Escher's tesselations

You need: 

1. white drawing sheet
2. thin cardboard 7 by 7 cm
3. pencil
4. scissors
5. color markers 
6. black marker
7. black construction paper for background 

Use this book for your lesson: 'Nadir en Zenith in the world of Escher' by Wouter van Reek. Publisher: Leopold. EAN: 9789025876920. 

Nadir and Zenith come to a place that is so strange they can’t even tell if it’s real. Their curiosity is aroused and they look further. And further. Going deeper and deeper into the weird and wonderful world of M.C. Escher, where nothing is quite what it seems. Fortunately Mr Escher helps them find their way. Or is it the other way round?

M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis (Mauk) Escher (1898-1972) is born in the Netherlands. After high school he goes to the graphics department of a technical college to become graphic artist. During a trip to the Alhambra in Granada he discovers the Moorish  mosaics. These have a major influence on his later artwork and are the basis for this lesson. 

View artworks from Escher and discuss them. Show for example the impossible buildings Belvedere or Waterfall. 
Look at some pictures with animal tesselations and talk about symmetry = two objects are each other's mirror image. You can show examples of the three basic types of symmetry. 

What do you see? How would Escher have made these prints? In which pictures do you see he has made different animals? And in which prints do you see the same animal? Where are the animals mirrored? Where do you see all animals heading in the same direction? Can you mention other symmetrical things? 

What should you do? 

1. Take a piece of cardboard from 7 by 7 cm. Draw a shape on two following sides and cut them out. 

2. Stick the cut pieces on the opposite site of the cardboard with tape. Make sure the distance from the edges is the same. 

3. Trace this shape with a pencil on a drawing sheet. Move the shape and trace again. 

4. Fill up your sheet completely, so also with half animals along the edges.  

5. Search for an animal in the shape. Draw details.  

6. Choose two colors and color the animals alternately. Outline the shapes with black marker and draw details with the black marker too.  

7. Stick your artwork on a  black sheet. 

Landscape like Ton Schulten

You need:

1. drawing sheet 
2. tempera paint in primary colors, black and white  
3. ruler
4. pencil
5. brushes

Ton Schulten (1938) is a Dutch painter, born and living in the small town Ootmarsum. He worked as a graphic designer and decided in 1989 to devote himself entirely to painting. His main source of inspiration is the landscape of Twente, a region in the east of Holland. This is a semi-open landscape that, due to the planting of hedges and wooded banks, looks like a stage with wings.  

Show artworks from Ton Schulten and discuss them.

• Schulten's use of colors  
• horizon line
• the 'curtains' on the sides - the picture is darker there than in the middle
• simple shapes
• divided in rectangles

by students of grade 6

What should you do? 

You're going to draw a landscape like Ton Schulten. First draw a horizon line on about half of the sheet. Draw one or some simple houses. Then draw some draw trees. Divide the drawing with horizontal and vertical lines into small rectangles.  

Paint the rectangles with tempera. Mix your own colors, starting with the brightest one. For example: start with white and add a drop of blue to get light blue; add more drops to get a darker blue.  

Perhaps you can draw 'curtains', just like Ton Schulten: the sides are darker than those in the center. 

Elements of art: shape, line, color, nuance.  

Matisse meets Haring

In this lesson we combine Keith Haring and Henri Matisse.

Benodigdheden:

1. white drawing sheet
2. colored construction paper
3. black construction paper
4. scissors
5. glue

Show some of the later artwork from Matisse (fauvism, 1869-1954), his cut-outs and discuss them. What do you see? What shapes did Matisse use? What are the organic shapes? And the geometric shapes? What's the difference between them? What colors do you see?

Look at the human figures in Keith Harings artwork (popart, 1958-1990). What stands out? How are human beings drawn? Which parts of the body do you see, which parts nog? How do you see that people are moving?

What to do? 

1. Cut organic and geometric shapes from colored paper.  
2. Cut a human figure from black paper,  (do not draw first!). Be sure you can clearly see he's moving.  
3. Arrange the geometric and organic shapes on the white sheet. Overlap is allowed.   
4. Search for a good place where the human figure fits well and where you can see he's moving, for example because he steps on a geometric shape or dances between the organic shapes. 
5. Satisfied about your composition? Then glue on all the cut out shapes .

Circle City

You need: 

1. white drawing sheet
2. compass
3. ruler
4. pencil
5. markers
6. colored sheet
7. glue

Explain the one-point perspective: objects further away appear smaller. If we draw a street towards the horizon, it narrows and trees get smaller. 

In one-point perspective you draw all lines parallel to the viewing direction to one point. You literally put a dot on the horizon. 

What to do? 

• Draw a circle of 20 cm in diameter using the compass. Mark the hole in the center with a dot.  
• Draw lines form the edges of the circle to the dot in the middle, using ruler and pencil. 
• Draw buildings in different heights using the lines.  Draw doors and windows. 
• Color with markers. Outline everything with a fine black marker. 
• Cut the circle and stick it on a colored sheet. 

Art work made by students of grade 4. 

Henna hands

 You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. colored sheet
3. Indian ink or fine black marker 
4. glue
5. scissors 
   
   

Henna art is making temporary decorations on the skin using dye from dried henna leaves. Henna decorations are applied during festive occasions in North-African and Asian countries. Used symbols are those of strength, luck, fertility and protection. Patterns and symbols vary per country.  

Trace your hand on a white sheet. Decorate with patterns. Cut oud and stick on a colored sheet. Cut the hand again with an edge of approximately 1/2 cm. 

Autumn birches

You need: 

1. drawing sheets A3 size
2. painters tape in several widths
3. liquid watercolor paint in red, green and yellow in rood, geel en groen
4. brushes
5. tempera paint  
6. stipple brush
7. old shopping card/customer card
8. saucers
9. jars

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

Look at birch trees. What do you see?   

 

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

What to do?

Step 1
Palce 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 and not down. 

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 your customer card in the paint. 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 som warm colors tempera + green on a saucer.  Stipple leaves at the top of the trees using the stipple brush. Do not mix the colors, but use several colors at the brush at the same time.  

Step 5

Hang up! 

Artworks are made by students of grade 1. 

Wire portrait like Alexander Calder

made by teacher Wouter 

During a study day on art education our teachers made portraits of wire. This can also be done in higher grades. If you want to make wire figures in lower grades, then choose a simpler shape, for example fruit/veggies or an animal. 

This activity can be done in a lesson about Alexander Calder, known for his wire portraits and mobiles. 

You need:

1. 3 meters wire thickness 1,3 mm
2. wire cutter
3. printed selfie 30 by 40 cm
4. black marker
5. painters tape

Take a picture of yourself and print it. 

Outline your face, eyes, nose, mouth and hair using the black marker. Turn the sheet over, the lines can be seen on the back of it now.  

Wrap 3 m of wire around your fingers into a bunch. 

Start at the neck. Lay the wire flat on the photo and follow the lines of your face. Try to lay out the portrait without cutting the wire. If this doesn't work out, you may smuggle by cutting the wire and go on with a new piece. Give the portrait more strength by doubling the wire on some places. Stick the wire now and then on the photo with painters tape. 

Finished? Remove the pieces of tape. Fix the places where wire comes up by making connections with small pieces of wire. See detail photo.  

outline photo with marker

turn over, marker lines have been pushed through

follow the outlines with wire, stick with tape

make stronger

artworks on the table

hang up for beautiful shadows on the wall   

Painting with scissors like Matisse

made by students of grade 4

You need per student:

1. 1 sheet white drawing paper
2. 1 sheet colored construction paper 
3. 1 sheet colored construction paper from which you cut 7 cm 
4. 1 sheet blue construction paper 
5. leftovers of colored paper
6. glue
7. scissors
8. black marker

Who is Matisse?

Matisse (1869 –1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was primarily known as a painter.

Matisse didn't care if stones were blue, he just chose the colors he liked. Some people thought is art was very ugly: someone who paints blue faces and green noses is a fool and Matisse was called 'Fauve', which means: wild. This is how the word Fauvism came into being for this art movement, art with bold colors. 

After a surgery Matisse spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He wasn't able to paint anymore, but could still paint with his scissors.

View various artworks of Matisse. 

Then few the artwork Oasis. What stands out? 

• no straigh lines 
• organic shapes
• bright colors
• What is an oasis and why is this artwork called so?  

How to make it 

Step 1

Take the two colored sheets: a whole one and one with 7 cm cut off. Paste the smaller sheet on the large one. The strip at the bottom is the table for the fishbowl. 

Step 2

Cut Matisse shapes and glue them on the small sheet. Let them fall of the sheet and cut away the outer pieces.

Step 3

Fold a white sheet in half on the long side and cut out a fishbowl. The center line of the bowl is the fold of the sheet. Trace around the bowl with a thick black marker.   

Step 4

Cut 'water' out of the blue sheet, slightly smaller than the bowl. Paste it in the bowl. Paste the bowl on the colored sheet with organic shapes. 

Step 5

Cut two or three fishes and some water plants and paste them in the bowl.

Elements of art: shape, color.