The birds of George Braque lesson 2

You need:

• blue construction paper 
• colored paper
• scissors
• glue

George Braque (1882-1962) was a French painter and sculptor. Together with Picasso he was founder of cubism.
After his cubist time Braque painted simplified figurative paintings of landscapes and still lifes with musical instruments and bottles. Remarkable are the letters and numbers Braque added to his works.
When Braque became ill, he was no longer able to paint. He turned to making color lithographs of simple bird silhouettes. The same birds that can also be seen in one of the ceiling paintings of the Louvre in Paris.

Look at the artwork Les oiseaux of George Braque.  

• simple shapes (silhouets)
• white outlines
• blue background
• geometrical shapes: stars and moon 

What should you do? 

1. Draw at least three silhouettes of birds on colored paper. 
2. Cut them. 
3. Cut geometrical shapes out of paper scraps. 
4. Paste everything on a blue sheet.  

Artworks made by students of grade 4.

Elements of art: shape, space.

Techniques: drawing, making a collage, cut and glue 

My collection from the sea

Before

After summer holiday it's fun to draw objects you found on the beach: shells, starfish, crabs etc.

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 
• aquarel pencils or watercolor paint
• brushes and water
• black paper
• scissors and glue
• black fine marker

What should you do?

1.  Divide the white sheet in four strips of 7 cm. 
2. Draw horizon lines in the strips. 
3. Draw things you may have found on the beach and sketch as lightly as possible. 
4. Color the shells with watercolor paint or aquarel pencils. Make shades by diluting the colors more or less. 
5. Paint the beach yellow/gold and the air light blue. 
6. Let dry.
7. Outline shells and horizon line with a fine black marker. 
8. Cut the four strips and paste them with 1 cm between on a black sheet.

Artworks made by students of grade 6. 

Sailboat regatta

What do you need?

• two sheets drawing paper
• sandpaper
• tempera paint in blue, green and white
• brush
• colored paper
• brown paper (grocery bag)
• glue
• large blue sheet

What should you do?

1. Spray blue, green and white paint on a saucer. 
2. Lay a sheet of white drawing paper on your table, small size up. Paint it with colored waves. Don't mix the colors on the saucer, but dip the brush in two or three colors. 
3. Let dry.
4. Take the second white sheet and lay it on the table with the small side up. Cut a piece of sandpaper as wide as the sheet and 8 cm high. 
5. Paste it on the bottom of the sheet.
6. Tear the painted sheet in wavy strips. Be sure all strips have two wavy sides. 
7. Place the strips overlapping on the white sheet. Start below. Place the second strip partly under the first one, the third under the second etc. Paste down the short sides of the waves only on the left and right side of your sheet.
8. Cut boats out of a brown paper bag; bigger ones below, smaller ones at the top (perspective). 
9. Cut masts out of the paper bag and sails out of colored paper. 
10. Paste the boats between the waves and paste the long sides of the waves at the same time. 
11. Paste sails and masts on the boats. 
12. Paste your artwork on a blue sheet. 

Artworks made by students of grade 4.

Sunglasses

What do you need?

• black construction paper 
• white drawing sheet
• color pencils or markers
• scissors
• glue
• silver and gold marker

What should you do?

1. Draw half sunglasses against the fold of a black sheet. 
2. Cut out. 
3. Draw a summer scene on the white sheet and color it. 
4. Put the glasses on it and slide until you see the best part. 
5. Paste the glasses on the drawing and cut them again. 
6. Decorate the glasses with gold or silver marker.

Made by students of grade 6. 

Still life with fruit

What do you need?

• corrugated cardboard
• scissors
  
• white drawing sheet
• tempera paint
• brush
• glue
• colored construction paper
• fruit

Instruction

Show still lifes of fruit in different styles, for example Caravaggio and Cezanne. How is the fruit arranged? Why at that way? Which parts are light and which parts are dark? What does that mean? Then provide each group of students with a bowl of different fruit types.

What should you do? 

1. Paint the fruits (no drawing first!) after a good observation. 
2. Cut a fruit bowl out of cardboard. 
3. Cut out the fruits with a small white edge. 
4. Stick them on a colored sheet and let them overlap. 
5. Stick the cardboard bowl. Some fruits will partly disappear in it. 

Artworks made by students of grade 3.

Elements of art: space, color, value. 

Collage of geometric and organic shapes

A lesson to explain organic and geometric shapes and practice cutting and pasting skills.

What do you need?

• black construction paper 18 by 18 cm
• four colored sheets 16 by 16 cm in different colours
• scissors
• glue
• left overs black construction paper

Instruction

A geometric shape is a regular shape. It has a name, like rectangle, circle or square.  An organic shape is a shape from nature. It has no name, it is irregular.

What should you do?

1. Choose four colored sheets and fold them in four quarters. 
2. Cut the folding lines to get 16 squares of 4 by 4 cm. 
3. Put 4 rows of 4 squares neatly against each other on the black sheet. 
4. Paste the squares. 
5. Cut a number of organic shapes out of black paper. 
6. Make a nice composition on the colored background and paste the shapes. 

Artworks made by students of grade 3/4.

Marvelous Medusa?

What do you need?

• black construction paper A3 size
• tempera paint in blue, green, black and white
• brushes
• jars with water

The myth about Medusa

Medusa, a woman from Greek mythology, lived in a country where the sun never shone. Medusa begged goddess Athena to be allowed to move to a sunny region, but Athena refused. Medusa told everywhere that Athena would not let her go, because otherwise no one would pay attention anymore to the beauty of Athena. In another version of the myth Medusa would have made Athena mad because she kissed Poseidon in Athena's temple. Athena took revenge by changing Medusa's beautiful hair into a nest of snakes. Athena also ensured that everyone who looked at Medusa would freeze immediately. Finally Medusa is killed and decapitated by Perseus, with help from Athena. From Medusa's blood the winged horse Pegasos and a giant are born. After this Medusa's head is offered by Perseus to Athena. Athena put the head on her shield to freeze her enemies.

What should you do?

1. Draw Medusa's head with a pencil on the black sheet.  
2. Choose only cool colors to paint face and snakes. 

Artworks made by students of grade 5 and 6.

Op art cube

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 21 by 29 cm
• pencil
• ruler
• markers
• scissors 
• glue

Give students a copied print of a cube or let them make their own. I did it with a guided instruction.

What do you need?

1. Lay the sheet in front of you with the small side up.
2. Draw dots on top and bottom of the sheet on 7 and 14 cm.
3. Connect the lines from top to bottom.
4. Draw dots on the left and right site of the sheet on 7, 14, 21 and 28 cm 

5. starting at the top of the sheet.

6. Connect the dots. You have 12 squares and 3 small rectangles on the bottom.

 

7. Number the squares from left to right. 
8. Draw a cross in square 1, 3, 4, 6, 10 en 12.

9. Draw strips of 1 cm on the sides of square 2 and 5. 

10. Draw strips on the 3 sides of square 11. 

11. Draw a cross in the remaining narrow strips at the bottom of the sheet. 

12. Draw optical illusions in square 2, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11. 

13. Color with markers and outline with fine black marker.

14. Cut the cube and paste the sides together. 

All artworks made by students of grade 6.