Valentine's Art Projects from the Past

Each year, I tend to try something different for Valentine's Day.  I like to spice things up, don't you?

Here are some from the past that I have done.

1.  Valentine's Heart Collages

 2.  Cool Hands, Warm Heart

3.  Easy Clay Hearts for Kindergarten 

    I have made these for Christmas presents, but they would be perfect for Valentine's Day.

4.  Maps of My Heart (by Kindergarten)

5.   Styrofoam Printed Valentines

P.S.  My new blog design is at ArtisBasic.com.  Check it out if you would like to get a sneak preview before the RSS feeds are moved over.

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How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor-- 5th and 6th Grade

Clouds. Aren't they amazing? 

Cloud photography by Carolyn Cochrane  (visit her Etsy shop by clicking on the link)

Two years ago I took a very helpful watercolor painting class.  One of our assignments was to paint clouds. 

Painting by Marcia Beckett

Connecting Art with Science

I love to make connections with other subjects.  This one is perfect for my 5th/6th grade because in Science class they study cloud identification.  They come into my class with a broad understanding of clouds which makes my lesson richer.  

Clouds and Art Resource

The Clouds in Art Gallery is amazing.  This gallery features famous paintings (for example, by Van Gogh, Constable, Turner, Renoir) with the clouds identified.  To start this lesson, I downloaded the powerpoint from the website to show my students.

The One Tool I Can't Live Without for Watercolor Painting

Hands down, my favorite tool for watercolor painting is the fan brush.   Buy fan brushes in a variety of sizes.  If your budget is small, start by buying a small assortment every year.  They are indispensable for creating texture! 

Blick Scholastic Wonder White Fan Blick's White Taklon delivers the texture and responsiveness of Red Sable, yet holds up to the caustic nature of solvents and acrylic paints with greater durability, making these brushes a must-have for the classroom. The selection of shapes and sizes available means there's a Wonder White brush for every media and application. The sharp point has good spring. Long handles are finished in blue gloss with nickel-plated brass ferrules.

Tips for Using the Fan Brushes

1.  Find reference photos of clouds to use while painting.

2.  Use the paper towel to dab your brush so it is not dripping wet.  A dry brush will create a nice texture.

3.  Use a light feathery technique to make the texture in the clouds or grass.  Look at this video to see what I mean.  For the clouds, hold the brush flat and dab it up and down.  

4.  When painting the sky, remember to leave the cloud areas white, unpainted.  Paint the sky around the clouds.  While the blue paint is still wet, add other colors (different shades of blues, purples, etc) on top and it will blend the colors together.  Creating variations in the shades makes a more realistic effect.  

5.   Go back in to add depth to your clouds with light touches of grays, pinks, purples.. the sky's the limit! 

Additional Tips for Watercolor Painting Landscapes

• If you can afford it, don't skimp on the quality of the watercolors for kids.  It does make a big difference, in my opinion.  Every two kids can share the paints.  So if your highest count of kids in a class is 26, buy 13 sets if you can.   Simply instruct them to place the watercolors in between them.  I also find that this helps them to monitor the muddying of the colors.. no one wants all their paints to turn black from careless mixing.   

• My favorite watercolors for kids are Crayola Artista II Watercolors, 16 Color Set

• The Prang Washable Watercolors, Metallic are nice for some shiny touches.

• Use a sea sponge for rocky or sandy texture.  

• As for paper, I have experimented with a lot of paper and I am still on the never-ending quest to find the perfect, non-wrinkly, affordable watercolor paper for kids.  PLEASE let me know if you have any recommendations.  What I have used recently for painting with watercolors and tempera is White Tag Board from Nasco.  I find that it takes paint well and looks pretty nice.  I have not been afraid to get out the iron and carefully iron paintings that have buckled.  Another option is to take a stack of heavy books and place them on top of the dried paintings.  What do you do?

 

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Frogs in a Pond (with Monet) 1st Grade

I love lessons where I can tie in different areas of study, art history and art techniques!  This is a project I developed that incorporates study of frogs, Monet and watercolor painting.


To start this project, we learn about the artist Claude Monet and his paintings of ponds and lilypads.  We read a book about Monet:

(This series is awesome for read-alouds in class.  I love the picture books about art, but I want the pictures in the book to be actual pictures made by that artist.  I don't like picture books that have art created by a different illustrator.  For example, if the book is about Van Gogh and none of the pictures in the book were painted by Van Gogh, the story book can be confusing to kids.  Does that make sense?  There are a lot of picture books out there about artists, but the artwork was done by someone else.  This series of books combines cartoons and ACTUAL artworks by the artist, which I feel is so important.  And this series breaks things down in easy-to-understand concepts for the kids.  I always tell the kids ahead of time that the cartoons about the artist were not drawn by the artist, but by someone else.. otherwise one of the kids will raise their hands and ask, "So did Monet draw these cartoons?")  Anyways......  After we read this book, we also watched the movie "Linnea in Monet's Garden".  As we watch the movie, I again make sure to point out the actual pictures Monet painted. 

 

After we learn a little about the background of Monet's artwork, we paint a watercolor picture of a pond.  I show them how to use the wet-on-wet watercolor technique.  Paint the paper with water first, then add wet colors of paint.  We talk about cool colors and the colors they might see in a pond.

Then, we cut out lilypads from green construction paper and added little fluffs of tissue paper for flowers.

The first graders read a series of books called Frog and Toad in their language arts classroom.  At the same time they study frogs (and other amphibians) in Science class.  In art class, we look at pictures of frogs and observe the details and draw them as realistically as possible. They do some practice sketches first and then I teach them on the whiteboard some steps to draw a frog if they are struggling.  They outline these frogs with green marker and color in with crayons.  Then, they are cut out and glued to the pond.  Some of them glue down the legs and bend them so the frogs pop off the page, and some of the kids glue them down flat. 

African Cloth Painting-- 3rd Grade

The Intermediates (grade 3) are studying Africa in their Social Studies class.  We learned about the African Korhogo Clothes.  See this link for more details.

This project focused on how symbols are used in African art.  The students designed their own painted Korhogo cloth on muslin.  They decorated the border with symbols and drew their main figure with Sharpie.  Then, they added paint with watercolor.

Abstract Oil Pastel Trees-- 4th/5th grade

This is a lesson I teach every year because the results are so beautiful!  Each of the kid's drawings just turns out wonderful.

The 4/5s drew trees to complement their studies in Science class.
How can line be used creatively to make a stylized picture?  How can oil pastels be used effectively?   The students aimed to use line creatively and made stylized art.  A focus of the lesson was color mixing, blending and layering of the oil pastel.

Steps:
Day One-- (40 minutes)
1.  Show images of Piet Mondrian's abstract trees.  I use a powerpoint slideshow to show his art work.  Discuss how he started out with realistic trees, then they became more and more abstract.  Finally, his style progressed to just shapes, lines and colors... the style with primary colors which he is most known for.  

2.  Sketch a stylized tree with pencil.  Make sure the trees branches create sections for coloring in.  These lines should touch the edges of the page.  Tell the students that they can draw their tree with creative lines, but to avoid drawing lots and lots of tiny branches.

3.  Paint over the tree lines with black tempera paint.  You might need two coats to make it nice and solid.  At this point, many of the children are done with this step and can move on next period.  Others will need to finish painting the next class period.

Day Two, Three and maybe Four-- (40 minutes) 

4.  After the paint is dry, color thickly with oil pastels in each of the white sections (negative space).  Layer colors on top of each other to mix colors.  Then, use your finger to smudge and blend.  Show the students how they can make a color lighter by adding white or darker by adding black.  Show them how to make gradations or color changes within the sections (for example blending purple and blue from one side to the other).

Spooky Silhouettes-- Kindergarten

We just finished these lovely Halloween pictures today.  I don't really like doing "holiday" art during art class unless I can tie in some solid art concepts.  (That's why I sometimes do the fun crafty afterschool classes.)  For this project, the kindergartners learned a few art vocabulary words:

Silhouette
the outline or general shape of something...  a dark image outlined against a lighter background.

Warm Colors

the yellows and reds of the color spectrum, associated with fire, heat, sun, and warmer temperatures;

	Reds, oranges, and yellows are warm colors.

Step 1:  Talk about the difference between warm and cool colors.  Paint backgrounds with tempera paints using warm colors: reds, oranges, yellows.

Step 2:  During the next class period, pass out black and white paper and black markers.  Show the students how to cut out silhouettes of spooky things.  Brainstorm some things they can include in their pictures.  Use black markers to add extra details.

(I think the person on the right might be holding a chainsaw!)

Simple, yet expressive.

This girl spent awhile cutting the fringe for the shutters on the house.

This girl reminded the class that ghosts aren't white, they are INVISIBLE!  (hence the sketchy lines of the ghost) 

There is also THIS super fun spooky silhouette project I saw on Pinterest.  Googly EYES!!

Painting Leaves-- 1st grade

Pictures from the Art Room

Here are some scenes from the art room this week!

 We are using appliance parts to build assemblages.

We are painting on wet fabric and will later cut the fabrics and sew theme together for a fabric collage.

Monochromatic Rhythm Paintings-- 3rd Grade

I love these monochromatic rhythm paintings!  The lighting was weird when I took the pictures, so I'm not sure the colors are as vibrant as they really are.  We talked about rhythm in art and how to create it by repetition.  The students learned how to mix shades and tints of one color.  Gold was added at the end for a final touch (so in the end, I allowed them to "cheat" on the monochromatic part, but the gold adds such a fun element.. what do you think?  Can it still be officially a monochromatic painting?).  I also love teaching the etymology of words like this.  I see if they can guess what the word means by breaking it up into parts.  Usually with the collective knowledge of the class, they can figure it out.