K – 6 Art

Thinking about a self-portrait project? This project starts as a basic self portrait but turns into a family ancestry art project when students add in national flag designs. This lesson uses basic materials and takes just two 40-minute classes. It comes straight from the wonderful Artisan Des Arts blog.

Materials:

• White drawing paper, 12″x18″
• Pencils and erasers
• Chisel-tip markers (we used Mr. Sketch)
• reference photos of national flags

We began by looking at the great student examples on the Artisan Des Arts blog post. Then I asked the students, ”Where does your family come from?” After a quick discussion,  Next we looked at flags of the world. Then the students drew their portraits in pencil.

Because most of our students have mixed heritage, they had the option of using multiple flags in their design.  It was up to them to figure out their own designs. The most common choice was to have one flag design on the face and a second on the shirt.

As a final touch, students had the option of cutting out their self-portraits and mounting them to construction paper.

I really look forward to our next art show.  I think the parents will be THRILLED to see their heritage honored in this project.

What a fabulous lesson plan! I will definitely repeat next year. Thanks to Aly at Artisan des Arts for sharing this great project.

Do you have a special twist on a portrait project?

Third graders just finished making reflection prints. They made reflections of the canal homes in Amsterdam, and they just loved the printing process.

Materials:

• white paper, 9″x12″ (we used sulphite paper)
• watercolor markers (we used Mr. Sketch)
• oil pastels (we used Crayola)
• spray bottle

Day 1:

We looked at photos of canal homes in Venice, Italy and Amsterdam. The third graders were excited to see houses that had canals out front instead of streets! We looked at this photo of Amsterdam canal houses, and paid special attention to the reflection of the houses in the water.

Houses in Amsterdam reflected in canal. Photo source:

Then we looked at this beautiful artwork, ‘Canal Homes of Amsterdam’ by San Diego artist Grant Pecoff. Students noticed  how the reflection was wavy, probably because of waves on the canal. They also noticed the roof tops were a little wavy as well!

Canal Homes of Amsterdam by San Diego artist Grant Pecoff.

Time for the art project!

1. Fold paper ‘hot dog style’. On the upper half, make canal houses. Color the sky completely.

2. Take artwork to the printing station. Spray the lower half of their artwork with water.

3. Fold the colored half down and rub.

4. Open carefully. If the color didn’t transfer to the bottom half, spray a little more water and try again.

Let dry.

Day 2:

The dry artworks looked great. However, we noticed the top half was a little blurry after printing. The students re-outlined the buildings on the top half of their reflections. Then they re-colored the top half with matching oil pastels.

After the reflection has dried, re-outline top half and color in with matching oil pastels.

We mounted these without left and right borders so they can be displayed side by side, just like real canal houses!

This lesson was adapted from this fun lesson on the Fine Lines blog. To learn more about San Diego artist Grant Pecoff, and see more of his colorful artworks, please visit his website .

Enjoy!

It’s spring! Time for a butterfly art project. How about a lesson that delivers perfect symmetry, color and fun in only one 40-minute session?

Materials:

• round (basket) coffee filter paper, white (available at the dollar store)
• Sharpies
• watercolor markers (we used Crayolas)
• pencils
• spray bottle of water

Instructions:

1. flatten coffee filter
2. fold filter in half.
3. use sharpie to draw 1/2 a butterfly on the folded paper.
4. Trace over all the Sharpie lines again (this helps transfer ink to the other half of the filter paper).
5. Open the paper. 
6. Retrace all the faint lines with Sharpie.
7. Re-fold the paper into its original position.
8. Color the folded paper using watercolor markers. We used warm and neutral colors for the butterfly, and cool colors for a band around the edge of the paper.
9. Place folded filter paper on drying rack, colored side facing up.
10. Spray with water. I try to saturate the paper (note: put some newspaper on the floor under your drying rack to catch the colored drips).
11. Let dry before removing from rack.

I love the faux tie-dye effect created by the diffused color. I also love the round format. Bonus: coffee filters are available at the dollar store! So this project costs a couple of cents.

Second graders use Sharpie and crayola marker to make symmetric butterflies. Allow one 40 minute session.

Inspiration for the Sharpie/coffee filter/watercolor marker method goes to Kati Oetken at ARTASTIC!

More coffee filter art experiments on this post.

Don’t you just love a beautiful surprise? The third grade made Japanese fans from this post on ARTASTIC! . So much fun! After they dried, I opened the folded paper and discovered these:

This happy accident occurred because the students
1) completely colored 1/2 the round with watercolor marker
2) probably sprayed a lot of water on the folded filter paper (I let the kids spray their own papers. Not only that – I had a 3rd grader supervise the spraying process!)
3) used white crayon selectively as a resist for clouds, snow and fish scales
4) used new (wet!) sharpies for the black lines

I’m thinking symmetry or reflection project for next year.

Check out all the instructions on Kati Oetken’s ARTASTIC! Blog.

Have you had a beautiful surprise result? Do tell!

Sixth graders carve erasers with their own abstract design and use them to print individual and group artworks.

Sixth grade is making eraser stamps.

I learned the method from Geninne’s Art Blog. Geninne has a fabulous tutorial on stamp-making including an instructional video. This assignment has two parts….1) create an abstract design stamp and 2) create a stamp based on your initials.

Part 1: Abstract Design

Materials:

• Magic Rub vinyl erasers
• Pencils
• Paper (copy paper is fine)
• Tracing paper
• Popsicle stick or ruler
• Lino cutter (student grade – we used the ones from this Soft Kut class pack)
• Stamp pads
• Watercolor markers (we used Crayola)

I teach this assignment with a packet of handouts…

Explain to students we will be cutting away the white portions of their design…..since they are beginners, the design should be fairly simple. No letters, no words, no numbers!!!!

Here are some sketches…I have to approve their final designs before they cut.

After approval, students transfer design to eraser. Placed traced design ‘dirty side down’ on the eraser and rub with edge of Popsicle stick to transfer.

Carve eraser:

Rules:

• Stay seated.
• Keep eraser flat on the table.
• Grip cutter as if it was a pencil.
• Make shallow cuts, not deep.
• Your cutting hand should stay low, close to the table. Your wrist can go up about an inch above the table.
• Direct cuts away from your body.
• Rotate eraser so that cuts are directed away from your hand.
• Cut away white portions of design.

Printing:

Time to print! Students could use a stamp pad or color their erasers with watercolor markers (we used Crayola markers). The stamp pad method is quick, but the marker method allows more variety.

Instructions on the board.....

Student Results:

Carved eraser stamps inked with watercolor marker.

6th grade artist thought overlapping colors 'looked 3D'

This student hand-colored her stamp with markers.

Group project with three stamps (hand-colored with markers).

Student hand-inked design inspired by Nike logo and colored negative space with marker.

Many students said this was their favorite project ever!!!! They are clamoring to go on to part 2, a design based on their initials. To be continued!

It is also a special joy for me to see the 6th graders complete the project – I have had about 25% of these kids since they were 5 years old and learning how to write their names.

This printmaking project is also great opportunity to discuss art principles and elements: repetition, unity, and variety. It is appropriate for grades 6-12.