Kindergarten Bird Paintings Inspired by Audubon

~ Geometric Shapes, Organic Shapes, and Drawing from Observation ~

Bluejay by Mathias

Kindergarten students learned a little about the artwork of John James Audubon with this lesson. We looked at some of his bird paintings and talked about how he observed birds in nature to see what they really looked like. 

We discussed what drawing from observation meant. Since we couldn't go outside in the cold and get a bird to sit still for us, we did our observation from photographs. I picked out a handful of birds that students would have seen in our area - Northwest Illinois - and printed out pictures for students to look at. We had just done a lesson in shape. We discussed the two kinds of shapes - geometric and organic (free-form) shapes before the students started drawing the bird they picked to do. I continued to remind students to look at the bird and see what shapes they saw and draw what they saw. One student got to giggling at me because I kept repeating "as you draw look at the picture then back to your paper...then back to the picture. Look at the picture...look at the paper...look at the picture..." He repeated "picture - paper- picture-paper" while giggling. But they got the idea and all really looked at the shapes they saw!

After drawing with pencils, I had the students go over the lines with a black Sharpie marker. The next class students painting their birds. Again they picked up the bird photos so that they could look at the colors as they painted. The birds below were painted with tempera cakes.  See more of our Kindergarten birds in our Artsonia gallery.

Mallard Duck by Alandra

Cardinal by Hailey

Robin by Olivia

1st Grade Fields of Poppies

This lesson was inspired by wonderful art teacher Susan Tiedemann from South Brunswick, NJ. Take a look her 2nd graders working on their poppies!

First graders really were able to understand the concepts of background, middle ground, and foreground along with how to use size to make things look farther away and close up.

We started this lesson by working on the Smartboard. I used Notebook software to create a green field and poppies in a variety of sizes - tiny, small, medium, and large. Each student got to come up and pick a poppy and move it to a spot on the field that made sense to them. We worked as a group to decide if the poppy was put in an appropriate place. The students love interacting with the Smartboard.

After working on the Smartboard students painted green lines for our field on a 18x24 paper. The large size and big brushes excited them! We let these dry until next class.
Next class we reviewed background, middle ground, and foreground along with how size makes things look near and far. They worked on painting small, medium, and large poppies in their field. Once the poppies were painted they were able to dab tiny white and yellow flowers using a qtip.

To finish off our paintings students added some lines in the center of the flowers and some more green field lines using oil pastels.

See more of our field of poppies on Artsonia - Roosevelt  & Washington

Jackson Pollock Cats

Second Graders used their marbles to create fun Pollock-like paintings!

Students were introduced to artist Jackson Pollock with the book Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. Then they created Pollock-like paintings using marbles dipped in paint that were rolled around in shallow boxes. Each student had time to do two paintings.

The next class students were read another book - Vincent Van Gogh's Cat. This book was written and illustrated by second grade students from East Washington Academy, Muncie, IN. This book shows a cat jumping out of famous paintings.

Using images of cat silhouettes as reference, we discussed the shapes and lines that made up cats in different poses. Students picked one of their marble paintings from the previous class and drew a cat on the back of it. They then cut out the cat and glued it to a black piece of paper to help the image stand out.

While students were working on the cat drawings, each table of students were invited up to the front of the room to squirt and drip paint onto a large paper to create a class pollock-like mural.

The finished cats were cut out leaving a thin border of black and then displayed on the large class mural.

Here are some of the finished cats:

Moon & Trees with Tints and Shades

5th Grade students worked with tints and shades while creating these beautiful paintings.

This was another idea found on Pinterest....yes, I know - I'm a thief! This was a quick 2 day art lesson - but may have even been done in less. After doing our color wheel worksheet and then discussing tints and shades, student were given blue and white paint. They began by painting a white moon towards the center of the painting. Then gradually created tints by adding a touch of blue to the white, then a bit more, and so on until the sky was completely painted. 

The second class we discussed what a winter or late fall tree would look like after the leaves have fallen off. We also discussed atmospheric perspective. Students were given blue and black this time. They painted the trees using different shades of blue - the darkest one large so it looked up close and smaller ones with lighter shades to look farther back.

The results were great! Definitely a keeper lesson!

See more at http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=445203

Circle Paintings On Display

The Circle Paintings from the first week of school are now on display. I look forward to hearing the student comments as they look at all the paintings! Click here for an explanation of this project.

Crazy or Not - First Art Class of the New Year = Painting!!

The first two weeks of the new year have come to a close and I have a weekend to renew and regroup for week 3. This year I decided to approach the first class with students a bit differently than I have in the past. Instead of spending the 45 minute first class of the year with rules, procedures, and creating art portfolios, I decided that we would jump right into the new year with a fun, energetic project. 

I chose to do "Circle Painting" with my 2nd through 5th graders and adapted it to "circle drawing" with my Kindergarten and 1st grade students (see this modification at the end of this post). If you haven't heard of Circle Painting yet - do a quick Google search on it. There are some YouTube videos out there on the subject also. Here's my take on the basic gist of circle painting: a group of people get together to collaboratively work on a painting. Each person adds something and expands off of what others paint. This can be one large painting or a circle of smaller paintings.  This sounded like a wonderful first day project. As we were working on them I could be emphasizing one of my important rules in my art room - Respect. Working together as a group requires students to respect each other and their ideas. So even though I didn't spend a great deal of time boring students with art room rules -we had fun as one of the rules were explained and practiced.

Here's how I set up my circle painting - 

I have my students in groups. I hadn't yet put my students into seating charts yet -so I just made sure the groups were even. Depending on the size of the class - the groups ranged from 3 to 5 students each. Each table had a large 18x24 white paper labeled on the back with the class code. I squirted a little tempera into about 35 cups (I have some rather large classes this year!). A brush was placed into each cup. Students were sent to put on a paint shirt and pick a cup of paint and stand -not sit- around their table.

Before students were told to start - I went over how they were going to be moving around the room and how they knew when it was time to move. I assigned each table a number 1 student who would be responsible for starting the painting by painting a circle in the center of the paper. Once that student finished the circle the rest of the students could begin to paint on the paper. They could paint inside the circle, outside the circle, adding lines, designs, shapes, whatever they wanted to add. I asked for them not to paint words at all and we went over how to be respectful of what someone has painted. Adding to someones painting is what they need to do - not to destroy or paint over what someone has done.

After I noticed that all students had painted at least a little something painted on the paper at their table I rang a bell or made a clapping pattern that signaled them to move to the next table and continue with that painting. We moved clockwise around the tables and they were allowed to trade paint color at any time. After that initial painting round I only let them paint about 3-4 minutes before I sounded the alert to move to the next table. My goal was to get them to every table and then back to their original table.

Everyone enjoyed the experience. It was interesting seeing the reaction of the students when they returned to the table where the painting had started. Some were pleased at the results, while some were a bit upset because someone had changed something they thought should have been left alone. It was a great cooperative project and I believe it will stick in their memories.

Here are some in-progress pictures from different classes -

Kindergarten and 1st grade modification:
I was not brave enough to do the circle painting with my youngest groups of students. They just were not ready for that. Instead of painting we did the exact same project but called it a "circle drawing". I introduced Line as an Element of Art. We went over how to draw a variety of lines and then I explained how they were going to do these circle drawings.

Using crayons and markers they did the same thing as the older students did with paint - just a lot less mess and confusion. They had fun doing this and were even a bit more cooperative when it came to making marks off of someone else's marks.
Sometime before the end of the school year I plan on revisiting this project with these little ones and have them do the circle painting when they seem ready for it.

Here are some pic from the "circle drawings" -

My Favorite Project

You just have to love Monet's paintings.

The color...the quick brushstrokes...love it love it! So of course this is one of my favorite lessons to do with my students. I started it long ago - probably within the first couple of years of teaching. There has been a few years along the way that I have skipped it to try something new. Last year was one of those years...and I so missed it. So I knew that I needed to make sure and get it in this school year.

I usually target 3rd grade with this lesson. I love 3rd graders...they still have that sense of inhibition with their artwork but are more capable of understanding a bit more complex directions. They are also still very curious.

Here's a finished 3rd grade acrylic painting inspired by Monet-

I start the lesson out by showing the Getting to Know Monet dvd by Mike Venezia. http://www.gettingtoknow.com/videonew.htm I also have a PowerPoint of photos of Monet and the different paintings he did of the Japanese bridge that I go through with the students. This introduction and discussion takes up a whole class period but gives students a good introduction to Claude Monet.

The next class I show students how to use cotton swabs(q-tips) and sometimes stencil brushes to make quick marks to create the "impression" of trees in the background. Using cotton swabs instead of paintbrushes helps the students create quick marks instead of painting smooth areas. I encourage them to dab colors into colors to change the look of different areas of the trees in the background. We usually have time to also complete the water. The water is usually the only area that I have students use paintbrushes on. Large brushes allow for a base coat of blue to go on quickly. I remind student to still try and use quick impressionistic marks. Switching to cotton swabs, students are then encouraged to add other colors into the water like greens and white. I provide lots of Monet images to remind them of the impressionistic marks that they want to use as they paint.

The next class students finish the painting by adding bushes, the bridge, waterlilies, and any extras they wish to include. All of this painting is again done with cotton swabs. I demonstrate an area of my painting then allow them time to work on theirs. The demonstration is not for them to copy what I'm painting - but to learn how to use the tools to create different types of marks. When I show students how to do the bridge I use black first to paint the bridge lines then use a cool color to go over some of these lines. I finish the bridge off by adding some white onto the lines while the paint is still wet. We discuss how this addition of a little white makes the bridge "pop".

When they work on the waterlilies they need to be reminded to use impressionistic dabs and marks and not try to paint a flower shape. If students have time they might add extra bushes or other plants into the painting.

The results of this project are always wonderful!

This year I incorporated a bit of tech into this lesson. While students were working on finishing their paintings I took a picture of them standing in front of a green screen (a big piece of green bulletin paper tacked to a wall) posing as if they are standing on the bridge of their painting. I used Keynote's alpha tool to cut out the green so that I could place the student in a digital image of their painting. This will then be printed out and students will use paint to touch up the bridge in front of them to give the illusion that they are on the bridge in their painting. Students really loved this idea of being able to be a part of their own painting. We are still working on this part of the project - I will post a picture of a finished one as soon as I can.