These rainy spring days have really got me daydreaming of summer. This bright citrus project seemed appropriate, very bright and sunny. I brought an assortment of sliced citrus fruits to class and let each student choose one. Students drew from observation in pencil, then outlined in black crayon. I think students were surprised at the […]
This is one of those projects that look simple but are filled with learning opportunities. Atmospheric perspective is creating the illusion of depth in a painting by simulating the effect atmosphere has on the color and detail of objects. Students began by mixing tints and shades of green to paint tall redwood trees. We began […]
Back in December (Yes, I am behind in posting!), we had a Christmas Workshop. It was a lot of fun, but the holidays kept me so busy, I am just now getting around to sharing the projects. For the main project, I decided to have students illustrate a partridge in a pear tree. We sang […]
I normally don’t do Day of the Dead projects, but I decided to give it a shot this year. We started by reading a cute book, The Dead Family Diaz. It was light and humorous with great illustrations. We started out by drawing our skulls on black paper with white oil pastel. We painted the […]
At least once a year, I like to do a self portrait project. If I do one at the beginning of the year, we might be able to fit another one in at the end of the year and see how they have changed and improved. Students had a mirror to look at themselves. We […]
For the last couple of weeks, we have been working on painting flamingos. We broke the flamingo shape down to a circle and an oval and then drew the basic outline. This project was really about painting and mixing colors. We used tempera paint, and for most of the colors, we mixed right on the […]
We spent the last two classes of this session learning about Matisse and painting apples inspired by his “Apples on a Table.” Our focus on this project was on mixing colors and creating shadows and highlights. We discussed how Matisse distorted the perspective intentionally as part of his composition. Before we drew the apples, we […]
With their distinct bright red coloring, cardinals make a wonderful subject for an art project. Since I have a wide variety of ages in my classes right now, I taught two different versions of this lesson. For the younger students, I did a guided directed drawing for the cardinal. The older students drew from photographs […]
For the first project of this last session of the year, we learned about Henri Rousseau. Rousseau’s story is one of dedication and perseverance. He didn’t begin to paint until later in life and never had a lesson. The art world in Paris literally laughed at him year after year, but he kept painting. Towards […]
We did self portraits last spring, but I really like to have students do one or two a year. It is so fun to see their progress. There was a little grumbling when I said we would be doing self portraits again, but I think they were all impressed with how much they had improved. […]
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