Swimmer - like David Hockney

I found this terrific lesson on the blog 'Use your coloured pencils' of Anne Farrell. I used this lesson to tell about artist David Hockney and his swimming pool paintings.

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. coloured paper for background 
3. oil pastels
4. liquid water colour, blue and green
5. brush
6. jar with water

The successful British artist David Hockney was born in 1937 in Bradford, England. He studied at the Royal Academy in London. His first works were anecdotal and ironic. In 1964 Hockney moved to California, where he developed a more realistic way of painting. The main themes at this time, are pools, landscapes and portraits.

From 1966 David Hockney increasingly used photographs for his paintings. He made ​​collages containing just photographs. After 1980, Hockney's work became a more expressionistic character. His work shows influences of Picasso Besides paintings, Hockney also makes drawings and etchings. 

Look at artwork of David Hockney, especially those with swimming pools. Discuss with the students how people look like under water - flowing hair, lighter skin. What causes the shimmering
surfaces on the water and what do they look like?

The students draw one or more people in swimsuits and colour them with oil pastels. Use white oil pastel to draw a water pattern in the background, consisting of wavy horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
Paint the picture with blue and/or green diluted coloured ink. The swimmers and the white lines will not resist the ink.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Sunflower batik

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. pencil
4. tempera paint brown or black
5. liquid soap
6. brushes

Draw some sunflowers on the sheet and on the edges. Colour them with oilpastels, press heavily. Wrinkle the sheet into a ball; make sure the picture is on the inside.

Smooth the paper out. Use black or brown tempera with a tiny bit of liquid handsoap, and paint over the entire paper.

Then rinse the paper under cool water. The paint sticks in the little crinkle wrinkles giving it that batik look.

Leave the work to dry and press it flat between two books.

Made by students of grade 4

Sunflowers in five different materials

You need:

1. sunflowers or pictures of them
2. white drawing sheet A1 size, cut in strips of 30 by 65 cm
3. five different colouring materials, like colour pencils, tempera paint, watercolour paint, oil pastels, crayons, coloured ink, aquarell pencils etc.
4. brushes
5. pencil, ruler
6. coloured paper
7. scissors

Look with the students at some sunflowers or pictures of them. How thick is the stem, what can you tell about the leaves, how are the petals divided, what colours do you see in the heart of the flower, etc.

Divide the sheet with thin lines into five strips of 13 cm high. Draw some sunflowers. Make sure the flowers themselves are drawn at the demarcation of the strips. Make sure too that in each compartment at least half a sunflower or leave is drawn.

Choose five different colour materials. Use in every compartment a different material. Consider yourself the order of the materials, for example from bright (markers) to less bright (aquarelle pencils).

Paste the work on a coloured background. Or cut the five compartments and paste them with some space between on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 5

Flowers behind fence

Flowers behind fence with fingerprinted flowers, grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. masking tape
3. scissors
4. tempera paint
5. stencil brushes
6. bubble wrap
7. sponge strips

Create a fence with pieces of masking tape, about 2 cm from the bottom.

 

 

Cut a piece of bubble wrap that is as large as the sheet of drawing paper. Paint it with a thick brush, half blue and half green. Put the drawing sheet on top and rub with the hand, creating a bubble print. Use sponge strips (cut from an ordinary sponge) to stamp steals and leaves.

Use stencil brushes to stamp petals of use your fingers to print them. Stamp/print some flowers under the fence an between the poles of the fence. Leave the work to dry and gently pull off the masking tape.

Flowers behind fence with stamped flowers, grade 2

Connected shells

Warm colours, made by Emmy, grade 6

You need:

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

Draw a few lines on the sheet to divide the paper into sections. Draw several shells on those lines. Be sure the shells touch eachother. Trace the shells with a fine permanent black marker. Colour the sections between the shells with colour markers in warm or cool colours.

Cool colours, made by Bjorn grade 5

Sailboat regatta

You need:

1. two sheets of white drawing paper
2. sandpaper
3. tempera paint in blue, green and white
4. brush
5. coloured paper
6. brown paper (grocery bag)
7. glue
8. blue paper A1 size

Spray paint stripes in blue, green and white on a saucer. Lay a sheet of white drawing paper before you, with the small size up. Paint it with coloured waves. Don't mix the colours on the saucer, but dip the brush in two or three colours. Leave the sheet to dry.

Take the second white sheet and lay it before you with the small side up. Cut a piece of sandpaper as wide as the sheet and 8 cm high. Paste the sandpaper on the bottom of the sheet.

Tear the painted sheet in wavy strips. Tear the straight sides of the first and last strip too, so that all strips have two wavy sides. 

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 on the left and right.

Cut boats out of a brown paper bag; bigger ones below, smaller ones at the top (perspective). Cut masts out of the paper bag and sails out of coloured paper. Paste the boats between the waves and paste the long sides of the waves at the same time. Paste sails and masts on the boats.  

Paste or staple all works together on large blue sheets (A1 size) to create a beautiful group work.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Wild flowers

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 8 cm
2. colour pencils
3. tempera paint
4. q-tips
5. saucer

A short lesson with great results! Draw a lot of flower stems on the black paper with several colours green. Stamp the petals above and between the stems, using tempera and q-tips.

Funky flipflops

By Marrit, 11 years old

You need:

1. two white drawing sheets A4 size
2. coloured construction paper
3. two split pens or paper fasteners
4. scissors
5. glue
6. markers

Tear wide strips of the narrow side of a sheet of light blue and a dark blue sheet construction paper. Paste thes over and over and partially overlapping on a white sheet of paper: these are the waves of the sea in which your flipflops will disappear! You can also choose yellow paper and sandpaper, to suggest the beach. Trace your foot on the second white sheet. Cut it twice. Remember that one of them should be a mirror image. Colour the flipflops with bright summer colours.

Cut out of the remaining white paper four strips of about 15 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Colour these too. Prick a hole in both flip-flops on the spot between the big toe and second toe. Prick holes in the four strips, approximately 0.5 cm from the end. Insert a split pin through the two strips and the slipper. Glue the ends of the strips under the slipper. Paste the flipflops on the sheet with waves.

Summer memory

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. glue
6. colour pencils
7. grey or light brown cardboard

Passed holiday's are always full of memories. Sunset on the beach, a sunny afternoon in the woods or impressive threatening clouds above the sea. What colours belong to that memory? What colours belong to a sunset, to the woods and what colours would you use for the threatening thunderstorm?

Paint your sheet full with your holiday memories using watercolour paint. Paint sloping strips in different colours. After drying, tear the sheet in strips while following the different colours. Glue your strips with a little space between them on the grey/light brown paperboard. Write a title in beautiful characters and decorate the frame with little holiday memory doodles (shells, clouds, flowers etc).

Made by students of grade 5

Sunglasses

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. white drawing sheet
3. colour pencils or markers
4. scissors
5. glue
6. silver and gold marker

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

Made by students of 12 years old

Desert sunset

Made by a student of 8 years old

You need:

1. coloured paper
2. black construction paper
3. scissors
4. glue

By tearing stripes of different colours of paper, children create a sunset. Draw a big cactus on black paper and cut it out. Paste the cactus on the sunset sheet.

I scream for ice cream

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. coloured cardboard A2 size
2. brown construction paper
3. white drawing paper A4 size
4. tempera paint
5. brushes
6. saucers
7. tissue paper
8. salt
9. scissors
10. gold markers
11. fiber fill or cotton wool

In this lesson, children use each other's work.

Divide the class into six groups. Give each group of children some white sheets, a saucer, one colour tempera paint, salt, brushes, a jar with water and blotting paper in a slightly darker colour than the paint. Mix tempera on a saucer with a lot of water to get a light (ice cream) colour. Each group paint a few sheets of drawing paper with this diluted tempera. Salt can be applied to create texture and small pieces of blotting paper with water will suggest chocolate chips or fruit in the ice. Be sure there are so many sheets of each colour that every student can get half a sheet of all six colours.

Hang the sheets outside to dry.

Cut the large sheets of coloured cardboard lengthwise into three, so you get three large strips of approximately 15 by 60 cm. Give each child a coloured strip and a sheet of brown construction paper. Each student cuts a cone out the brown craft paper by folding the paper and cutting a triangle from the fold . Then the draw a wafer pattern on the cone with a gold marker.

Give each student half sheet of painted paper of all six colours. Let them draw circles on the sheets by outlining a cup. Cut the circles. Paste the ice-cream cone on the large sheet of cardboard, and paste six different circles on it. Remember that the first scoop of ice cream has to be pasted partly in the cone. Finally cream may be added, by cutting half a circle out of fiberfill or some cotton wool.

Check this insect!

Made by children of 7-8 years old

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. black marker
4. scissors
5. glue

Study the anatomy of insects using photographs. Insects have segmented bodies supported by an exoskeleton. The segments of the body are organized into three distinctive but interconnected units: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The head supports a pair of sensory antennae, a pair of eyes, and, if present, three sets of variously modified appendages that form the mouthparts. The thorax has six segmented legs and, if present, two or four wings. These characteristics of the insect must be processed in the drawing. For the rest it is free. Choose fancy colours and draw body or wings as you like.

Fold a sheet of A4 double the length. Sketch against the fold the half of a fantasy insect. If you're satisfied with your sketch, trace the lines thick using a pencil. Press firmly! Then fold your sheet and draw on the back half of what you just traced, your bug again. Press firmly again, to be sure the pencil lines will be visible on the other half.

Then fold the sheet open. You'll see that your bug is now very light on the other side of the sheet. Trace these thin lines with a pencil, pressing firmly. After this, your symmetric insect is ready to be coloured.

The colouring has to be symmetric too. Use colours you like, it doesn´t have to be realistic. Outline the drawing with a black marker. Then cut it out leaving about a half cm of white paper around. Paste the drawing on a coloured background. If you´re ready, show your drawing to your classmates: "Hey, check my insect!"

Poppies in the wind

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. tempera paint
3. puppies or pictures of puppies
4. brushes

Poppies are particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. symbol of the First World War because they flourished exuberantly on the battlefields of Flanders. In the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' those poppies are mentioned. At the English National Remembrance Day, poppy wreaths are laid by the queen. Not real ones actually, because poppy petals fall very quickly. Poppies in the Netherlands have no symbolic value, but they are very nice to paint! View the brought poppies or pictures of them. Discuss the features of the flower: delicate satiny petals and a dark heart that shines through the petals. Because the flowers are very light, you see them always sway in the wind. Students paint some poppies on the upper half of their sheet. Paint the steels with black paint. Draw a frame with a red pencil about 1 cm from the edge. Paste the artwork on a black background.

Artwork made by students of 9-10 years old

A day at the beach

Made by students of 12 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. markers, aquarelle pencils or colour pencils
3. water paint
4. glue
5. coloured paper for background
6. brushes
7. jar with water

I'm going to the beach and I take …… Children draw themselves on a beach towel. On the towel are also the things that they are carrying when they go to the beach: sunblock, an Ipod, a book or magazin, a ball, a can of soda etc. The towel has bright colors and is recognizable for the person on it. Start colouring with the face and body. Use waterpaint or watercolour pencils to be sure to get a good skin colour. Colour the rest of the drawing with colour pencils (press firmly)or markers to make a colourful sunny artwork.

Butterflies like 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

Flowers in fingerpaint

You need:

1. tempera paint
2. saucers
3. white drawing sheet A2 size cut in three
4. coloured paper for background
5. green crepe paper
6. scissors
7. glue

Give all students a saucer with tempera paint in blue, yellow, red and white. Let them experiment with mixing colours with their fingers. Show them that if they mix to many colours together, they'll get aa kind of brown. Mix blue and yellow to show this makes green. Show them to make colours lighter using white. Children can practice this on a scratch sheet.

Every child gets a strip white drawing paper (A2 size, cut lengthwise in three parts). Fingerpaint your own flower. Realistic or not, it's all right. The only restriction: the stalk and leaves must be green. The flower should be as high as the sheet.

Cut the flower leaving a white edge from about 0,5 cm. Paste all flowers on a coloured background. Cut a strip of grass from crepe paper and paste this in front of the flowers.

Desert

You need:

1. brown construction paper A4 format
2. pastel crayons
3. hairspray
4. wood glue

Look with the students at photographs from deserts and discuss what they look like. What kind of plants do you see? What about the colours?

Sketch with a pencil a simple desert landscape with little details. Cover the lines with wood glue. Try this first on a another sheet. Wait until the glue is dry; it has to be transparant instead of white. Colour your drawing with pastel crayons. Use different colours together and make sure you blend them with your fingers. Fix your drawing with hairspray.

My collection from the sea

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawingpaper A4 size
2. aquarel pencils or watercolour paint
3. brushes and water
4. black paper
5. scissors and glue
6. black fine marker

After summer holiday it's fun to draw what you've found on the beach: shells, starfish, crabs etc. Divide a white sheet in four strips of 7 cm. Draw horizon lines in those strips. Draw several things you may have found on the beach and sketch as lightly as possible. Colour the shells with watercolour paint or aquarel pencils, trying to make shades by diluting the colours more or less. Paint the beach yellow/gold and the air light blue. When dry, outline the shells and horizon with a black fine marker. Cut the four strips and glue them with 1 cm between them on a black piece of paper.

Remembering summer

You need:

1. square drawing sheet 20 x 20 cm
2. colour pencils

Divide the sheet in four squares. Draw in every square your own summer memory! Decorate the edges in four different ways.