Moon behind tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. charcoal
3. chalk pastels 
4. indian ink
5. brush 

Use a saucer to draw a moon in the center of the sheet. Colour it with yellow chalk pastel. Colour the rest of the sheet grey using charcoal: around the moon it's brighter than further away.
Draw a branch and paint it with Indian ink.

Happy monsters

You need:

1. drawing sheets A3 size
2. markers
3. tempera paint

Draw happy monsters! Not the scary types, but the nice ones with big eyes. Color with markers, background with tempera. Outline with black marker.

Made by students of grade 6

Oscar the Octopus

You need:

1. drawing sheet A2 size
2. oilpastels
3. liquid watercolor paint
4. jar with water
5. brushes
6. salt

After a story about Oscar the Octopus and viewing some pictures of squids, students draw a squid in the sea. Big head, big eyes at the bottom of the head, eight tentacles that go over and under each other. These things should be seen in the drawing.

Color with oil pastels and draw patterns. Be sure the tentacles are going over and under each other - this has to be seen in the patterns.  Outline when necessary with a dark color.

Drip some liquid water color on the background after you made it wet. Sprinkle salt  for a great 'watery' effect.

All artworks are made by students of grade 3

Japanese notans

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white paper 20 by 20 cm
2. black paper 10 by 10 cm
3. scissors
4. glue
5. cutter and cutting mat

Show pictures of notans  -  there are symmetrical notans, and also non symmetrical. Some notans are abstract, others are figurative.

Discuss the pictures with the students.
What stands out? Is there symmetry in the picture or not? Is the artwork abstract or figurative? Is there harmony in this notan?

Students make their own notan: figurative or abstract. There shouldn't remain any paper!

Patterned peacock

Artworks made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. color pencils
3. markers
4. colored construction paper
5. glue

Draw a small peacock on the bottom of the white sheet. Draw lines from peacock to the sides and top of the sheet. Color patterns with color pencils or markers or a combination of them. Outline peacock and 'feathers' with a black marker.
Cut the peacock (look at the pictures) and paste it on a colored sheet.

Fruit in complementary colors

You need:

1. white sheets 20 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. oilpastels
5. watercolor paint
6. brushes
7. jar with water

This lesson is originally from Miriam Paternoster's fantastic art lesson website: Arteascuola. 
Follow the link for a description of this lesson and be sure to look around there for more great art lessons!

By students of grade 4

Funny houses like James Rizzi

Made by Kalen, grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. crayons 
3. liquid watercolor paint
4. brushes
5. jars with water 

James Rizzi was born in 1950 in Brooklyn. He studied art in Florida, where he started experimenting with printing, painting and sculpting. Rizzi’s work often shows his birthplace New York. His paintings look sometimes childishly naive, with the bright colors and brilliant gaiety. In the art press Rizzi is often described as "Urban Primitive Artist '. Rizzi himself says he is influenced by Picasso, Klee and Dubuffet.

Made bij Jade, grade 4

Show some paintings of Rizzi and discuss the characteristics:

• bright colours
• no gradations within colours
• evertything is outlined with black
• houses have human faces/characteristics
• the artwork is full and busy
• background is full too

Students use a dark color crayon to draw a house in Rizzi style, a house with human characteristics like hair, mouth, eyes etc. 
Paint with liquid water color paint.

Printing African animals

You need:

1. styrofoam
2. pencil
3. block printing ink
4. paint roller
5. flat piece of plexiglass
6. coloured paper

Explain the principle of printing. Why is it that people started to print texts and pictures?

Draw an African animal with a pencil on the styrofoam. Press to get a print in the foam. Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet.
Put the styrofoam on a newspaper. Roll one colour ink onto the foam, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay a sheet on top of foam and press with a flat hand. Take away the sheet and your print is ready. Let dry and cut it with about 1 cm around. Paste one or more prints on a white sheet. 

 

All artworks made by students of grade 6

Bogolan - African mudcloths

Made by two students of grade 6

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. tempera paint in brown, white and gold
3. brushes

Bogolan means: made from mud. A bogolan is a handmade Malian cotton fabric traditionally dyed with mud. It has an important place in traditional Malian culture. The cloths is nowadays being exported wordwide for use in fashion, fine art and decoration. 

Show this educational movie about bogolans. After this, show some pictures of bogolans and discuss colours, patterns and symbols. 

Students have to word in pairs this lesson. Two students get their own black sheet, but have to make one bogolan together - the sheets will be stuck together when finished. So they have to come to agreeements about colours, patterns and symbols. 

Popsicles

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

• water colour paint
• drawing sheet 25 x 25 cm
• brush
• white crayon
• jarswith water

Dras six popsicles with a white crayon on a white sheet. Paint them with watercolour paint. Paint the background blue, leaving an edge from about 2 cm white.

Still life fruit

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. acrylic paint 
2. canvas
3. brushes
4. bowl with fruit

Talk about still life paintings and show some artworks from famous still life painters. 

Tell students it's all about composition and colour. 

Place a bowl filled with fruit on a table. Students paint this bowl on their canvas. 

Halloween cat and window

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. liquid water colour paint 
3. brush
4. black construction paper 
5. cutting knife and mat
6. glue
7. black marker 
8. white chalk pastel
9. carbon paper
10. pattern

Paint a white sheet with yellow and orange liquid water colour paint. Enlarge the pattern and trace it on the black sheet using carbon paper. Put a cross in the parts that have to been cut. Cut the pattern and paste it on the coloured sheet.

Draw Halloween details with black marker. Use the white chalk pastel for details on the black paper. 

Source: halloweenwitchesflyinmachine.blogspot.nl/

Johooo a dodo!!

Made by Neil, one of my students, who is very interested in the Mauritian dodo's.
He used markers and colour pencils  for this artwork. Thanks Neil!

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet 21 by 27 cm 
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. colour pencils
5. fine black marker 

Draw a grid from 3 by 3 cm. Trace a sourcer for a circle. Draw a tree and be sure the branches are within the cirle. Draw patterns in the the tree using a fine black marker. Colour the squares in the circle in warm colours, the squares outside the circle in cool colours. Be sure the difference between under and above the horizon line is visible.

Source: Tiny Artroom. 

Autumn birches

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. masking tape
3. tempera 
4. stippling brushes
5. charcoal
6. chalk pastel 

See photos of birch trees and discuss the salient feautures : the long white stem, the gray black lines as a result of the horizontal peeling the bark, the many autumn colours of the leaves. Talk about the colours of the leaves on the floor: in front uou see a lot of different colours, and looking further away they merge into one colour.

Explain how to work with a stippling brush: no mixing colors, but put the brush in several colours at once and then stamp lightly. 

Paste from above a number of strips of masking tape on the sheet in various lengths. Draw a horizon line. Stamp the bottom in several autumn colours, merging into one colour near the horizon line. Stamp the remaining leaves in the trees. There may be green there too! Leave the artwork to dry and then colour the sky with chalk pastel. Pull the masking tape off carefully . Draw with charcoal the specific birch dashes .

The man with the big mouth - Paul Klee

Made by a student of grade 3

Benodigdheden:

1. drawing sheet A2 size
2. brushes
3. tempera paint
4. pencil
5. black marker
6. scissors
7. glue
8. coloured wallpaper

Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) is a German/Swiss painter. His work belongs to modern art. Klee developed mainly as an autodidact and left more than 9000 artworks. In 1912 he saw the work of Picasso and Malevich and met Robert Delaunay, who believed colour is the most important element in a painting. After a trip to Tunisia in 1914 Klee started to paint more colorful and abstract. He painted landscapes, portraits, animals, mythology, mysterious machines. In his work he combined abstract and figurative shapes. Klee 's work cannot be described in one single word. Surrealism, cubism, abstraction are terms which are applicable to his paintings. He is classified by expressionism. (Source: Wikipedia)

Show the painting 'The man with the big mouth' on the digital board. Write 'yes' on the left and 'no' on the rigth. Type the following sentences on the board:

• He has a big mouth
• His nose is exactly as long as his chin
• He has curls
• He can smell good
• He is afraid
• His nose looks like a knife
• The eyes are blue
• He doesn't seem nice
• He looks pissed off
• He has no ears
• He has white teeth
• His face is composed of puzzle pieces
• The colours are bleak
• I only see bright colors

Have students drag the sentences one by one to the right spot.

The students draw a face from the side. The nose has to be as long as the chin. Draw two eyes. Divide the face in surfaces. Colour each part with tempera using only mixed colours just like Paul Klee did. Only the eyes should be painted in clear blue.
Wait until the work is dry and outline all color patches with a black marker. Cut and paste the artwork on a coloured piece of wallpaper.

This project was done in grade 3/4. For higher grades: draw the face with only one line, so without lifting the pencil.

 Door Zahra, groep 5

Source : Paul Klee voor kinderen, by Birgit Brandenburg 

One colour city - group work like Alisa Burke

You need:

1. drawing sheet A1 size
2. drawing sheets 10 by 20 cm (A4 size cut in three) 
3. various colouring materials: crayons, oilpastel, colour pencils, watercolour paint, markers, tempera etc. 
4. fine black marker 
5. liquid water colour paint 
6. big brush
7. scissors
8. glue

An artwork I came across on Pinterest from Alisa Burke was the inspirations for this lesson. Show Burke's work and discuss it: all houses in the same colour, windows are white, everything is outlined with black marker, houses uizen hebben één kleur, de ramen zijn wit, alles is zwart omrand, the houses aren't just next to each other but behind each other and (overlap). That means you cannot see the bottom of the houses that are not on the first row. 

Students form groups of four and discuss together the colour they'll choose. One of the students paints the background: use white crayon to draw stars or clouds and then paint the entire sheet with with liquid watercolor. Leave about one inch white along the edges.

On the smaller sheets students draw high houses, with windows and doors and decorations. Colour with the material of you choice. Outline the house and windows with black fineliner and cut it out. Be sure the group draw together about 15 houses.
Lay the painted houses on the large sheet to get a beautiful collage. Note that you do not see undersides of the houses that are not in the front row.

Made by students of grade 5/6

Eyecatcher

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. colour pencils

See each other's eyes. What components does an eye have? How is the shape of an eye? What colours do you see in the iris? How can you do this in a drawing? What is characteristic for the pupil? How can you draw the highlight in the eyes? 

See videos on YouTube, How to draw an eye / How to draw eyes.

Kids drawing one eye and colour it in with colour pencil. Wipe the colors with your fingers to mix them. Accents can be applied with a black fineliner. 

Artworks are made by students of grade 7. 

Thanks to Anne Steenbergen.

Design your own stamp

You need:

1. coloured cardboard for stamp 
2. white sheet for the jagged edges 
3. coloured paper 

Show everal stamps on the digital board. How do you know these are stamps? What should be on a postage stamp?

The goal is: design your own stamp. Be sure your stamp contains your name and the value of the stamp. For the rest it should be about yourself, for exampe with a picture of your hobby or favorite food.

Think of the jagged edges! Everything has to be made out of paper, so do not draw on your stamp!

This lesson was made and given by my daughter Anne Steenbergen in grade 7.

Shout it out, like Anwy Warhol

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. coloured paper 10 by 10 cm, four different colours
2. crayons
3. scissors 
4. glue

Talk about Andy Warhol and his art. Show his artworks and discuss them. What is typical for Warhol?

Draw four identical mouths and colour them with crayons in the same colours as the four sheets.