Building sandwiches

  

Texture, balance and variety were elements students concentrated on as they created this collage of a big sandwich! 

 

What do you need?

• colored card board 
• ribbed cardboard
• leftovers of colored paper
• yarn leftovers
• fabric leftovers
• pasta in different shapes
• seeds and/or rice
• scissors and glue

Before: 
Discuss what students like on their sandwich and how to represent this. Examples: yellow paper with holes in it will represent cheese; red yarn can be ketchup and an enrolled piece of pink cotton is a slice of ham.

The artwork should be partly 3D, so do not paste everything just flat; try to work spatial and let things overlap. 

What should you do?

1. Create a table cloth from leftovers of cotton or paper. 
2. Cut a plate and paste it on the table.
3. Cut two parts of a hamburger bun of ribbed cardboard. 
4. Put your favourite toppings on the burger.
5. Complete your burger with  the second piece of ribbed cardboard.

Works of art made in grade 4, 5 and 6. 

Autumn birches

What do you need?

• drawing sheets A3 size *
• painters tape in several widths
• liquid watercolor paint in red, green and yellow 
• brushes
• tempera paint  
• stencil brush
• old shopping card/customer card
• saucers and jars

* Choose thick drawing paper, to avoid ripping when you remove the tape . 

Before:

Look at birch trees. What do you see?   

 

• straight white trunks
• horizontal peeling bark
• autumn color leaves: orange, yellow, brown, red

What to do?
Step 1
Place the sheet on the table with the narrow site down. Stick strips of tape from top to bottom. Wide for the trunks, narrower for the branches. Note: branches grow up! 

Step 2

Paint the background in strips with diluted liquid watercolor. Let dry. Peel off the tape carefully. 

Step 3

Put some black tempera paint on a saucer. Dip a customer card in it. Pull this in several places from left to right (or right to left!) to halfway up the trunk to make the black streaks.

Step 4

Spray some warm colors tempera + green on a saucer.  Stamp leaves at the top of the trees using the stencil brush. Do not mix colors, but use several colors at the brush at the same time. 

Step 5

Hang up! 

Works of art made by students of grade 1. 

There's a ghost in my bedroom!

Help, there are ghosts in my bedroom! Behind the wardrobe, under my bed, behind the curtains....

What do you need:

• white drawing sheet 
• indian ink
• dip pen
• pencil
• paper towel
• black paper for background

What should you do? 

1. Sketch your room with a pencil: bed, wardrobe, toys, window, door. 
2. Draw ghosts on several places. 
3. Trace the drawing with indian ink. Leave the ghosts white.
4. Fill the rest of the drawing in with various textures*. 
5. Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

* Look for a lesson on texture : Exercise in drawing texture. 

Artworks made by students of grade 5. 

Positive negative pumpkin faces

What do you need?

• black construction paper A4 
• orange construction paper A5
• ruler
• pencil
• scissors and glue
• cutting knife

What should you do? 

1. Divide in four rectangles.  
2. Divide the four black rectangles each in two rectangles. 
3. Divide the orange sheet in four rectangles; each rectangle is as big as a half black one.
4. Draw half of a pumpkin against the edge of an orange rectangle. 
5. Draw one eye, half of a mouth and a nose and cut out with a cutting knife.
6. Cut the outline of the pumpkin. 
7. Paste the half orange pumpkin against the edge of a black rectangle. Paste eye and mouth on the opposite side of the pumpkin.
8. Repeat these steps to make the other three pumpkins.

Wacky witches

You need:

• charcoal
• chalk pastels
• drawing sheet 
• black construction paper
• hairspray

Before

How do you recognize a witch? What animals or things do you associate with a witch? What does an angry witch look like? Think of characteristics like mouth, eyes and eyebrows.

Tell students how to use charcoal. Explain how we make differences in colors. Show how to use an eraser to erase the charcoal lines and a tissue to sweep out the color.

What should you do?

1. Draw the contours of a witch face with charcoal. 
2. Color it with chalk pastel in a cool color. 
3. Draw a mouth, eyes and nose with charcoal. 
4. Add some typical witchy things like a cat, bat, spiderweb etc.
5. Use hairspray to fix the drawing. 
6. Stick the drawing on a black sheet. 

Works of art made by students of grade 4.

Which witch is this?

You need:

• drawing sheet 
• pencil
• markers
• white or silver pencil 
• black paper for background

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

What to do?

1. Draw with pencil the lower half of the body of a witch: skirt and legs. 
2. Draw things that belong to witches. 
3. Draw a horizon line at 1/3 from the bottom. 
4. Color the drawing with markers. 
5. Color the background with markers or chalk pastel. 
6. Paste the artwork on a black background and decorate the rim with theme-related little drawings in white or silver pencil.

Works of art made by students of grade 5.

Pumpkins like Yayoi Kusama

What do you need?

• black construction paper
• colored paper
• black marker 
• black fineliner
• scissors and glue
• white pencil

About the artist
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (1929) creates paintings, sculptures and large installations with mirrors and lots of light, symbolizing infinity. All her artworks have one thing in common: polka dots. That's why she's affectionately known as 'the princess of polka dots'. 

From an early age Kusama wanted to make art, but her traditional Japanese parents didn't like this. That's why Kusama left for NewYork and joined artists there, including Andy Warhol. 

By adding all-over marks and dots to her paintings, drawings, objects and clothes she feels as if she is making them (and herself) melt into, and become part of, the bigger universe. She said:

‘Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment’.

View and discuss artwork of Kusama. 

• use of large and small polka dots 
• backgrounds are often filled with triangles
• use of bright colors
• her installations suggest infinity

What to do?

1. Draw three pumpkins on the colored sheets and cut them.
2. Draw bigger and smaller dots on the segments using black markers.
3. Draw triangles on the black sheet with a white pencil - start with a zigzag line.
4. Paste the pumpkins on the black sheet.

Works of art are made by students of grade 4. 

Catching leaves

What do you need?

• drawing sheet 
• oil pastels
• liquid watercolor paint
• brushes

What should you do?

1. Trace your hand (thumbs point to each other) on the bottom of the sheet.
2. Color them with oil pastels. 
3. Draw swirling autumn leaves above the hands and color those with oil pastels. 
4. Paint the background with diluted liquid watercolor paint leaving some space on the edges.
5. Or: choose real autumn leaves instead of drawn ones. Stick them on the drawing after painting and drying the background.

Works of art made by students of grade 3. 

Autumn leaves with tissue paper

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet
• tissue paper in autumn colors
• brush
• jar with water
• white crayons

Before
Look at different shapes of autumn leaves. Discuss shapes and colors. 

What should you do?

1. Draw different leaves on the sheet with white crayon. 
2. Tear parts of tissue paper (not too small) in autumn colors. 
3. Stick the pieces by wetting the sheet part by part and laying them in it. Watch out: no two same colour pieces next to each other. Be sure the tissue paper is wet enough to bleed.

   4. Let the artwork dry a little. 
   5. When it's still moist a bit, pull of the tissue paper. You can use tweezers           to avoid colored fingers! 

Works of art made by students of grade 3. 

Autumn leaves in cubist style

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 
• pencil
• ruler
• tempera paint
• brushes
• gold marker

Before
Ask students to take autumn leaves. Watch them together, paying particular attention to the shape: 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).

What should you do?

1. Draw several leaves, they may not overlap. Draw half leaves against the edges. Draw only the outer form of the leaves, no veins. 
2. If the sheet is largely filled, draw diagonal lines with pencil and ruler: two from left to right and two from top to bottom. Make sure these lines pass through the leaves. 
3. Choose four warm colors tempera: two for the leaves and two for the background. Paint the leave parts within a shape in one color and the background in a different one. Paint the leaves in the next square in a third color and the background with color four. 
4. Trace contour lines of the leaves and the diagonal lines with a gold marker.

Works of art made by students of grade 6.

Whirling leaves

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 
• watercolor paint
• brushes
• jar with water
• small and thick black marker
• construction paper for background
• glue

Before
Ask students to take flat dried leaves. 

What should you do?

1. Chooses a leave and outline it several times with a pencil. Let them whirl down from the tree. Make sure some leaves go over the edge; these will later be finished on the background.
2. Paint the leaves with watercolor paint. Use water to dillute the paint less or more. Choose warm fall colors and try to make transitions in the colors by using wet in wet technique.
3. 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, they will be outlined later.
4. Leave the work to dry and paste it on a colored background. 
5. Outline the leaves with a thick black marker. Use the fine marker for the veins. Don't stop with outlining and drawing veins when you reach the background, but go on with it there.

Works of arde made by students of grade 6.

Autumn leaves mandala

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 
• compasses
• pencil
• oil pastels

What should you do?

1. Draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. 

2. Draw within about 1 cm another circle (the edge of the mandala).
3. Cut out and fold into 8 pieces.
4. Draw against one of the folds half a leaf with black oil pastel.

5. Fold the sheet and press firmly with your hand to get a print of the leaf on the other side of the fold. Trace this half leaf with black oilpastel. 

7. Draw the other leaves in the same way.
8. Color leaves and background with oil pastels. Color the edge with a nice pattern.

Artworks made by students of grade 6.

It's warm blanket time!

What do you need?

• colored paper for background
• brown paper 
• leftovers of colored and white paper 
• square white paper
• watercolor paint + brushes
• crayons
• black marker
• scissors and glue

Before
Divide this lesson over more moments. Consider in advance whether you will give students a template of the bear's head or whether they' ll have to draw it themselves. 

What should you do?

Folding and painting: 

1. For the blanket: fold the white sheet into16 squares. 
2. Paint each square in a different color. 
3. Let dry. 
4. Draw stripes with a crayon on the folds of the squares like on a patchwork blanket. 

Cutting:

1. Draw a bear's head on brown paper and cut out (or trace the template and cut out)
2. Legs: cut four ovals out of brown paper. 
3. Snout: cut a circle out of colored paper. 
4. Ears: cut two half circles out of colored paper. 
5. Eyes: cut two small circles out of white paper. 

Pasting and drawing:

1. Stick the hind legs on the colored sheet. 
2. Stick the blanket so that legs come out from underneath.
3. Stick the head halfway on the blanket and the front legs underneath.  
4. Stick snout, eyes and ears on the head.
5. Draw nose, whiskers and pupils with a black marker. 

Works of art made by students of grade 1.  

Just like Bart van der Leck

About the artist

Bart van der Leck (1876-1958) was a Dutch painter and designer. He was part of De Stijl art movement with, among others, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Rietveld. Artists of De Stijl searched for a new art style that better suited to the future after World War 1.   

To create his abstract art, Van der Leck reduces a figurative representation further and further to squares, rectangles, triangles and lines in red, yellow and blue against a white or grey background. Although art work of Mondrian and Van der Leck may look similar, there is an important difference: Van der Leck works from a figurative representation that he slowly simplifies, while Mondrian works directly from abstraction. 

Instruction
View three works of art by Bart van der Leck without mentioning the titles: The Sower (1921), Composition IV (1918) and Farm girl with cow  (1921) (due to copyright only the links to the originals here.) 

Ask students what they see. They may not immediately see a sower, but probably come to a man who does something. A hiker? But what are those red squares? Do they see a cow and a farm girl? How do you recognize a cow? And finally: what do you see in Composition IV? This is the most abstract work and there is no clear representation in it. Perhaps students have an idea? 

Ask about the similarities between these works: 

• primary colors + black
• just straight lines 
• white background

What do you need?

• action photo of an athlete
• black sheet and a half white sheet
• scraps of paper in red, yellow and blue 
• scissors and glue

What should you do?

1. Paste the action photo of an athlete on black paper.  
2. Cut out strips and squares from red, blue and yellow. Place them in the same shape as the athlete on white paper. 
3. Satisfied? Glue them.
4. Glue the white sheet below the photo on the the black sheet. 

Artworks made by students of grade 3.

Cat and bird, like Paul Klee

Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) is a German/Swiss artist. His work straddles the line between figurative and abstract. Klee painted landscapes, portraits, animals, mythology, mysterious machines. Does his work belong to cubism, expressionism or surrealism? He brought something from every art movement. Klee looked for patterns and motifs in all kind of art styles: African art, Islamic decorations, clothing and also form children's drawings. Klee left behind more than 9000 works of art.  

Cat and bird, Paul Klee, 1928

What do you need?

• drawing sheet
• pencil
• black marker
• watercolor paint
• pencils

What do you see?

Discuss Klee's painting Cat and bird. 

• the head of a cat with a bird above his eyes. What would this mean? Does the cat dream of its prey? 
• left side of the head is wider than the right side
• large eyes with vertical pupils
• one eye is larger than the other
• warm colors, except the eyes
• bright pink nose in the shape of a heart

What should you do?  

Step 1: Fold the sheet in four. Scetch a W. 

Step 2: Put a dot on the fold and and draw a slightly curving line to it from both sides: the top of the head.  

Step 3: Continue the lines from step 2 downwards.  

Step 4: Draw the eyes from the center to the  side. Draw pupils.  

Step 5: Draw nose, whiskers and the little bird.  

Step 6: Color cat and background using water color paint. Trace the outlines with a black marker.  

Drawings made by students of grade 1, 2 and 3. 

Step by step idea: Blowing Rock Museum, NC.