I’ve collected a variety of decorative letters from clipartETC.com and arranged them on a jpeg file that you can print and hand color for a...
Read More
Tissue Paper Poinsettias
Tearing shapes from tissue paper can create some very organic shapes, and end up looking pretty similar to poinsettia leaves. 1. Give each s...
Read More
Abstract Shape Drawing
I’m finding that almost anything looks good when drawn on black paper, and colored heavily with oil pastels. This is more of an exercise, bu...
Read More
Pastel Penguin
Penguins are a very popular subject matter. Looking at some large photos before beginning will give students a chance to see colors and deta...
Read More
Nutcracker Painting
One way to have students draw LARGE is to instruct them that their art must touch the top and the bottom of a piece of paper. 1. This projec...
Read More
Crayon Resist Snowflakes
If you go to the holiday decoration section at Michael’s, you can find these amazing laser-cut wood snowflake decorations that are cheap (ab...
Read More
Watercolor Resist Snowflakes
Here's a simple crayon and watercolor painting idea that was inspired by an illustration on a stock art website. 1. As the students will...
Read More
Acrylic Dry Brush Landscape Painting
This lesson was to show young students how to layer color when painting with opaque paints, such as acrylic or tempera. Their tendency is to...
Read More
Watercolor Still Life
When it comes to painting, most children need to practice looking at subtle changes in color. The skilled student may already see this, but ...
Read More
Rousseau Tiger Drawing
Henri Rousseau was a French artist that lived in the late 1800s. He tried to paint in the schooled manner of the traditional artists, but it...
Read More
Snowman on Skis
I sometimes look at stock illustrations on websites like gettyone.com for inspiration. I found a simple drawing of a snowman on skis that I ...
Read More
Close Crop Snowman
Drawing closeup and cropping out what is unnecessary can make just about any artwork more interesting. The tendency is for students to draw ...
Read More
Oil Pastel Snowman
This is a little twist (literally) on the usual snowman drawing. It asks students to think about circles can become spheres and have a 3-dim...
Read More
Fine Line Marker Leaves
I find a lot of inspiration at stock art sites like gettyone.com and istock.com. This came from a leaf illustration, which is simpler than i...
Read More
Pumpkin Tissue Paper Painting
Some tissue paper has an amazing ability to bleed when it is mixed with water. Cut-up squares can be used to control the color and make an e...
Read More
Paul Klee Portrait
Paul Klee was a Swiss artist from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His “Head of A Man” i...
Read More
Abstract Winter Trees
A simple illustration I came across in a website inspired this project. 1. Give the students 2 different sizes of narrow triangle cardboard ...
Read More
Hundertwasser Landscape
I was inspired by one of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s paintings to make this abstract landscape. 1. I cut a wavy rectangular shape of green...
Read More
Winter Cardinal
I’ve been looking for a nice colorful winter image for a holiday fundraiser, and was inspired by an image I found in a stock photo site. 1. ...
Read More
Positive/Negative Drawing
The words “positive” and “negative” can be used to describe both shapes and lines. This is a simple exercise which uses examples of both. 1....
Read More
Art Journaling 119
You can make your own art journal for just a few dollars, with just a little binding help from a Staples or Kinko's store. 1. I like to ...
Read More
Arcimboldo “Fruit Face”
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian artist from the 1500s who spent years working as an official court painter. He developed a style of compo...
Read More
Art Journaling 118
I think my biggest goal for my upcoming art journal class is to have kids embrace the loose, accidental art that can happen when you let you...
Read More
Mache Pumpkin from Plastic Bags
This pumpkin is made from about 40 plastic grocery bags, some Saran wrap, 3 rubber bands, newspaper, paper towel and mache, topped off with ...
Read More
Art Journaling 117
This is another drawing inspired by the Austrian abstract artist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser . His philosophy about nature is very reflecti...
Read More
Art Journaling 116
Aluminum foil and Sharpies are at work here, in addition to some extra texture rubbing. 1. This idea comes from “The Usborne Book of Art Pro...
Read More
Art Journaling 115
Some of the best art journal pages I’ve seen just seem to just have a sense of freedom to them. I think that’s going to be my number one goa...
Read More
First Flower Painting
This project makes for a great introduction to painting. And if you give students just the primary colors or red, yellow and blue, they can ...
Read More
Torn Duck Collage
I adore torn edges. They have a way of making shapes that would never happen if you started cutting away with a pair of scissors. 1. Find tw...
Read More
Me & My Goals Self Portrait
This was inspired by a New Jersey middle school posting you can see HERE . Drawing just the top face allows a focus on the eyes, and the beg...
Read More
Art Journaling 114
I used two laws of perspective to help give this spread some depth. One is that with distance, similar shapes appear to get smaller, and two...
Read More
Art Journaling 113
I started with one of my favorite poems, “The Wise Owl” for this 2-page spread layout. 1. I really love the look of white on dark journal pa...
Read More
Art Journaling 112
This is another 2-page art journal spread, this time on the topic of dreaming. 1. I plan to give the students a rectangle to trace, one appr...
Read More
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)