Hummingbirds and Birds of Paradise

Kindergarten thru 3rd grade work

My class used sponges with warm or cool acrylic colors to create their backgrounds first. Chalk pastels or oil pastels were used to create their birds and flowers which were cut out and glued to their painted backgrounds. They had the option of using realistic or creative color choices.

3D Camel Portraits with "Magic Carpet" Backgrounds

Chas, Kindergarten

Jonathon, 2nd grade

Katie, 2nd grade

Supriya, Kindergarten

I did some camel portraits a few months ago and decided to try it again with my new group of students. This time the children made their camels 3 dimensional by gluing squares of foam core to the backs of their cut camel faces to elevate them. Their "magic carpet" backgrounds were created by taking 3 sheets of construction paper (red, yellow and black in this case) folding them in half and creating 6 unique patterns using oil pastels. These were cut into squares and arranged to make a unique background. Here's a sample of their colorful and quirky camels.

Creative Challenge - Complete

Ink, Acrylic and Pastel Collage

Watercolor, Pastel, Ink and Mixed Media Collage

Mixed Media on Acrylic Canvas

Here are the 3 finished pieces I created for the Creative Challenge I signed on for a few weeks ago. Part of the challenge for me was working small (nothing over 8"X10"), as my comfort zone lies in life size people and animals. To keep myself loose and not uptight, I created these pieces on a couple lazy Sunday afternoons while watching Midnight in Paris for the 3rd time and some deliciously bad Bravo reality shows on my DVR. I had a lot of fun "playing" around with a variety of media. The recipients happen to be located in three completely different spots in the US. I will be sending them off shortly. Hope you enjoy them ladies!

Jungle Jaguars

Artwork by K-3rd Graders

I recently started a class with mostly new students. This has allowed me to revisit some of the favorite past projects. I did these paper bag jaguars back in January and was encouraged by one of my students to give it another go. Thanks Jenna :)

The children used oil pastel and watercolor to create their jungle bases. On one rectangular of their brown bag they created textured leaves using sponges and acrylics. These would be later cut out and added to their composition. On the other side of their bag they created their jaguars using chalk and oil pastels. They were encouraged to arrange their leaves around their jaguar to make it look as if it was peaking out of it's rainforest habitat.