Tag Archives: drawing

Princes and Princesses Rule over First Grade

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Welcome to the royal art room!  The first grade recently finished their royal self portraits.

First graders create a portrait of themselves as princes or princesses. Allow 3-4 40-minute classes.

Materials:

  • white paper, 12″x18″
  • pencils and erasers
  • self-portrait template (optional)
  • several shades of skin-colored tempera (thinned with water)
  • watercolors
  • Sharpies
  • crayons
  • sequins, ribbons and lace
  • glue

Day 1:

We started out by looking at photos of royal gear: crowns, swords, jewels, and medals. Students began by drawing the face, neck and torso. Then they added crowns and fine clothes. Most drew castles in the background – some even added their ‘royal’ pets!

Day 2:

The skin was painted with thinned tempera. We painted the rest with regular and metallic pan watercolors. Tiny details (such as eyes) were colored in with crayon.

Day 3:

The students outlined the dry art with Sharpies. ‘Jewels’ (sequins), ribbons and lace were glued on for a final touch.

 

Students outlined their (dry) paintings with Sharpies.

Sequins make fabulous jewels.

Scraps of ribbon and lace make royal clothing extra fancy.

And here are the fabulous results!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A royal knight.

Some students chose to draw themselves as knights.  I wrote about it in this post.

This completed our royal unit for first grade.  Other projects in this unit are the watercolor resist castle and the clay dragon.

This lesson was inspired by an Arts Attack video.

Chalk Pastel California Missions for Fourth Grade

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Fourth graders made chalk pastel drawings as a complement to their California history social studies unit.  Allow two 40-minute classes.

 

Thinking about a successful, fun art project for a 4th grade California Mission lesson? Try this  art project from Deep Space Sparkle, easily adapted for a California Mission project.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Diego de Acala, San Diego, California

Materials:

  • black, dark blue or purple construction paper
  • chalk pastels
  • black or dark blue oil pastel for outlining
  • hair spray (or other fixative) to keep completed artwork from smearing

Examples of completed 4th grade student work:

Deep Space Sparkle has all the instructions and a downloadable drawing aid for adobe architecture.  You may want to print out this California mission coloring page to use as a Mission drawing aid.

This art project fit in beautifully for our school’s annual 4th grade California history field trip. This year: Rancho Buena Vista Adobe. In past years: Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Tips:

Don’t let students blow excess pastel color. During class, provide a piece of newspaper so they can tap off the excess.

After class, I washed down the tables with a bucket of plain water and a large sponge. Expect to change the water and rinse the sponge out after just a few tables – they get really dusty – but it is worth it for such a successful project.

The completed artwork will smear unless you spray it with a fixative (I use ordinary unscented Aqua Net hairspray from the drugstore). Please spray the artwork outside!

 

UPDATE: New Photo tour of Mission San Diego de Acala! Full color photos of Mission San Diego PLUS PHOTOS OF REAL SIGNAGE from the exhibits. A great resource for your classroom, Mission San Diego field trip or mission project. Just $5 each. Click here for Mission San Diego PowerPoint.  Click here for Mission San Diego Keynote.

 

Martin Fine Art Classes for Kids and Teens

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7 year olds drawing still lifes? With charcoal? Or painting in oils? Its possible with the right instruction.

Elementary age student paints still life in oils.

Martin Fine Art Classes teaches all these skills to kids in kindergarten through high school. Albert Martin, an educator with over 20 years experience in public and private education, has developed a Young Masters Art Program focused on the fundamentals of drawing and painting.

Students first learn to lightly sketch objects on paper through still life or sequential step drawings.They learn to correct size, placement, and proportion of initial sketches. Then they begin to master the concepts of drawing and observation by completing drawings of still life and animals, landscape and marine, using charcoal pencil and soft pastel.

 

This 8-year old uses chalk pastel to shade her drawing.

When they are ready, they can move on to acrylic and oil painting.

Martin Fine Art Classes offers 90 minute day and after-school sessions. In Summer 2012 he will offer 3 hour morning sessions as well. I wish I had gone to a fine art camp when I was a kid!

I have personally observed the after school sessions. Before I went to his studio, I never thought is possible for students this young to sit and focus for 45 minutes. In fact, many students increase their ability to concentrate on their artwork the more classes they take.

Students go home with a pastel still life their very first session!

 

5 and 6 year old students start out painting in acrylics.

These are skills many will not develop until after a couple of semesters of high school art.  Why wait for high school? Learn how now.

5-7 year olds also learn how to use simple shapes to create fun animal drawings. Alternating between still lifes and this type of drawing help keep interest high.

Also has instruction for adults and teens with a separate curriculum.

Instruction is available for middle school students.

Students can purchase materials for classes right at the studio, or bring their own from home.

If students are fortunate to have art in school, it is often in large group. Many students learn better, and develop skills more quickly with individual or small group instruction. At Martin Fine Art classes the top ratio is 1:8, with each child encouraged to learn at their own pace.

Teens can learn to draw and paint realistic still lifes.

I can personally recommend Mr. Martin as I take his class once a week . It is a TOTAL LUXURY to make my own (grown up!) art after teaching my own students all week.

Martin Fine Art Classes is located in Encinitas, California. Find out more information at www.martinfineartclasses.com .  You can email Albert Martin at  martinfineartclass@att.net to inquire about morning, after school, or summer sessions. Phone is 760-944-7913.

 

Knights in Shining Armor for First Grade

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First graders just love knights. We traced a template, then drew in details. We used silver tempera, metallic watercolors and fabulous embellishments to create our knights. Intruders beware – the castle is safe!

 

Cool Color Monet Water Lilies

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cool color monet waterlilies

Second grade is studying the cool colors.  After watching the excellent elementary color theory DVD Getting to Know Color in Art  we looked at photos of Monet’s beautiful garden and pond in Giverny, France. Students could imagine themselves at the pond on a summer day, feeling the willows sway, listening to frogs as they rested on the lily pads, resting in the cool shade, even floating in Monsieur Monet’s ‘art boat’ as it passed under the Japanese bridge.

“Le Bassin aux nymphéas” 1899. One Monet’s many water-lily paintings.

We looked at several of Monet’s waterlily paintings, focusing on his use of cool colors and short, quick strokes of paint. You can download my Powerpoint of Monet’s garden here.

We then created an oil pastel and watercolor art work.

Allow three 40-minute sessions for this project.

Materials:

  • 12×18 construction green construction paper
  • 9×12 watercolor paper
  • glue sticks
  • oil pastels in blues, greens, and purples plus white, yellow and pink
  • watercolors in blue, green and purple
  • kosher salt (optional)

Discuss Monet’s art, his pond and garden. Review cool colors. View powerpoint or photos of Monet’s garden.

Fold green construction paper ‘hamburger’ (the short way). Glue watercolor paper to lower half of green paper.

Students use oil pastel to draw bridge, water lilies and foliage.

Review painting of pond and Japanese bridge.

Oil Pastel:

Using oil purple and blue oil pastels, draw three arcs (‘rainbows’) for the Japanese bridge. Add some vertical lines to the bridge to finish. Blend and highlight with white oil pastels.

Review photos of water lilies.

Using various green and yellow oil pastels, draw clusters of lily pads on the watercolor paper. The lily pads don’t have to be perfect – just ovals or quick strokes of pastel. They should overlap a bit. Add a few pink lily flowers, highlight with white.

Fill the entire top half of the green paper with foliage in greens and yellow. Use short strokes. Add a downward cascade of short lines for the weeping willow.  Tell kids to ‘go behind’ the Japanese bridge.

Use short strokes of oil pastel to completely fill the green paper with foliage.

Painting:

Using the cool colors (blue, green and purple), paint the watercolor paper using long horizontal strokes.  Colors can overlap and blend.  Go right over the oil pastel lily pads.

Use purple, blue and green watercolors on the lower half of artwork

Students may add a small pinch of Kosher salt to the wet watercolor. The salt absorbs a bit of color and an additional dimension to the pond. Brush off salt when dry.

Wow!!! This project was a hit! We learned about a famous artist, reinforced color theory, experienced the joy of painting on watercolor paper and blending pastels. All kids were very proud of their artwork. Success!

 

Enjoy!

 

(Note: post updated 12/22/13)

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