Personal portfolio

Personal portfolio, made by a student of 12 years old

You need:

1. portfolio
2. white drawing sheet A4 size
3. pencil
4. eraser
5. compass
6. coloured ink
7. straw
8. scissors
9. glue
10. coloured paper
11. markers
12. fine waterproof black marker
13. split pin

In Holland children go to highschool at the age of 12. Our elementary school is for children aged 4 - 12 years old. At the end of the 8th group, children of our school get their own portfolio with drawings they made that last year. The portfolio's are bought by the school. Of course, the dull gray folders must become personal portfolio's. In the context of the coming up farewell of elementary school, we have therefore made a sort of remembrance medal. Take a white drawing sheet, a straw and coloured ink. , een rietje en enkele kleurtjes lichte ecoline. Drop some ink on the sheet and blow it with a straw. Repeat with other colours and leave it to dry.

Put the sheet on a newspaper. Determine the middle of the sheet and put a compass in it. Draw concentrich circles with the compass with one centimeter space between them. Make a sprial of these circles, using a pencil and an eraser. Erase a little part of circle 1 and draw a connecting line towards circle 2. Do the same with the other circles and finish the spiral.

Write with a permanent black fine marker words in the spiral that make you think of the elementary school period. Think of courses, activities, teachers, classmates, fun and less good things. Write until the spiral is full.

Detail spiral

Cut the spiral. Draw a circle on coloured paper that is 2 cm larger than the spiral and cut it out too. Use scissors to prick a little hole in the spiral, the coloured circle and the portfolio map. Fasten the two circles with a split pin onto the map. Decorate the folder with pieces of paper or little drawings, and don't forget to write or paste your name on it with big letters! You may use the rest of the ink sheet for the letters.

Connected fish

You need:

1. drawing paper A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. black fine maker
4. waterpaint
5. brushes

This task seemed easier than it was ... :) Draw some simple fish, consisting of only a body and tail. See example. Some fish must overlap. Then the contour lines of the fish have to be widened to one cm. Draw and erase the overlapping fish to make the lines go up and down. Colour the contour lines firmly and colour the inside of the fish lightly with the same colour. Draw patterns with a fineliner. Paint the background with dilluted waterpaint. You may also cut out the fish. Create a sea landscape on a blue sheet and paste the fish between water plants.

Made by students of 11 years old

Summertime sorbet

You need:

1. coloured paper A4 size for background
2. magazines
3. aluminum foil
4. colour pencils
5. cookie
6. straw
7. scissors
8. glue

Make a collage of a delicious sorbet! Cut fruit from magazines, draw and colour icecream, cut a nice glass for your sorbet and finish your artwork with a straw and a cookie!

Butterflies in the style of Peter Callesen

You need:

1. white copypaper (80 grams) A4 size
2. coloured paper for background
3. pencil
4. cutter
5. cutting mat
6. glue

Peter Callesen (born in 1967) is a Danish artists who cuts artworks out of simple white sheets of copypaper. He uses the two-dimensional paper with three-dimensional shapes. This 3D shapes pop up from the sheet of or fall out. He doesn't add anything, just uses the plain sheet. The three-dimensional figures who seem to appear, are made from the same background.

Look at pictures of Callesen's work on his website www.petercallesen.com and discuss them with the students. See especially the work 'Hunting', on which you see a butterfly and a spider popping up from the paper. Discuss how this butterfly is attached to the background. Are there other possibilities for the butterfly to come out of the paper? The body may be stuck, but also part of a wing. By using different ways, you get variety in your work.

Detail: butterfly whose body still stuck.

The children scetch a small number of butterflies on their white sheet. Let them not draw intricate wings, because the animals must be cut out and that is hard enough! put double lines on the places that are not to be cut. Choose different options for the butterflies: let the body be stuck, or the the lower wings.

Cut the paper butterflies carefully. Take care that your specified 'fixed' parts are not to be cut. Paste the work on a coloured background, but do not glue behind the butterfly. Fold the butterfly wings something up, to be sure they are free of the paper and the background is clearly visible.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Op art in complementary colours

You need:

1. drawing paper 14 by 14 cm
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. piece of cardboard, 6 by cm
5. markers
6. black paper for background
7. scissors
8. glue

Check during the introduction of this lesson what students already know about primary and secundary colours. What are the primary colours? How do you make secondary colours out of them?

Show a picture of the colour circle and tell about complementary colours: the colours who are opposite to eachother in the colour circle. Blue and orange, yellow and purple, greed and red.

Divide the drawing sheet in four squares of 7 by 7 cm. Cut a shape from a piece of cardboard and trace it four times in the squares. Draw vertical lines with a pencil with 1 cm between them. Colour the shapes and backgrounds like a checkerboard with complementary colours and one in black and white. Cut the squares and paste them on a black sheet.

Colourful chicken

Made by Danjel, 12 years old

You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. oil pastel
3. tempera
4. brushes
5. coloured paper for background

Children draw a horizon line on their paper. Then they draw a big chicken, partly below the horizon. They have to colour it with oil pastels in bright colours. Paint the background with diluted tempera paint.

Comic strip hero

You need:

1. picture of a comic hero on A6 size
2. drawing paper A3 size
3. ruler
4. pencil
5. markers or colour pencils
6. scissors and glue
7. coloured paper for background

Ask kids to bring a picture of their favorite comic strip hero. Bring it back or enlarge it to A6 size on a copier. Create a 1 cm on the picture using a ruler and a pencil. Number each square starting across the top from the left corner.

Draw a 2 cm grid on the large drawing sheet. Number in the same fashion all the squares. Begin drawing the line created by the picture in each square. Sometimes it helps to go over the outline of the head with a pencil so you can see the line clearly. As you do this the head will begin to show up as an exact copy of the picture. Finish the drawing this way. Use colour pencils or markers to colour it. Outline everything with a black marker.

All works are made by children of 10-11 years old

In the style of Georgia O'Keeffe

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. wood glue
3. oil pastels

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 - 1986) was an American painter. O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920's. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes. O'Keeffe played a central role in bringing an American art style to Europe at a time when the majority of influence flowed in the opposite direction. She found artistic inspiration in the rural Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, where she settled late in life. In Santa Fe (New Mexico) is a special museum devoted to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Show paintings of O'Keeffe on the digital board. Discuss the remarkable things: fullscreen flowers, often painted over the edges, vivid colours and painted realistic. Watch how O'Keeffe denounced colours and shades in her work.

Children get a piece of black construction paper. They scetch a big flower with a pencil. The petals may be drawn over the edge. When ready, trace the lines with wood glue (clear drying). Wait until the glue has dried, and colour the flowers and background with oilpastels. Use different colours to make shades in the petals and the heart of the flower.

Dutch flower bulb fields

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 20 by 10 cm
2. markers
3. fine black marker
4. ruler
5. 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's sandy coastal plain becomes a sprawling blanket of fantastic color as millions of Dutch tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs emerge in perfect rows. Show the kids pictures of these fields like these. Google on 'bollenveld'.

Draw a horzion line about 2 cm from the upper edge. Put a dot in the middle of this line, the vanishing point. Draw lines from the bottom and sides towards that vanishing point. Colour the bulb fields with bright colours. Colour walkways between the bulb fields. Colour the sky. Draw with a black fineliner some buildings on the horizon, like farms, windmills etc.

Hidden butterflies

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size tempera paint
2. brushes jar with water
3. paper towels
4. glue
5. scissors

Divide the paper with small stripes in different sections. Colour the sections with mixed colours using two different colours tempera and white. In the example is chosen for red and blue and white, resulting in different tints of purple and pink. Do not dilute the paint, to be sure to get bright colours.

Fold a second drawing sheet and draw one or more butterflies against the fold. Cut these butterflies. Paint them in the same colours as the background, leaving an edge from 1 cm white. When dry, paint white stripes around the body of the butterfly and around the decorations.

Paste the background on a larger piece of white paper. Then paste the butterflies. Paste only the body and fold the wings a bit up for a 3d effect.

Made by children of 10 years old