempera: two colours for the leaves and two for the background. Paint the leave parts within a square in one colour and the background in a different colour. In the box next paint the leaves in a third colour and the background with colour four. See diagram below.

When the artwork is dry, trace the contour lines of the leaves and the diagonal lines with a gold marker.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Awesome alphabet

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing paper A6 size (postcard)
2. markers
3. fine black marker
4. black cardboard
5. glue

Arrange which students makes which letter of the alphabet. The I and J have to be drawn on one sheet, to make a group work of five by five drawings. Each student draws one big letter, with about 1 cm free space around. Colour the letter as you like, using patterns. Colour the background as well. Outline the letter and the details with a fine black marker. Make sure the letter 'pops up' from the background, by choosing different colours and patterns. Paste all letters on a big black cardboard, five by five with 2 cm space between them.

Group work 'Awesome alphabet'

Photo fun

You need:

1. copy of a photo of the student in black/white, A4 size
2. coloured construction paper A4 size
3. ruler
4. scissors
5. glue

Take a digital photo of each student and print in black and white on A4 paper. Students draw on the back of the picture horizontal lines with 2 cm space between them. Cut the lines. Paste the strips with half a cm between the on the coloured paper.

With the name of the student and his birthday under the arwork, this is a nice birthday calendar for in the classroom.

Reflected canal houses

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. white crayons
3. watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. jar with water

Dutch canal houses are famous for their facades: stepped gable, neckgable, bell gable, clockgevel or spoutgable. Draw those five gables on the blackboard and discuss them. Search the internet for photographs of canal houses or let the students search them (search canal house or grachtenhuis).

Draw a line at 12 cm from the bottom of the sheet. Draw some low canal house with a white crayon. Draw windows, treps and doors in them. Paint every house with a different colour of watercolour paint. The crayon will resist the paint and become visible. Paint a simplified reflection of the house under the line. Paint water and air.

Learning letters

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brushes
5. jar with water

Draw a 5 cm grid and copy it on drawing sheets. Give every student a grid sheet. Students use crayons to write big handwriting letters in the squares. Trace the lines of the squares with crayon too using one colour. Paint the squares with liquid watercolour.

In Holland we call those letters 'lusletters', 'letters with loops' if I translate is. The first letters children learn, at the same time as they start learning to read, are called 'blokletters'. Block letters?

How do you call those letters? Blockletters? Writing letters? Who can help me?

Calligram

Our Dutch calligrams; do you recognize the meaning?

You need:

1. drawing sheet A6 size (postcard size)
2. pencil
3. fine black marker

A calligram is a phrase or word in which the typeface, calligraphy or handwriting is arranged in a way that creates a visual image. The image created by the words expresses visually what the word or words say.

Show some calligrams on the smartboard. Discuss them with the students. How was the calligram made? What word(s) do you see? What kind if image is it? Students choose something they want to draw. With a pencil they draw the outlines of it on a sheet. Using a fine marker they write their drawing full with the words that belong to it. Erase the pencil lines when the ink has dried. There are two ways to do it: fill the drawing completely with words, or write the words only on the outlines of the drawing.

Sometimes it is better, and/or nicer, to colour your calligrams. In the example above, the food calligram, you won't probably recognize the food on the plate. With some colour (colour pencils) it is clear! The butterfly is coloured with coloured ink.

Word art

You need:

1. drawing sheet A6 size
2. colour pencils or markers
3. black fine marker

Each student selects a words to illustrate. The design for the word must reflect what the word represents. Someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word, has to understand what it means by looking at the design of it.

Use colour pencils or markers to colour the letters of the word. Use a fine black marker to outline the letters.

Well: although you don't know the meaning of the Dutch words in the examples my students made, you'll know what they mean thanks to the design! If not, they did a bad job?

Made by students of 11-12 years old

Fine lines

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 12 cm
2. coloured construction paper A4 size
3. pencil
4. ruler
5. scissors
6. cutter and cutting mat
7. glue

This lesson is about lines. What kind of lines do you know? Straight, wavy, curved, bumpy, broken, spiral, zig-zag. Discuss different types of lines and let students draw examples on the blackboard.

Draw with a pencil nine different lines on the black paper with 2 cm between them. Cut the sheet carefully following the lines and place the individual pieces in cut order on the coloured paper. Draw with a pencil on the left and bottom of the colored sheet lines on 1 cm from the side. Paste the first black strip on the coloured sheet against the drawn lines. Paste the other strips with about a half cm space between them against the pencil line left.

When all stripes are pasted, cut at the top and right the excess coloured paper away leaving a frame of 1 cm.

Tumbling blocks

Even though I'm not a fan of colouring pages, this one was a hit in my classroom! You need:

1. printed sheet with tumbling blocks
2. markers

I downloaded a sheet with tumbling blocks on Incompetech, a site full of free downloadable graph papers. Students had to choose three colours markers to colour the blocks. When finished, cut the drawing and paste it on a coloured background.

There's a ghost in my bedroom!

Made by Maarten, 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A5 size
2. indian ink
3. dip pen
4. pencil
5. paper towel
6. black paper for background

Help, there are ghosts in my bedroom! Behind the wardrobe, Achter de kast, under the bed, under the rug.... Sketch your room with a pencil: bed, wardrobe, toys, window, door. Draw ghosts on several places. Trace the drawing with indian ink. Leave the ghosts white, and fill the rest of the drawing in with various textures. Look for a lesson on texture at this link: Exercise in drawing texture. Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

Made by Floor, 11 years old

Mirror faces

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. markers

Which facial expressions do you know? How do you draw the expression of a face? Talk about faces and emotions and show students with pictures or quick drawings how faces can change with certain emotions. Consider the state of the mouth, eyes and eyebrows. Divide the sheet into four sections by drawing three diagonal lines from top to bottom to bottom. Then draw a diagonal line from about the middle of the short side to the first vertical line. Do the same to the second line, third line and go through to the other short side of the sheet. See picture a.

Picture a.

Then pull vertical diagonal lines from top to bottom; be sure the lines go right through the middle of the sections. See picture b.

Picture b.

Draw the half of a face to the red line of the first upper left section and draw the mirror image on the other side of the red line. Choose two colours markers. Colour the facial parts of one half. Colour the background or the other half, leaving the facial parts white. Draw another face in the section below and colour it as written above, but change coloured in white. See picture c.

Picture c.

Finish the drawing and draw as many facial expressions as you know. Colour everything, alternating white and colour as a checkerboard. See picture d.

Picture d.

Magnificent magnifier

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. coloured paper for background
4. magnyfying glass

Give students a magnifying glass and send them out to look how things increase looking through it. How does a blade of grass look through the magnifier? Or tree bark? Leaves? Flowers? Insects?

For this lesson children draw something from nature. Part of the drawing has to be seen through a magnifying glass. This magnifying glass will actually be drawn too. That what is seen through the magnifying glass, has obviously to be much more detailed as the environment.

Birds like Corneille (2nd lesson)

This lesson about Corneille is almost the same as the lesson I posted a few days earlier. However, drawings in this lesson are made with oilpastels by students in a lower grade. 

 You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. coloured ink
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille
See my former lesson for information about the artist. 

What to do?
Show examples of Corneille's work. What subjects do you see in his paintings? What can you tell about his style: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

 
Draw the outline of a bird with a black crayon. Make surethe bird reaches at three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Colour in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background with deluted blue ink. Stick the drawing on a coloured sheet.

 

All artworks made by students of grade 3

Animals like Corneille

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. paper towels
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille
Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist, born in Belgium and died in France. He is buried on the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter he highly admired . 

Corneille was an autodidact. In his early years he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes. In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBrA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBrA group. The artists' group only existed for three years, but has been very important for Corneille's work. 

According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing open-minded with colours and shapes. Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?
Show examples of Corneille's work. What subjects do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

 

In this lesson students have to sketch very briefly (maximum 5 minutes!), to avoid drawing too many details and to force them to work big. Students may  also choose to sketch with a small brush and light yellow paint. This will automatically result in working big with little details. The yellow lines can easily be painted with different colours later.

 

Sketching with yellow paint

Sketch the outline of a cat or bird and make sure this animal reaches at least three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Paint the animal in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background too. Leave the work to dry and outline everything using a small brush and black paint. Paint your name in black somewhere at the artwork, like Corneille did. Stick the painting on a coloured sheet.

 

All artworks made by students of 11 years old

A picture in pieces

In this lesson students have to copy a piece of a very detailed drawing by using a viewing window. The main issue in this lesson is texture. This lesson is a continuation of 'Exercise in drawing texture'.

You need:

1. detailed pen-and-ink drawing (download)
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. paperclips
5. drawing paper
6. indian ink
7. dip pen
8. paper towel
9. coloured cardboard
10. cutter and cutting mat
11. glue

Step 1

Give students half A4 sheet of stiff paper. Draw somewhere in the middle of the sheet a square of 5 by 5 cm and cut it out: this is your viewing window. Measure securely! The square doesn't necessarely have to come in the middle of the sheet, because it will only be used as a viewing window.

Step 2

Give students a sheet of white paper and tell them to draw two or three squares of 5 by 5 cm with some space between them. Students can use the mold from step 1, but measuring and drawing may be a good exercise too. (The squares will be cut at the end of the lesson, so the space between them is not so important.)

Detailed pen-and-ink drawing, click to enlarge

Step 3

Now each student has a viewing window and a drawing sheet with two or three squares on it. Give stuents a copy of the detailed house drawing (or search another drawing yourself) and two paperclips. The mission is: search with the viewing window a piece of the drawing you like most. Fix the viewing window with paperclips on the pen drawing and copy that piece as accurately as possible with indian ink in a square on the drawing sheet. Than copy one or two other pieces.

Step 4

Cut the drawings and paste them on one or more layers of coloured cardboard.

Made by children of 11/12 years old

Exercise in drawing texture

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. indian ink
5. dip pen
6. coloured paper
7. glue

Tell students about texture: the way something is made, how the surface feels and what structure looks like. Let them feel several textures: the wall, an orange, stuffed animal etc. Discuss how texture can be drawn. A wall is not so difficult, but how do you draw texture in an orange? And how would you draw texture in a stuff animal?

Students draw six squares from 5 by 5 cm on their sheet using a ruler and pencil. Draw with indian ink six different textures in the squares. Cut the squares and make a composition of them on a coloured paper.

Exercise in colour mixing

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. yellow, red and blue tempera paint
3. brushes
4. pencil
5. ruler

Purpose of this lesson to learn students how to make secondary colours. Show Itten's colour circle and discuss it. Tell about primary and secundary colours and show how to make the secundary colours.

Students make a simple drawing on their sheet. In this lesson is chosen for a still life of vases , but you can also opt for houses. After this a 5 cm grid has to be drawn using pencil and ruler. The squares of the objects are painted with primary colours red, yellow and blue; be sure there is never the same color next to each other. The background squares are painted with the secondary colours orange, purple and green. Again: alternate, not the same colour next to each other. To avoid errors, it is useful to write the first letter of the colours in the squares before painting.