"Big Jack-o-lanterns" by First Grade

One of the things I work on with my younger students is drawing big, for they often start off small and only get smaller as they draw a picture. So, for Halloween, they drew BIG lack-o-lanterns on 12"x18' drawing paper.

They gave me all kinds of ideas for eyes, noses, and mouths. Then they colored their jack-o-lanerns in first with yellow, then with different shades of orange to create some texture and depth to their artwork.

I think they came out so cute. Look at these faces...

"Haunted Houses Ed Emberly Style" by Seventh Grade

Each year around Halloween my middle school students create haunted houses/scenes based on Ed Emberly's style of drawing. For those of you who are not familiar with him, he has many drawing books. If you have a child who likes to doodle little people, creatures, and tiny little drawings, you might consider showing him/her some of his books.

Anyway, this year I gave the 7th grade freedom to design their own haunted house scenes based on the step-by-step lesson we completed together last year. I think they did a great job. It was done completely in sharpie and I encouraged them to turn any "mistakes" into something else. I liked hearing things like, "I made a mistake here, so I turned it into a giant spider".

Here are some of their haunted artwork...

Falling Leaves by Third Grade

Another of my favorite fall art projects was completed by my third grade students. They used liquid watercolors, which gave the finished project a very vibrant look. First they traced leaf shaped onto their papers (12x18 white drawing paper). Then they traced over each leaf shape with a black crayon to create a wax border. Next, they painted each leaf with bright liquid watercolors. Finally, they painted in the background with turquoise liquid watercolor to create the sky area.

I love how they are bright, bold, and beautiful, and how they looks like someone just threw a handful of them in the air and now they are tumbling back down through the sky.

Check some out...

Swirling Leaves by fifth grade

The fifth grade has spent the past couple of classes creating fall leaf pictures. First they traced leaf shapes onto 12"x18" light blue, then mixed different tempra colors to paint the base layer on each leaf. Some students created new unique colors by mixing paints, while other double dipped their brushes to get a two-tone swipe of paint. This step gave them a lot of freedom to test out and practice different techniques.
The next week they used oil pastels and metallic paint to add details to their leaves. I love the way they look when I hang them all together on a wall. It's like a wall of swirling fall leaves!

Check some of them out...

"Starry Night Inspired" by 6th Grade

I keeping with the middle school students learning about Vincent Van gogh, the 6th graders did an art lesson inspired by his Starry Night.

Van gogh's Starry Night

We read about him, watched a quick video about him and his painting techniques, looked at some of his artwork, and then they set off to complete their own masterpieces.
We followed the same technique that the 8th graders did for their flower artwork; sketch in pencil, color in with oil pastels, add texture with paint. I let them use some metallic paint, too, which they loved.

They had the option of recreating the original or putting their own spin on it. As long as the had some sort of large object in the foreground, movement in their sky, and a low landscape, they were free to get as creative as they wanted to.

I love the finished pictures and think the artists should be so proud! Here are a few to look at:

Our Lady Liberty

love the technique

great colors

so cosmic looking

beautiful sky

love the deep purple