Kindergarten - Playing with Primaries

The kindergartners love painting! This week they really practiced washing their brushes well between colors. While they've had fun mixing paints in the past, it was their goal to not mix the paints at all for this non-objective primary color painting. I'd say they did a good job!

1st Grade - Mondrian paintings

We studied Piet Mondrian to learn about horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.

The 1st grade students glued black paper lines onto their white paper.

The following class, they used red, yellow and blue to paint in white spaces or even on the black lines.

Kindergarten - Shape Collage/Line Painting

Kindergarteners are learning a lot about shapes and lines this quarter.  They made their first collage and took their first jab at painting in elementary school art class in this one lesson!  To simplify things, they only used green and yellow paints (which I pre-mixed with white to better show up on the black paper) and painted their little hearts away.

5th Grade - Monochromatic Collages

This was a multi-faceted project that took itself in a different direction than originally intended - I love when that happens!  It started as a lesson in value, and mixing paints to make a whole palette of various tints and shades of the same color.  Our "palettes" are just pieces of wax paper.  Typically, I have students use little foam plates for mixing colors and we just rinse and re-use them.  However, this time, I realized it wasn't very time efficient for the amount of mixing they'd be doing in 45 minutes.  It worked great - clean up was so easy!

 Next, I asked the 5th graders to paint a piece of paper with all the tints and shades they mixed.  They only had the one class period to do it, so they couldn't think too hard about what was going on the paper!  I encouraged just lines and shapes.

They next class, they explored various ways of cutting up the painted paper and gluing it to the black paper to start a collage.   Some students chose to build their collage 3-dimensionally.

 I also encouraged them to incorporate any of the "odds and ends" from around the art room; fabric, beads, pipe cleaners, yarn, etc...  They could only use objects that fit into their monochromatic color scheme, though!  Some students also added finishing touches with metallic sharpies.



1st Grade - Leaf Color Wheels

First graders began this lesson by painting a pre-folded piece of paper with the primary and secondary colors.  Many times I'll have the older students mix colors on a foam plate, but for this, I had them mix the secondary colors directly on the paper.  I was pleased with how well that worked.  Also, since we were working with tempera paint, I had them use magenta for red and turquoise for blue.  They mix much better than regular red and blue.

Next, they used one of the many beautiful fall leaves from outside and traced it on each of the 6 colors.  They also had to draw on the veins of the leaf after tracing.

They cut out the 6 leaves.

The final step was to glue the leaves in the correct color wheel order on the black circular piece of paper.

4th Grade - Picasso Portrait Paintings

I decided to change up a lesson I did last year with the 4th graders.  This year, they still learned about Picasso's abstract portraits, but instead of coloring the portrait with tissue paper, they painted it.  Also, instead of painting a full background, they drew a patterned border with markers.  They're just about done, and I love how they came out!

Summer Art Lessons

I've had a couple girls that have been coming over for art lessons this summer.  They just finished these landscape paintings today.  They loved working on canvas and did a great job!

Kindergarten - Watercolor Explorations

This is a lesson I like to do with Kindergarteners towards the beginning of the school year.  They are just learning how to use brushes and paints, so I ask them to fill the paper with color - leaving no empty white space.  While they work, there are lots of reminders to rinse their brush between colors!  The next class, when the paintings are dry, they use black markers to draw on top of them.  Some use their imagination to turn their paintings into a scene, and some just use the painting as a colorful background to their drawing.  Simple and fun!

2nd Grade - Keith Haring figure paintings

Students loved posing for each other in this Keith Haring-inspired painting lesson.  They used their sketchbooks and drew at least 3 different poses - many did more because they were having so much fun!  Then, they used those sketches in their final painting.  They added patterns, designs, and a lot of color!

1st Grade - Fall Leaf Prints

First graders enjoyed using the leaves they collected from outside the art room and painting them with warm colors (plus white) to print them.  They used gold to paint the veins of the leaves.  Their backgrounds were completed by dabbing on cool colors with a cotton swab.

2nd Grade - Complementary Portraits

There was a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, with this lesson.  First, students drew a portrait.  It could be realistic or more abstract - their choice.  Next, they chose just one color (of oil pastel) to color it in.  They got to also use white and black oil pastels to create different values of that one color.  Lastly, backgrounds were painted with it's complementary color.

Kindergarten - Secondary Color Paintings

Students had a fun time mixing secondary colors after reading the book, "Mouse Paint."  They explored with the colors and painted a masterpiece of their choice!

 

3rd Grade - Pop Art Ice Cream Paintings

Students had a lot of fun creating the most wonderful and delicious picture of ice cream that they could think of.  These began as a pencil drawing and were painted with watercolors, mostly using the "wet-on-wet" technique.  The last step was to outline using black sharpie.