Cottonball and Q-Tip Van Gogh Landscapes

I was inspired by the wonderful Van Gogh pieces at Painted Paper. I really wanted to do a beautiful rich Van Gogh landscape with my classes. But how do I avoid them from over-mixing the paint, creating one solid blue sky? My first thought was finger painting. So much fun, but maybe a little too messy. My 8 year old daughter joined me in painting with tempera and only cotton balls and Q-tips. We first lightly mapped out the sky line, hills and wheat field with pencil. Then the fun began. We simply swooshed and swirled the sky first, using lots of white and a little blue, tropical blue, purple and green. Next we did the hills with a new cottonball using greens, blues, and purple. The wheat field was created with swirls of red, orange and yellow. To add a couple Cyprus trees in the background we dipped Q-Tips in greens and blues and created the shape with small swirls. After our paint had dried we went over the wheat field with autumn colors using oil pastel. Van Gogh has those fantastic brushstrokes that really make his work come alive. So we tried to add some of that movement with oil pastel. We went over our trees with wavy lines in greens, blues and purples. My daughter did the top piece, mine is below and our inspiration, Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Cyprusses from 1889 is shown. These were a lot of fun to create.

Ideas for Using Left Over Textured Paper

In my family, I am notorious for my thriftiness. This of course carries over into my art projects. I hate to throw anything away! So I have boxes of scrap paper from the Eric Carle inspired collages I have done with my classes. I love to think of new ways to use these. Here are just 2 ideas.

This piece was inspired by a children's book from my childhood called, "Attic of the Wind". It's a beautiful lyrical book illustrating all the things that are taken away to "the attic of the wind." I plan to use it as a source of inspiration again and again.
Here is a verse from the page of balloons lost in the wind which could be substituted for this piece I did with kites:

"Balloons in the Attic? Of course there are!
Lost at the Fair or the Church Bazaar.
Balloons from the birthdays of all the years
That you watched float away with a smile...or tears."

This piece was simply sponge painted(with a kitchen sponge) with white, blues and purple of tempera. A traced hand is done in Sharpie in the corner of the piece when it dries. Next cut and glue some kite shaped pieces from textured paper scraps. Draw the kites strings and ties.)

The Masai people of Kenya and northern Tanzania adorn themselves with "Shuka" that are the sheets wrapped around their bodies. These are often in different bold colors with stripes and plaid. To create this abstract Masai collage, I cut simple organic rectangular shapes from leftover textured paper. I added geometric designs with a permanent marker. Last I added head shapes that were colored in with Sharpie. Some people were given large necklaces and earrings that the Masai often use to adorn themselves.

Hummingbird and Spring Blossoms

Spring is in full swing (even in notoriously seasonless Southern California). I combined a couple different lessons to create this project for my classes. The hummingbird was created using a great direct line drawing lesson from Ms. Julie's Place.
After going over the pencil drawing with permanent marker, the children will add color with watercolors. On a separate paper they will create a blue watercolor wash for their spring sky. The branches were done using the edge of cardboard dipped in brown and printed on the dry sky. The blossoms are done with a double loaded brush of hot pink and white. Once this has dried the hummingbird can be cut out and glued to base paper. I'm looking forward to posting many examples soon!

Paper Bag Walrus Collage

I love to do animal collages with my classes. This walrus was created using a rectangle from a brown paper grocery bag. Open up the bag completely. Each bag will give you 2 rectangles. First we did a direct line drawing of the walrus head in pencil. We went over our lines in permanent marker or oil pastel. I had the children make lots of folds and wrinkles to give their walrus character. Next we crumpled up our paper and flattened it out 2 or 3 times to give our walruses more of that tough wrinkly skin which acts as their coat of armor. This part they of course loved. Next, I had some watery brown paint for them to paint their walrus. I told them to leave some brown paper showing to give their walrus even more dimension. We learned that walruses sometimes have pink spots as their bodies warm. So the children could add some pink as well. The walrus's whiskers act as sensors on the ocean floor, helping them find food. Our whiskers were painted with some yellowish-white tempera and a small brush. We also learned that walruses have very poor eyesight. Their eyes are a brownish red which we added with oil pastel. To make the eyes look more realistic we dipped the back of our small paint brush in white paint and added a couple reflection dots. The tusks (which grow continuously from birth) were cut from a folded rectangle of ivory colored paper. This allowed 2 identicle tusks which were glued onto our dry paper. On a separate piece of posterboard, the children painted the icy water with lots of white and some blues and purple using horizontal strokes. After our work was dry, we simply glued our walrus to the background. I did this project with K thru 3rd. And as you can see, each child's walrus has their own distinct personality. Some look like young pups and others like wise old guys! :)

Warm and Cool Lines

I got the idea for this simple but beautiful art project from a wonderful art teacher on Flickr: Wimomz.

Since we are focusing on the major elements of art this session (line, shape, space, value, color, texture and form) I thought this was an effective lesson to emphasize a few of them.

Using oil pastel on black paper or board create a few types of lines for the ocean using cool colors. I am going to challenge the children to use as many as they can think of: squiggly, swirling, flowing, dotted ect. Some can be thin and others colored in to create thick lines. Using warm colors, do the same for the sun and sky. Next using metallic tempera paint add more varieties of lines in the cool ocean and warm sky.

Tar Beach

My classes will be doing a collage project based on the book, Tar Beach by Faith Ringold. It follows the 8 year old Cassie, as she lets the stars take her wherever she wants to go. She claims the buildings as her own as she hovers above New York City. I especially like this passage:

"anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you can't get to any other way. The next thing you know, you're flying among the stars."

To create our collages the children will first paint a base of deep blue for the nightime sky. Next using metallic gold or silver paint they will paint a simple bridge with white lights. Squares and rectangles of colored construction paper will act as buildings. Windows can be draw using permanent marker and oil pastel. Since the book was based on Ringold's story quilt, I will offer lots of different squares of scrapbook paper to create quilt-like borders. Lastly I will take a picture of each child to cut out so they can fly high among the stars above their city.

"Hand Trees" for Earth Day

For Earth Day on April 22nd I decided to do this simple hand tree project. The children would first trace their forearm and hand for the tree trunk and branches using patterned scrapbook paper. Next 2 sheets of textured paper are created using combs and clipper guards with tempera paint. After these are dry, the children cut out simple leaf shapes to adorn their tree. One of the girls in my Kindergarten class said she "had" to do a background. Since this is a private afterschool art class I can and try to give the children more freedom and choices to express themselves. In this case I was so glad to have her create this rich and beautiful oil pastel background of rolling hills. I think the results are stunning (and much more creative than my original idea.) Thanks for reminding me about the creative process Tess- your work is Beautiful!