One of the most annoying myths about drawing is that people either have a gift or they don’t. The truth is drawing is a skill, and just like...
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Ocean Collage Art Journal Page
Save your nature magazines, or anything that has photos of water in it to make this fun collage page. 1. Students cut out enough swatches o...
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Up, Up and Away Hot Air Balloons
One of the first elements of learning perspective is noticing that things that are far away from you appear smaller than those that are near...
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Mixed Media Seahorse
This is my adapted Seahorse project for 1st graders, who were able to make a pretty frame for their art when their painting was finished. 1...
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Abstract Tree
This abstract tree makes a really bold image and also offers a lesson is using positive and negative space. 1. Starting with a square piec...
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Aboriginal Lines and Dots
I read that the Aboriginal dot style of painting actually began in the 1970s when artists wanted to make symbols of some of their ancient ...
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Art Journal: Circles of Color
I started this page with the idea of repeating circles, and just played around from there. I think it could be a good exercise in harmony...
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Graffiti Lettering Project
I wanted to introduce my afterschool kids to some very hip-looking lettering styles and new art supplies, so this was their project today. 1...
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Summer Swimming
I was inspired by some swimming self-portraits over at “Use Your Coloured Pencils” and loved the floating hair. My students gave it a go to...
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How to Draw a Flamingo
Flamingos are some pretty unique looking creatures. They have a lot of curves going on, but if you break them down into simple steps, the ou...
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Recycled Rooster
Save all those clean packing boxes, such as for cereal and pasta, and you can make some really colorful collage roosters. For a lead in stor...
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Picasso Tinted and Shaded Self-Portrait
Pablo Picasso's Blue Period, in which he painted only blue paintings of sad subject matter, is a good example of how an artist used colo...
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Mosaic CD Coaster
I found this great idea over at Mini Matisse , who got it from an organization called ArtStart. I love how the plastic case makes a nice st...
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3D Paper Mache Letter
If you like those cool Pottery Barn letters but not the price, make your own. 1. My son's letter is about 9" tall. Start by drawing...
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Pizza Anyone?
Sometimes I just get the greatest donations of supplies. Recently, yards and yards of felt appeared at my door. Then some white boxes were l...
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Kandinsky Colorweaver
Wassily Kandinsky made a beautiful painting called "Color Studies" back in the early 1900's that is fun to imitate with oil p...
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How to Draw a Seahorse
If your students are ever learning about amazing animals, then a book from Eric Carle titled “Mr. Seahorse” is a great lead-in to this proj...
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Pom Pom Yarn Balls
I’m in love with these pom poms! Save all those scraps of yarn – you can make these large or small with tons of different colors. I always t...
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Watercolor Collage
I love what torn edges do for a project, even though most students seem resistant to it. I think it maybe just takes time to trust that “hap...
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Mother’s Day Collage Card
This is a simple layout, but needs to be done neatly to make it look nice. My secret is to use glue sticks to make the tissue paper lay smoo...
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Metal Tooling Mother’s Day Card
Gold metal tooling is great material for making textured art. Add Sharpie markers and you have a very expensive looking Mother’s Day card. ...
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Draw Klimt’s Tree of Life
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. His wonderfully ...
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Mother’s Day “Pancake Recipe”
This is a compilation of what my 1st and 2nd grade students wrote today, when I asked them how they would make pancakes, possibly for a Moth...
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Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day
Need a pretty but inexpensive project for Mother’s Day? All you need is an old baby food jar, tissue paper, white glue and a couple of green...
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Mother’s Day Zig-Zag Card
I’ve used this card for kinders for several years and I'm still surprised at how nice they look, especially when colored with bright pat...
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Finish the Wolf Face
When students have a photo to refer to, I think they are often pleasantly surprised at what they can draw. I created this composite Wolf Pho...
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Starry Night Collage
This amazing artwork comes for Linsay in Eugene, Oregon. She shared how her students (age 5-11) in the River Road Park and Recreation ASAP P...
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Paper Mache Bowl
Paper mache bowls don’t have to be made of one material. Newspaper + brown paper makes a really great earthy, recycled-looking bowl. 1. Stud...
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“Sweet” Mother’s Day Card
Cindy Littlefield posted this great cupcake card here first , but I needed to simplify it so it could be made in one class session. I also p...
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Hand-Colored Mother’s Day Card
If you would like to make a homemade Mother ’ s Day card, I’ve collected a bunch of decorative letters from clipartETC.com and arranged the...
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Marker Picture on Popsicle Sticks
I’m not done with my popsicle obsession yet, and have tried a new combination. I wanted to try making a more realistic portrait to see how i...
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Paper-Mache Buildings
This project came from a need for inexpensive “New York” table decorations for my school’s silent auction. 1. Prep the matte board by cuttin...
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Pastel Cactus Drawing
One of my favorite combos is blending chalk pastels over dried glue. I’m always on the lookout for new subject matter, so when I saw this ca...
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“Moody” Self Portrait by Sarah
Today my art journal students made their own tissue paper + marker portraits (as per my “Moody” post two days ago), and once again I find th...
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Tissue Paper Bowls
As the school year starts winding down, my goal is to have students create a few dimensional projects, in this case with tissue paper and li...
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