Letter doodling

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. black markers
5. colored markers or pencils 

Shot pictures of letter doodling and fonts - new and older ones. 

Discuss the pictures. Letters in those alphabets are a kind of family.  How can you see that? What can you say about the lines? Are they fat, thin, curvy or angular? What do you feel seeing those alphabets?

Draw a grid with your students (a lesson about using rulers is always a struggle!). In this lesson there are 2 inches between the lines and a half inch between the letters.

After drawing their grid, students design their own alphabet and trace them with markers.

Artworkds made by students of grade 5

Valentine - like Robert Indiana

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. water colour paint
3. brushes
4. fine black marker

A lesson about the famous LOVE sculpture of Robert Indiana. I used the Dutch word LIEF (meaning Nice, or I like you) 

Fold the sheet in four squares. Draw hearts in each part. Draw fat letters on the foreground. Fill letters and hearts with patterns and paint with water colour paint. Outline with fine black marker. 

Blogwriter in NY!

Comics like Roy Lichtenstein

 

Artworks are made by students of grade 3

A lesson based on a lesson from Phyl's site, There's a dragon in my artroom, but instead of painting I decided to choose for collage. Check out Phyl's site for the paintings!

You need:

1. coloured paper A4 size
2. white drawing sheet A4 size
3. newspaper
4. ruler and pencil
5. glue
6. crayons
7. glitter
8. colour markers

Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997) was an American popart artist. He is best known for his enormously enlarged cartoons. After his art studies in New York and Columbus Liechtenstein teached art himself. In his spare time he painted abstract paintings and made parodies of American art from the twenties. In1960 he came into contact with Claes Oldenburg and the style elements from advertising and comic strips. He started to use use grids, dots, black outlines and bright colours, the style who made him famous. From 1962 Lichtenstein used the works of Monet, Picasso and Mondrian as the inspiration for his art and he paints sunsets in their style. Most of his work however is based on advertisements and cartoons.

Show artwork of Liechtenstein on the digital board and discuss the characteristics: primary colours sometimes with green, text balloons, raster dots as we know from newspaper photographs and thick black outlines. Show comic balloons from Lichtenstein and discuss them.

In this lesson students create a comic balloon like Lichtenstein did. Choose for a basic form, a star or cloud. See my 'how to draw a star step by step' below.
Cut this or cloud out of coloured paper. Cut another cloud or star from a newspaper. Draw an action word on the white sheet and colour with markers. Cut this word. Create composition and paste the parts of the artwork. Draw action stripes with black crayon or use glitter.

How to draw a star:

1. Draw a circle.
2. Draw lines from the edges to the circle, using pencil and ruler. See the black lines in the picture.

3. Draw lines from the same places but make them diagonal. See the red lines in the picture.

4. Cut the parts between the triangles, the blue pieces in the picture.

Outstanding name

By Vincent, grade 3

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A5 size
2. waterproof black marker
3. colour markers
4. black fine marker

Every year we make a birthday calendar in the classroom. For the calendar of this year, we used this lesson. The drawings were pasted on a coloured sheet with the date of the anniversary of the student.

Write your name in elegant letters with a black waterproof marker on a white sheet. Outline the letters with markers in different colors. Divide the background into pieces, by drawing lines from top to bottom and from left to right. Fill out the individual surfaces with patterns drawn with a black fine marker. Make sure that your name really stands out!

Awesome alphabet

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing paper A6 size (postcard)
2. markers
3. fine black marker
4. black cardboard
5. glue

Arrange which students makes which letter of the alphabet. The I and J have to be drawn on one sheet, to make a group work of five by five drawings. Each student draws one big letter, with about 1 cm free space around. Colour the letter as you like, using patterns. Colour the background as well. Outline the letter and the details with a fine black marker. Make sure the letter 'pops up' from the background, by choosing different colours and patterns. Paste all letters on a big black cardboard, five by five with 2 cm space between them.

Group work 'Awesome alphabet'

Learning letters

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brushes
5. jar with water

Draw a 5 cm grid and copy it on drawing sheets. Give every student a grid sheet. Students use crayons to write big handwriting letters in the squares. Trace the lines of the squares with crayon too using one colour. Paint the squares with liquid watercolour.

In Holland we call those letters 'lusletters', 'letters with loops' if I translate is. The first letters children learn, at the same time as they start learning to read, are called 'blokletters'. Block letters?

How do you call those letters? Blockletters? Writing letters? Who can help me?

Calligram

Our Dutch calligrams; do you recognize the meaning?

You need:

1. drawing sheet A6 size (postcard size)
2. pencil
3. fine black marker

A calligram is a phrase or word in which the typeface, calligraphy or handwriting is arranged in a way that creates a visual image. The image created by the words expresses visually what the word or words say.

Show some calligrams on the smartboard. Discuss them with the students. How was the calligram made? What word(s) do you see? What kind if image is it? Students choose something they want to draw. With a pencil they draw the outlines of it on a sheet. Using a fine marker they write their drawing full with the words that belong to it. Erase the pencil lines when the ink has dried. There are two ways to do it: fill the drawing completely with words, or write the words only on the outlines of the drawing.

Sometimes it is better, and/or nicer, to colour your calligrams. In the example above, the food calligram, you won't probably recognize the food on the plate. With some colour (colour pencils) it is clear! The butterfly is coloured with coloured ink.

Word art

You need:

1. drawing sheet A6 size
2. colour pencils or markers
3. black fine marker

Each student selects a words to illustrate. The design for the word must reflect what the word represents. Someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word, has to understand what it means by looking at the design of it.

Use colour pencils or markers to colour the letters of the word. Use a fine black marker to outline the letters.

Well: although you don't know the meaning of the Dutch words in the examples my students made, you'll know what they mean thanks to the design! If not, they did a bad job?

Made by students of 11-12 years old

Name tag - like Paul Klee

You need:

1. white drawing sheet, 15 by 21 cm (A5 size)
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. eraser
5. markers

This is a great lesson for the beginning of the school: a name tag in the style of painter Paul Klee. This drawing can also be used for the birthday calendar that each group makes at the beginning of the school year.

Paul Klee

Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) is a German/Swiss painter. His work belongs to the 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 he 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 many subjects : 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)

Lesson

Show some artworks of Paul Klee and discuss them. What do you see? Wat zie je? What does strike you? Show finally the work 'Blue Night' and discuss this. Is this like the other works you 've seen? Do you recognize the painting style? What colours are used in Blue Night? How do we call those colours? Students have to make a drawing in Paul Klee style. Divide the sheets of paper. The sheet must be up with the short side. Using a gray pencil and ruler students divide the sheet into three strips of 5 to 21 cm.

Starting top left, write the first letter of your name in capital. The letter must be 5 cm high and touch the first line and the side and top of the sheet. Write the second letter. Be sure the second letter hits the first one, as well as the writing line and the top of the sheet. Do the same with the rest of the letters of your name. If you're ready with your name, start over again.

Writing lines are pink in this example. Click to enlarge.

Proceed on the second line and make sure the letters touch the top of the first line. The third line goes the same way, but the letters should touch the bottom of the sheet and the letters on the second line. See example above. Use an eraser to remove the writing lines. Beware: the letters must stay! So: with an E the bottom line is part of the letter, and should therefore not be erased.

The writing lines are erased. Click to enlarge.

Choose four colours markers. Colour the white spots who are completely surrounded by lines. This might be small spots from the letters, but they could be tall as well because of open letters. Make sure won't get twice the same color side by side. You can prevent this by colouring from top to bottom or from left to right. Choose cool colours just like Klee, or let the kids choose themselves. Just four colours!

Four colours. Example is made with Paintshop. Click to enlarge.

When it is finished, outline with a thick marker. In this example is chosen for silver, because it fits well with the cold colours of the work. To make a birthday calendar for the class, the work has to be pasted on a calendar sheet. This can be drawn, but can also be made on the computer as shown below.

Special skeletons?

Made by children of 10-11 years old

You need:

1. white copy paper A4 size
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. cutter
4. cutting mat
5. glue
6. scissors

Fold the paper in half lengthways. Write your name in bubbly letters against the fold. Then cut carefully around the outsides of the name. Keep the paper folded at all times. Use a cutter for the negative areas. When finished, unfold the paper to reveal the name in reverse. Paste the name on a black paper. Dan knippen ze de naam uit - pas op dat je de vouw niet doorknipt--, vouwen de dubbele naam open en plakken deze op een zwart vel papier. Turn the sheet a quarter. What do you see? A special skeleton? You name in Chinese? Or an alien?

Help, my name disappears!

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. ruler
3. compasses
4. markers

In this lesson one point perspective is combined with an optical illusion.

Place the paper horizontally. Draw a small dot on the right side of the sheet, about half way. Take a ruler and draw five lines from the dot to the left side of the sheet.Draw five lines from the dot to the top of the paper and five lines to the bottom. Use a compass to draw increasing circles around the dot until the sheet is full. Draw your name in blockletters between the lines; use the width of three blocks. Make the letters threedimensional by drawing shadows on the left sides and undersides. Colour the front of the letters. Colour the shadows with a darker colour. Colour the blocks alternately with two colours, like a checker board. You may also use one colour and leave the resting blocks white. Outline the letters with a fine marker to be sure letters will really pop out of the sheet.

Seeking the name

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. colour pencils or markers
4. black fine marker

With this project kids learn about radial design as well as symmetry. First fold the paper so you have eight equal triangles. Then write your name in bubble letters inside one triangle. Be sure to touch the top and bottom of the triangle. Outline the name with a black marker. Go to the window and trace the name with pencil in the seven resting sections. Outline the names with black marker. Colour the letters and spaces between them. You can do this in different ways: the letters with colour markers and the negative spaces with colour pencils (see example below), or negative and positive spaces both with markers (see example above). When ready, you've made an incredible symmetrical design! Seeing the name inside the drawing is very difficult ... you have to seek it!

Made by Danjel, 12 years old

Famous name

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. black marker
3. wasco crayons
4. black sheet for background

Write your name with a black marker several times on a white sheet. Upside down, from the top to the bottom, it doesn't matter. Write your names disorderly, taking care the letters will mix up.

When your sheet is full enough, choose a couple of colours you like. Colour just the white spots who are completely surrounded by black lines. This might be small spots from the letters, but they could be tall as well because they are between the names.

Glue your work on a black background.

Your name in a frame

You need:

1. white sheet
2. black marker
3. wasco crayons
4. black construction paper for background

Another fun idea with your own name!

Draw four diagonal lines on your white sheet to make five compartments. Use capital letters to write your name in the compartments, and take there that the upper and bottom side of the letters will touch the lines.

Colour the letters with a black marker. Colour the compartments with crayons. Glue your drawing on a black sheet.

Radial name design

You need:

• white drawing sheet from 21 cm by 21 cm
• black marker
• black fineliner
• black or coloured construction paper for background

There are many fun things to do with your own name! Draw a spot in the middle of the sheet (use a ruler!) and draw an even amount of lines to the sides of the sheet. In the example are ten lines, producing nine compartments. Write your name in capitals within a compartment, while the bottom and upper side of the characters reach the lines. Colour the characters with a black marker.

Then write your name with a fineliner as often as you can in small characters in the next compartment. You may write horizontally of diagonally, as you wish. You can even write in squares.

Fill the compartments alternate with big and small names. If you like it, you can colour the compartments with the big names with wasco crayons.

Graffiti

Juf Lisette is the maker of this lesson! You need:

1. Grey drawing sheet
2. Wasco
3. White drawing paper
4. Felt pens
5. Scissors, glue

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted. All children get a grey sheet and some white sheets. To get a wall texture, use wall bricks to scratch over with wasco crayons. Cut those bricks and glue them on the grey paper sheet.

Design your own name in graffiti characters and colour it with felt pens. Cut it out and glue it on your brick wall. Of course children can choose for a slogan of a pop artist instead of their name.

Graffiti, made by children from 10-11 years old