"Personality Penguins" by Grade 4

These penguins have a lot of personality! The students sketched out the penguins and landscapes, then used sharpies to darken their outlines. Finally, they used watercolor paints to finish them off. I love how all the skies are different. Nice work, grade 4!

Van gogh Inspired Flowers

     This lesson was completed by my 8th grade students. First, they were given 6 tempra paint colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), plus black and white for tinting and shading. I did a lesson on mixing colors and using black and white to create tints and shades of the different colors. Next, we examined Van gogh's famous artwork, Sunflowers, discussing his use of the 8 elements of art. The students were then encourage to create a bouquet of flowers inspired by Van gogh. Finally, they were asked to paint their sketches using colors created by mixing the primary and secondary colors at their disposal. In the end, they created tints and shades of their colors to add shadows and highlights to their artwork. They did a great job...

Amate Bark Art by 4th Grade

The Otomi Indians in San Pablito, Mexico use the 

bark of the Jonote tree (similar to a Ficus) to make 

Papel Amate (Amate Bark). They strip the bark, boil 

to soften and smoothed into trays. After the paper 

dries, artisans paint the paper with traditional images. 

The fourth grade students work hard to create artwork inspired by the Amate Bark art of the Otomi Indians. I did my best to draw samples of traditional Otomi Indian images for them to copy onto their work. They designed borders and inner designs on their papers. They ripped the edges of their paper to make it look more bark-like. After penciling in their designs, they used tempra paints to fill them in. Some tried to outline their designs with black paint. I think they did a great job.

Check some out...

Maud Lewis Inspired Folk Art by Grade 6

I taught the sixth grade about Maud Lewis, a Canadian folk artist. We discussed facts about her life, viewed images of her artwork, measured out the perimeter of the tiny house she shared with her husband (which easily fit inside our art room). Then they created some of their own artwork based on what they learned. Their goal was to create an island lighthouse scene. I found this lesson on Deep Space Sparkle,  where I find so many of these great lessons! I modeled the painting of the island, ocean, rocks, and sky. They used a limited amount of paint colors (green, blue, yellow, white, and black) and mixed them to get the shades they wanted for each element.

The next week they sketched and painted lighthouses, houses, boats, and birds on separate pieces of paper.

The third week they cut out and glued their details to the background. Then they used a little black and white paint to add details (white water, clouds, etc...) to their paintings. I love their final products...