The birds of George Braque lesson 1

This is lesson one about George Braque. Click here for the second lesson. 

What do you need?

• large white drawing sheet 
• smalle white drawing sheet 
• linoleum*
• lino knife*
• lino press
• lino roller
• tempera paint
• brushes
• scissors and glue

* or choose to make a foamprint

About the artist

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 landscapes and still lifes with musical instruments and bottles. Remarkable are the letters and nummers he added to his works.
When Braque became ill, 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.

About his artworks

View the lithographs of birds and discuss the artwork:

• simple shapes (silhouettes) 
• background is often blue
• few colors in the artwork
• birds are black or white
• birds are painted or printed 

What should you do? 

1. Draw a silhouette of a bird on the small sheet.
2. Copy it to the linoleum. 
3. Cut away the background to make the bird stand out. 
4. Paint or stamp a background on the large sheet. 
5. Make some prints of the bird in black and/or white and let dry. Be sure to get birds in several color nuances by not rolling the lino every time.
6. Cut the printed birds and paste them on the background.

Elements of art: form, space, nuance, color

Techniques: printing, painting, cut&glue

Artworks made by students of grade 5. 

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?

1. two sheets drawing paper
2. sandpaper
3. tempera paint in blue, green and white
4. brush
5. colored paper
6. brown paper (grocery bag)
7. glue
8. 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.

Dutch flower bulb fields

What do you need?

• drawing sheet 20 by 10 cm
• color markers
• fine black marker
• ruler
• pencil

Situated less than 30 miles from Amsterdam, the town of Lisse is widely regarded as the center of Holland's bulb district. Each spring the area turn into a sprawling blanket of fantastic color as millions of Dutch tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs emerge in perfect rows. 

Show pictures of Dutch bulb fields like these and talk about perspective. 

What should you do?

1. Draw a horizon line about 2 cm from the upper edge. 
2. Put a dot in the middle of this line, the vanishing point. 
3. Draw lines from the bottom and sides towards that vanishing point.
4. Color the bulb fields with bright colours. 
5. Color walkways between the bulb fields. 
6. Color the sky. 
7. Draw with a fine black marker some buildings on the horizon, like farms, windmills etc.

Artworks made by students of grade 4. 

Self portrait like Modigliani

About the artist

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (1884-1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor. Modigliani's paintings fall under Expressionism. He painted nudes and highly stylized portraits. He painted long, oval faces with elongated necks and long limbs, giving the characters a melancholy mood. The skin is often rusty and all forms are outlined. Eyes, noses and mouths are not on the 'right' place, but still offer a balanced and credible image.

Instruction  
Look at Modigliani's paintings with the students and discuss the salient features:

• faces are elongated
• faces are often skewed
• use of warm colors
• all shapes are outlined in black

What do you need?

• black construction paper A4
• oil pastels
• colored paper for background

What should you do you?

1. Divide the black sheet into 8 sections. 
2. Draw an oval, starting at the middle line to slightly above the center of the top section. 
3. Draw a neck from the head to the middle bottom section.
4. Draw shoulders, eyes, nose and mouth. 
5. Trace pencil lines with black oil pastel. 
6. Color the portrait with oil pastels. Do not touch the black lines. 
7. Color the background until you don't see any black. 
8. Paste the work on a colored sheet.

Artworks made by students of grade 4-6.

Half chicken

In this lesson students draw one chicken together. 

What do you need? 

• drawing sheet 
• oil pastels
• blue liquid water color
• brush
• jar with water

What should you do? 

1. Fold a sheet in half.
2. Draw  half a chicken against the fold. 
3. Color with oil pastels. 
4. Draw with white oil pastel one or more eggs. 
5. Mark with two little lines the places where your classmate has to connect and draw a mark for the hight of the horizon line.
6. Give the sheet folded to your classmate; be sure he doesn't see your drawing. Tell him whether he should draw a head or a body. 
7. When your classmate is ready, unfold the sheet. Hilarious!
8. Paint the whole drawing with blue water color paint and lots of water. The oil pastels will resist the water.

Artworks made by students of grade 3.

Fancy chicken

 What do you need?

• drawing sheet A3 
• oil pastels
• tempera paint
• brushes
• colored paper for background 

What should you do?

1. Draw a horizon line on the drawing sheet. 
2. Draw a chicken.
3. Color with oil pastels in bright colors. 
4. Paint a background with tempera paint.

Works of art made  by students of grade 6.

What's in your egg?

 

What do you need?

1. white drawing sheet A5 
2. charcoal
3. yellow sheet for background 
4. hairspray

Surprise!
Imagine you crack your egg on Easter Sunday and it turns out to contain something completely different than egg white and egg yolk ... Draw this fantasy with charcoal on a white sheet. 

Practice first 
Never worked with charcoal? Then practice on a scrap paper first. 

Draw lines, blur them by swiping with your fingers, create shadows, erase the charcoal with a kneaded eraser. Charcoal stains quickly, so clean your  fingers regularly.

What should you do?

1. Draw two halves of an egg. 
2. Draw in between what you imagine is in the egg.  
3. Draw the surrounding. 
4. Fix your drawing with hairspray. 
5. Paste the drawing on a yellow sheet. 

Made by students of grade 3.

Charming chicken

What do you need?

• blue and yellow construction 
• oil pastels
• glue

What should you do?

1. Draw a chicken on the blue sheet, using the tutorial on How to draw a chicken. 
2. Color in bright colours. 
3. Draw a horizon line and color the ground. 
4. Draw something on the horizon line, for example a fence or farm. 
5. Tear the edges of the blue sheet and paste the chicken on a yellow sheet. 

Drawings made by students of grade 6.

April showers will bring us flowers

What do you need?

1. white drawing sheet
2. water color paint
3. ruler
4. white crayon 
5. paint brush
6. water

Before

Dutch weather in spring is a weather type with showers, alternated with sunny periods. We call those typical spring showers 'Maartse buien' (March Showers), while English meteorologists speak about 'April showers who bring us flowers'. 

In this lesson students have to draw spring flowers (tulips, daffodils etc.) during a rain shower.

 
What should you do?

1. Sketch some spring flowers on a white sheet. Make sure your lines are extremely thin. 
2. Draw vertical lines with one centimeter between them using a ruler and a white crayon. Make sure your crayon has a sharp point. 
3. Paint your drawing with diluted watercolor paint. Use a lot of water to make bright colors. The crayon will resist the water paint, so your shower will be very clear!

Athletes in motion

What do you need?

• colored construction paper
• white drawing sheet 
• paperclips
• scissors
• cutting mat and cutting knife
• glue
• marker
• printed silhouette of an athlete 
  
  

What should you do?

1. Put three colored sheets together with the printed athlete on top. Fix with paper clips. 
2. Cut out the athlete and the colored sheets at the same time. Keep moving the paperclips to be sure the four sheets stay together. Use a cutting knife for areas the scissors can't reach.
3. Make a composition that suggests movement and stick the athletes on the white sheet. 
4. Use a marker to fill the background with patterns. 

Artworks made by students of grade 6.

Thanks to A faithfull attempt for this great lesson.