Snorkeling Self Portraits

Nothing says late autumn quite like snorkeling right? :) I wanted to do a self-portrait lesson, but decided to add a twist with my two groups of after-school students. I offered a template to create a head and from there the children (5-10) followed a directed line drawing lesson. A variety of media was offered to add color to their portraits, acrylic paint, oil pastels and chalk pastels. I encouraged them to outline everything with a permanent marker or oil pastel once complete to make everything pop. On a separate piece of board the children created an underwater effect with liquid watercolors and salt. (Always a crowd pleaser) Finally the children created bright colored tropical fish and played around with placement to create an underwater scene. Snorkelers and fish were cut out and glued to their backgrounds. 

Night Owls

 Alexa, 3rd grade

 Grace, 1st grade

 Jenna, 5th grade

 Luke, Kindergarten

 Sami, Kindergarten

 Lacie, 4th grade

Presley, Kindergarten

Choosing art lessons for a group of kids ranging in age from 5 to 10 can be a bit tricky. I think I made a good call with this project. The owls were created with Sharpie and chalk pastels on big dictionary pages. My mom had just donated our old family dictionary to me to use for art class.(How did she know this was so current?) The kids looked at me with a combination of wonder and suspicion when I told them that when I was young, rather than a computer or phone, we had to look up words we didn't know how to spell in a book. Ha! The backgrounds were created in the same way my other class had done flying bats: oil pastel moons, watercolor skies and acrylic branches. The owls were then cut out and glued to their nighttime skies.

Moonlit Bats

I haven't meant to be m.i.a. from blogging for several weeks. We put our computer in the shop 3 weeks ago and have yet to the get green light that it has been repaired. Enter my two wonderful brothers, who generously purchased a laptop for an early birthday gift. Thanks Dave and Scott!

The day before Halloween I had my new group of K-4th graders create these Egyptian Slit-Faced Bats using charcoal. The backgrounds were created with oil pastel moons, watercolor skies and acrylic branches. To add extra fine spooky branches they could use Sharpie as well. I gave the children several options for creating a spooky watercolor backdrop for their bats, (including a yellow, orange and gray dusk/dawn effect), but it was blue/black skies all around. The last touch was to use white chalk to add moonlit highlights on their tree branches.

Peacocks and Butterflies in Chalk Pastel

Chalk pastels on black paper are a magical combination aren't they? I revisited two previous lessons with my Mixed Media Art Class groups for our last class together. These were done on big 18" X 24" sheets of black construction paper. Although we looked at photos of real peacocks and butterflies for inspiration, I gave the children free reign in their creations. Ages 5 - 10.

Colorful Collage Still Lifes

These beautiful collages were inspired by the bold and colorful paintings of Matisse

 and the painterly still life art of Cezanne....

They put a smile on my face - Wonderful job kids!

 Grace, 1st grade

 Cate, 4th grade

 Franziska, 2nd grade

 Andie, 2nd grade
I feel like I need to reach out and catch this precariously perched lantern :)

 Pia, 4th grade

Sadie, 2nd grade

These collages gave my two groups the opportunity to use a wide range of media: oil pastel and watercolor for the backgrounds, acrylic for the tables, charcoal lanterns, and vases and fruit in chalk pastels. All our cut elements (lanterns admittedly took some patience) were glued onto the backgrounds and finally a cast shadow in charcoal was added. Since I have children ranging in age from 5 to 10, creating still lifes in a collage format rather than on one paper allowed everyone to feel successful.

African Elephants with Watercolor Sunsets

This "happy accident" created a wonderfully mysterious 'puff of smoke' in the distance.

My Experiment

I apologize for my long pause between blog posts. I've learned over the years that most parents aren't ready to commit to art classes until they have settled into their back-to-school schedules a bit. This is a busy sports time for many families (many of you can I'm sure appreciate this) with practice days for soccer, football, lacrosse. ect..I live across the street from a baseball field, and in the last few hours, I have seen all 3 sports come for practice.

These elephants were inspired by this piece I found via Pinterest. I had my students create the background first using wet-on-wet technique with liquid watercolors. I love watching children have fun with this and am totally game for them to experiment even if it means green in the sky. But of course we discuss what colors will create others. I gave them the option of continuing with watercolor to create their earth or switching to black acrylic to create a silhouette.

Next we got to work on our elephant profiles. These were created on brown grocery bags. I love using these for projects because their recycled quality make them a great base for certain animal skins. The children followed a direct line drawing lesson and traced their pencil work with Sharpie. I gave them brown and gray pastels for the elephant skin since African elephants give themselves dust baths to protect their skin from the sun. I encouraged them to use charcoal to add shadow in some of the major folds and wrinkles, as well as add definition. (We looked at real elephants so the kids could see just how wonderfully wrinkled these animals are.) They had the option of adding silhouettes of African umbrella trees or other animals or to keep the background as is. This is just a sampling from my K-4th grade groups.

 Age 5 - Beautiful!

Colorful Snakes and Koi Fish

I revisited a couple favorite lessons over the summer. The original post for these wrap around snakes can be found here. The children could choose from oil pastels, chalk pastels, acrylics and watercolors to add color to their compositions. Most opted for liquid watercolors. They do pack a colorful punch. The finishing touch of charcoal shadows really provides a 3D look to their twisted snakes. Artwork by K-4th graders.

This lesson was inspired by a great koi fish tutorial over at smART class. I tried it in the spring and decided to give it another go with a summer class. This is a favorite of the children as they feel so advanced after they've completed their drawings. Once again, liquid watercolors give their paintings their vibrant colors. Artwork by K-3rd graders.