Tag Archives: drawing

Laurel Burch Complementary Color Cats

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complementary color laurel burch cats

This Laurel Burch-inspired cat art project covers complementary colors, pattern and negative space. Tempera cakes and construction paper crayons are all you need for this project – quick, easy and neat!

Second graders learn about the complementary colors, then draw and paint a cat in the style of Laurel Burch. When dry, they add pattern and detail with a variety of crayons. Allow two 40-minute classes.

Second graders learn about the complementary colors, then draw and paint a cat in the style of Laurel Burch. Allow two 40-minute classes.

Meet Laurel Burch

Laurel Burch. Photo source: laurelburch.com

Laurel Burch. Photo source:

Laurel Burch was a self-taught  jewelry designer and painter. She was extremely successful despite serious illness. The Laurel Burch website has every resource you could want, including a great biography video and ‘fantastic feline’ slide show. We took a close look at the cat illustrations, and noticed the simple shapes, lines and patterns.

complementary color wheel

The Complementary Colors

I displayed the color wheel and we discussed the complementary colors (see this post). The complementary colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel.

There are three complement pairs: red/green; purple/yellow; and orange/blue. When two complements are displayed together, the colors contrast and ‘pop’.

 

The Art Project

Materials:

  • white sulphite drawing paper, 9″ x 12″ (or other white paper strong enough for painting)
  • primary and secondary color tempera cakes
  • brushes
  • water
  • examples of Laurel Burch cat illustrations
  • construction paper crayons
  • optional: metallic crayons

(note: this post contains compensated affiliate links)

Day 1: Draw and Paint the Cat

  1. Choose a complementary color pair.
  2. Draw the cat using a single construction paper crayon.
  3. Add eyes and other facial features, but do not add pattern or other detail.
  4. Paint the inside of the cat one of the complementary colors.
  5. Paint the negative space (background) in the other complementary color.
  6. Let dry.

Day 2: Decorate the Cat

  1. Hand out examples of Laurel Burch cat illustrations and construction paper crayons.
  2. Look at the patterns and other details on the cats and in the negative space (background).
  3. Do a quick review of the complementary colors.  Ask “What color is your cat? Find a crayon that is a complement of the cat color”.
  4. Retrace the cat’s original lines with that crayon.
  5. Use all the colors of construction paper crayons to color in the eyes, add designs and patterns. .
  6. Optional: add a little sparkle with metallic crayons.

color Laurel Burch paintings with crayons

 Second Grade Results:

Laurel Burch Complementary Color Cats gallery

I just love the way the complementary colors pop against each other. I also love how the opaque construction paper crayons pop atop the tempera paint!

I used tempera cakes and construction paper crayons because they were quick to set up and clean up. You could easily substitute regular tempera and oil pastels, or watercolor and regular crayons.

No matter what materials you use, this is a fun and successful project your students will really like.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Peter Max Statue of Liberty Round Up

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I just finished up a Peter Max Statue of Liberty project with my first graders.  To plan this lesson, I took a look at a lot of elementary-level Peter Max lesson plans on the internet. All my research is contained in the Round Up collage above.

Do you like this collage? Click on the collage. Hover over each image and you will see an arrow.  Click on the arrow to link directly to the lesson.

I made this graphic using a free website called ThingLink.  It allows users to make images interactive. I learned about ThingLink on the Free Technology for Teachers blog.

Here are some more resources you can use for your lesson:

Meet Peter Max:

Wikipainting.org has a great selection of Peter Max artworks, including a Liberty Head, psychedelic artwork from the 1960s, and Warhol-like portraits of famous people.

Our students watched Peter Max prep his canvases this EXCELLENT 2008 video from CBS This Morning. (Requires flash. Reading this on an iPhone or iPad? Click here)

Our Art Project: We ended up doing a two-day art project using  tempera cakes and black crayon on 12″x18″ sulphite and manila paper.

Day 1:Paint backgrounds in style of Peter Max. Students made patches of color, stripes or even polka dots.

Day 2: Use black crayon or oil pastel in directed draw of Statue of Liberty head. BE SURE TO TELL STUDENTS TO GO BACK OVER THEIR LINES SO THEY ARE THICK AND BLACK.

Here is one of our first grade artworks:

peter max statue of liberty

 

Enjoy!

Drawing and Shading Geometric Forms

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drawing and shading geometric forms

I have always wanted to teach students how to draw and shade spheres, cubes and other forms, but I lacked confidence. Then I found two great worksheets via Pinterest that made the lesson really successful.

Any shading lesson has to begin with a discussion of value. We looked at some black and white photographs and noticed the variety of grays, from very light to almost black.

I gave each student a photocopy of a completed value scale and this handy value worksheet at About.com

 

 

11_step_value_scale

The sixth graders did part one – filling in the value scale on the right of the worksheet.

Next, we took a close look at a real sphere (in our case, a red rubber playground ball). I turned off the overhead lights and focused a single light source on our red rubber ball. We identified highlights and cast shadows, and saw how shadows gradually got lighter further out from the object.

Now the students did part two of the worksheet – roughly shading the sphere to match their new value scales.

 

Next class, we looked at a variety of geometric forms.

geometric forms

 

The best thing I ever found on Pinterest may be this tutorial from Shawna Tenney at Imagine Art! I made a copy for each student.

One by one, I lit each form with a desk lamp. We looked at highlights, cast shadows, and other light and dark areas. Then we drew the forms according to the tutorial.

This drawing tutorial worksheet really helped!

This drawing tutorial worksheet really helped!

Students used paper stumps to blend the graphite into a smooth gradient. They loved the stumps!

drawing and shading forms

 

drawing and shading forms

drawing and shading geometric forms

Early finishers had the option of drawing one or more of the forms using colored pencil.

Very successful! Great job sixth graders! And thanks again, Pinterest!

 How do you teach value and shading?

 

 

Snowmen Snapshots

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snowmen snapshots

 

Third grade just finished their snowmen ‘snapshots’. I found this great lesson at Mrs. Knight’s Smartest Artists.

snowmen

Third graders drew snowmen from four different points-of-view. Allow three 40-minutes classes.

Materials:

  • sketch paper
  • pencils and erasers
  • white construction paper, 12″x18″
  • Sharpie
  • viewfinders
  • colored markers, thin-tip and chisel-tip

Day 1:

We looked at all the student examples at Mrs. Knights’ blog. Students learned some new photography vocabulary to describe point-of-view:

  • zoom in/close up
  • zoom out
  • profile/side view
  • 3/4 view
  • viewfinder
  • crop

The third graders sketched their snowmen in all the points-of-view on a sheet of copy paper. Then they moved their viewfinders over the snowmen drawings to crop the picture.

snowman viewfinder

Days 2-3:

Students folded their white construction paper into quarters. Using pencil, they drew the snowmen from four different points-of-view, one in each quarter. They went over their lines with Sharpie, then erased.

Students had to pick a unique color  (or pattern) for each section. I modeled coloring with the markers, and emphasized neatness. This was a ‘no spaghetti’ (no scribbling) project. Some kids still need the reminder!

Third grade results:

snowmen snapshot

snowmen snapshots

 

This was a very successful project. I heard a couple of kids say they thought it was the best art project they ever did. Please check out Mrs. Knight’s fabulous post – her student examples are great.

 

Kindergarten Birthday Cake

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We all know kindergarteners love birthday parties. Cake, presents, decorations – what’s not to love? So it was no surprise that this  birthday cake art project was super-popular with the kinders.

Day 1:

Kindergartens started by viewing my birthday cake powerpoint  (note: if art class is before lunch your students will say they are hungry!). We discussed the lines and shapes we saw on the cakes, and in the frosting and decorations.

Cake drawing emphasizes lines and shapes.

Kinders drew the cakes with crayon. I emphasized that they didn’t have to color the large areas with crayon because we would paint the cakes next week. However, they should use crayon to color in the small areas such as candles, flames, balloons, numbers, etc.

Day 2:

We added cut paper birthday gifts with glue stick, then painted with regular and metallic pan watercolors.

Kindergarteners painted their crayon drawings with regular and metallic pan watercolors. Allow two 40-minute sessions.

Completed birthday cakes:

This would be a great end-of-the-year lesson to celebrate all the ‘summer’ birthdays that occur when school is out of session. This could also be a nice project for a Wayne Thiebaud lesson.

How about adding a book to the project? When I was little, Dr. Seuss’ Happy Birthday to You! was one of my favorite books and I still remember reading it on my 6th birthday (I also remember Baskin-Robbins clown cones plopping all over the back yard at the birthday party, but that is another story).

I’d love your suggestions on a book to read along with this project.

Do you have a special birthday-themed book for primary students?

 

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