More Giraffes!

Our Friday afternoon class made these awesome giraffes!

We celebrated World Giraffe Day by creating these beautiful mixed media giraffes. 

They were sketched on 12 x 18 white sulfite paper, painted, cut out, and glued to a piece of black sulfite paper along with several leaves that we also painted and cut out to show a bit of the giraffe's habitat. 





After they were sketched we used oil pastels to create and outline the spots on the giraffe. That way the oil pastel resisted the paint. We used cake temperas since liquid temperas would be too thick to work.



Next we cut out our leaves and our giraffes.

Then we arranged everything on the black paper, with a goal of overlapping a few of the leaves behind or in front of the giraffe for a more 3-D look. When they looked awesome, we glued everything down.

Our thanks to That Artist Woman for this great art project idea!

Amazing Giraffes!

Did you know June 21 is World Giraffe Day?

To celebrate giraffes, we created giraffe art!

These were no ordinary giraffes... ours were abstract giraffes that displayed interesting patterns and symbols in their spots.

These works of art were first sketched in pencil using our flip flop template (with a few adjustments) for the head. Then we added the neck and painted the background.



The giraffe was painted in a light color of choice, then the spots were added. After they dried, each spot was embellished with a pattern or symbol and the facial features were added. Then the entire figure was outlined in black, and symbols were added to the background as an option. 



This is a liquid tempera on white 9" x 22" poster board.   

This is my sample, but as always, the kids' artwork is so much more imaginative and spontaneous than my own! 

Little Artists Paint Like Monet!

This week our little artists painted Monet's Japanese footbridge.

We first examined a few versions of this painting and learned that Monet painted the bridge many times. He was an impressionist so capturing light and color were most important to him. He painted the bridge in the morning, in full sunlight, and at sunset. He painted it during different seasons.



I taped a piece of watercolor paper to each board ahead of time. Then the children drew their bridges using at least two or three blues and greens and pressing the oil pastels hard.

They then drew in their waterlilies beneath the bridge using green and any other colors they wanted, again, pressing hard.

Finally, I quickly sponged other each piece with a wet sponge, and they added dabs of turquoise, blue, violet, and green. It was fun to watch the colors spread and to see the oil pastels resist and poke through the paint. 

We added course salt to the wet paint to add texture and sparkle to the water. We had to wait a bit for the salt to do its magic! 

Yup! That's right. Four- and five-year-olds can paint like Monet!

Funky Folk Art!

Our Little Artists made these Funky Chickens.

This week we created crazy critters! We learned a bit about folk art, and then we used lines, patterns, shapes and colors to create our own folk art creatures!




Then, our older kids made these colorful "croco-gators!" 

They painted basic shapes (like rectangles, triangles, and circles) to create the basic body shape. 




Then they divided the shape into sections and filled each with patterns and/or colors. We used liquid tempera paint on 11 x 22 inch black poster board. 

Rainbow Trout for Dad

We painted these beautiful rainbow trout for Dad or Grandpa or whoever might need a Father's Day hint to take a child fishing!

First, we observed the shape and details of a trout and we sketched it lightly in pencil on a 12" x 18" sheet of 130 lb watercolor paper. Then we went over our sketch with a black Sharpie, adding additional details like spots and lines in the fins, and we erased any stray pencil lines with a big soft eraser.




Next, we observed how the rainbow of colors are distributed in the trout, starting with green along the top and ending with green at the bottom. 

We worked on blending and lightening our colors using water, and we created new colors in our palettes.





We painted the head and fins as desired, using many of the colors that we created earlier.








To complete the painting, our artists could simply paint in a watery background and sprinkle it with rock salt, or cut out the fish and glue to piece of black sulphite paper. 

Our thanks to Apex Elementary Art for this awesome art project idea!

Art for Father's Day!

This week our Thursday art classes made artwork just for Dad!


These are little watercolor paintings in frames that were created using natural elements to match the subject of the painting.


The children worked very hard on this gift for their fathers and were proud of the finished results!




As a bonus, each artist created not one but two small watercolor paintings. That way they could choose their favorite to frame and keep the other painting for themselves.



The paintings were created from observation using photos of nature from our resource files.  The artists then mixed their own colors and created textures, shadows, and details using a variety of brushwork techniques.

Our Little Artists made ROBOT Dads and Kids for Father's Day!

This is a collage project similar to the Invitation to Create Robot Lab in which the materials and tools are made available on the table and the kids just go to town.

We set out paper scraps, strips of cardboard, bits of straws, googly eyes, sequins, beads, small metal fasteners, glue, scissors, and markers. 

And as you can see from these pictures, these Little Artists went to town!

Once they were finished with their masterpieces, we found the just the right letters to personalize our gifts of art for Father's Day!