Lighthouse Collages

Ella, 2nd

Charlize, 2nd

Summer, 3rd

Fiona, 2nd

Skyler, 2nd

Mia, 2nd

Charlotte, 1st

Gwendolyn, 1st

Lauren, 2nd

Scott, 5th

Beautiful Raya - age 5

My Mixed Media Collage students created these lighthouse pieces using a variety of wet and dry media. Collage projects are a favorite of mine as I teach to a wide age range (K-5th) and this seems to help everyone break up a project into components and piece it together, helping everyone to feel successful. Skies were done in watercolor, and oceans in acrylic. They created a ripped, jagged cliff from grocery store bags and added pastel and charcoal for texture. Lighthouses were created following a loose direct line drawing lesson. They added charcoal shadows to their lighthouses on the opposite side of their moon to add more drama to their nighttime pieces.

Surreal Hot Air Balloon Collages II

Fiona, your stormy sky is spectacular!

I don't get the chance to travel much. But that doesn't mean I don't love seeing, hearing and reading about exotic locales. Anthony Bourdaine, The Travel Channel, The Amazing Race, and travel memoir books - you might say I'm an official arm chair traveler. So I thought it would be fun to create some surreal hot air balloon collages with my classes this month, allowing each child to choose their own locale. My original post can be found here. I found some great landscape and global landmark calendars from the .99 Cent Store. So the first step was letting each child choose their destination from my collected calendar pages (these were cut out). From there, they created wet on wet watercolor sky backdrops using their choice of colors. On white construction paper, we created one large hot air balloon following a basic step by step lesson. These could be customized and designed using markers or oil pastels. Smaller balloons were created using painted paper and scrapbook paper to give the collage pieces a sense of depth and perspective. This was a fun project for my kindergarten through 5th grade groups.
This lesson was inspired by and dedicated to my dear friend Gretchen, who traveled the world and lived life to the fullest!

Palm Frond Masks

We've had some strong winds here in Southern California over the past couple days. And consequently, there are a lot downed trees, limbs and branches. On my walk this morning I saw a pristine palm frond. I immediately thought of this project I did 6 years ago, creating primitive masks with palm fronds and acrylic paints. I'm thinking it might be a good time to go on a scavenger hunt and give this project another go.

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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!

Wolves of Winter

Jake

Matty

Mia

Sophia

Dean

Putting it together:

 Birch trees made with card board pieces scraped with black acrylic

 ballpoint pen, chalk pastel and charcoal

Over Winter Break, I offer a couple of one day, two hour classes. This past Tuesday we had our Wild Animals class. I have never done a wolf project before and thought it would be the perfect animal for the winter season. Though Gray wolves once disappeared from the lower 48, they have returned to the Great Lakes, Northern Rockies, and Southwestern US. They play a key role in keeping ecosystems healthy. My group of 2nd-6th graders enjoyed creating their mixed media pieces.

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!