Indian Elephants

This project was inspired by the wonderful Ink Elephants at Fun Art 4 Kids and Deep Space Sparkle and Indian Elephants at Painted Paper. All my classes created multi-media Indian Elephants. We learned a few facts about these animals on the endangered species list who have been a common subject in Indian art for ages. They are a symbols of wealth and royalty. During the Elephant Festival in Jaipur rows of painted and decorated elephants parade up and down though the crowd.

To create their own Indian Elephant the children followed a lesson using a combination of circles and ovals to create the large volume of the animal combined with a contour drawing lesson to capture the details. Washable makers and water create the inky, watercolor effect. While drying a decorative border was created on a colored piece of construction paper. The children created a printed pattern using the backs of paint brushes and sometimes fingerprints. Scrapbook paper and markers were used to adorn their elephant.