Surreal Hot Air Balloon Collages

 Kate, kindergarten

 Presley, 2nd grade

 Kate, 2nd grade

 Grace 2nd

My experiment

Next month I will start my Mixed Media Collage art classes. I decided to try out an edited version of my hot air balloon lesson with my small group this week. With just a one 1 hour and 15 minute class to finish these pieces, there was no time to waste. 

I had purchased several landscape and cityscape calendars from the 99 cent store. Oh what fun I can have there! Anyone with me? Anyway, I pre-cut a variety of selections for the kids to choose from before they started painting their backgrounds.(Calendar skies will be saved for another idea and day) Based on their setting choices, they created a complimentary watercolor sky. These were put up to dry and we got started on our hot air balloons. I used a helpful tutorial from The Lost Sock blog here. Tabitha also has some Fantastic variations on hot air balloon lessons.Check them out! I had some b&b plates (bread and butter) for the kids to trace to get started. I offered markers and  colored pencils for them to add color. I should have known the metallic markers would be too irresistible to pass up. Simplified smaller balloons could be created to give a sense of depth and perspective to our landscapes. I had scrapbook paper and painted paper scraps for these. All elements were cut and glued to their dry watercolor skies. It was fun for my students to see all the components come together to make unique surreal compositions. I look forward to doing a tweaked version of this project with added shadows and highlights and minus the tight time constraints. Stay tuned!