Cassie Stephens: art lessons

Showing posts with label art lessons. Show all posts

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Mixed Media Exploration and Elements of Art Review!

Recently, when I was working on THIS line design lesson...

Where I shared how to make black glue without actually making black glue...quick video here:

It got me thinking. If you can make black glue that way, then couldn't you do the same with any water-based marker on white paper?

The answer, YEP! You can! And that's how this lesson came to be!

For this project, which I envision would be perfect for 5th grade and up, I started with a 12" square of paper, water-based markers and Elmer's Glue All. Check out the full lesson here:

Once the glue is dry, I used my paper cutter to cut the papers into 4 6" squares. Then I decided to do a mixed media exploration on each!

To alter this lesson, you could always NOT cut the paper and just pick one of the mixed meda methods to do on the entire paper. Just a thought. I did find exploring all of these really fun but I know that would take a several art class days...so I'll leave that up to you!

For the first one, I just used a permanent marker, a cup of water and a paintbrush. I used my Line Design sheet and a permanent marker for the first step. Then I added water to the marker lines to create a blurred line effect with a little bit of a tint of color.

For the next square, I used chalk. Whenever I use chalk in my art room, I always use a color wheel. I created this free color wheel download for you to use, you can access it here!

If you have hesistated to use chalk pastels in your art room in the past, don't sweat it! I created a whole video and blog post of all of my chalk Tips and Tricks and you can see it here!

I also just recently posted a lesson for 2nd grade and up using chalk and line...and you can check that out here!

Okay, back to the lesson at hand! I LOVE chalk and my students do too. I really enjoyed creating this little chalk square study.

BUT THIS ONE...

Was even more fun! For this, students will use bright and light color oil pastel and saturate their paper in color. THEN...

Using a combination of black paint (I used acrylic but tempera would work) and a squirt of dish soap (I only had Dr. Bronner's on hand but Dawn or any other would work!) blended together well, paint over the areas you wish to do scratch art on.

Allow that to dry COMPLETELY before using a skewer to remove the paint and create line designs.

I really recommend adding the dish soap. What it does is help the paint scrap off evenly and not in chips. I've tried it without dish soap before and...it just didn't work as well (chips. We had chips).

So fun, right?

And for the final method, we explore wet-on-wet with watercolor.

Now, when it comes to display, I laid my pieces back out like a puzzle. But these could be displayed individually, on in a vertical or horizontal manner...so many options! I'm so stoked about this lesson. I don't often do lessons for upper grades because I never taught beyond 4th. I do think this could be done with fourth (maybe after Christmas, when they are officially fourth graders) and definitely beyond.

By the way, if you are looking for books, downloads and resources for all things art teacherin', I have a library of them! You can see them all here!

Let's Create...Puppets! An Interview with Furry Puppet Studio!

Zack Buchman and a friend at a Barnes and Noble event, Union Square.

Photo: Dmitri Slepovitch

Hey, y'all! I have a fun treat for you today...

I recently had the chance to chat with Zack Buchman, the Founder and Creative Director at Furry Puppet Studio in Soho. I'm a huge fan of puppets myself, having grown up in the 80's with the likes of Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock. So I was excited to hear from Zack, see the creations of Furry Puppet Studio and share it with you!

I think he and his time would be a wonderful source of inspiration for the art room, don't you? I've included some puppet art lessons at the end of this post, if interested.

Now, let's hear from Zack at Furry Puppet Studio!

What is a puppet design studio?

We're Furry Puppet Studio, a custom-puppet design studio in SoHo, New York. I'm the founder and Creative Director. We design and build custom puppets, creatures, mascots, and marionettes for television, advertising, music videos, and almost everything happens in-house, the foam carving, the mechanisms, the costumes. A lot of people assume this kind of work is mostly digital these days. It isn't. Every puppet we make starts as a block of foam that somebody carves by hand.

How did you get into puppetry?

I've been obsessed with puppets since I was a little kid watching Sesame Street. I actually tried animation first, but it didn't stick. I wanted to be able to touch the character, not just draw it frame by frame. I never went to college. That wasn't really a choice so much as a circumstance, and I do think I missed out on some things. But it also gave me an outsider's perspective, and it pushed me to find people who were generous enough to teach me what I didn't know.

Could you share some of the artists who inspire you and your coworkers at Furry Puppet Studio?

Jim Henson is the obvious one, but I mean that honestly. Early LucasArts games really shaped how I think about a face, Sam & Max Hit the Road especially, where the graphics were so limited that a single pixel had to decide whether it read as an eye or a nose. Beyond that, our team pulls from all over: comics, film, fashion, whatever's caught someone's eye that week.

What was one of the more challenging projects you have tackled at Furry Puppet Studio?

Building marionettes of Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams for their "WTF" music video. Marionettes are hard. They don't move the way you'd expect, and every string has to be reverse-engineered into a personality. We had street performers with very distinct movement styles operating them, so the puppets basically had to be built around how those specific artists already moved. It was completely outside my comfort zone, and I'm still proud of how it came together.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what is the one art supply you'd need to keep creating puppets?

A Blackwing 602 pencil. This is the only pencil I've been using since 2010 and I pretty much always have one on me. For no practical reason. It's my comfort object.

What's the best way for a young artist to get started on their journey into puppetry?

Start now, and start cheap. You don't need special materials. Whatever you've already got around the house can be your first puppet. Let the early ones be bad and fun. That's part of learning how the material behaves. And find people around you who know things you don't, and are generous about teaching you. Be generous back once you're the one who knows something.

Thank you so much, Zack!

I love everything that Zack had to say and I really think his thoughts on creating will resonate with our creatives!

I've done a couple puppet lessons with my students over the years and they have always loved them. I thought I'd share them today as they are tried and true...and a great jumping point for introducing your students to puppetry!

One year, we created Crocodile puppets with first grade!

The back of the crocodile was a weaving. The tail was printed and the rest was a lot of collage! You can find the directions and details here.

For a kid-friendly video to walk you through the process, visit here!

The base of the crocodile puppet is this folded contraption right here...and it's how we created these "Baby Dragon" puppets! Video here!

And we even created these little pop-up puppets! You can check out the video here.

And big thanks to Zack and Furry Puppet Studio for inspiring us with your puppets and creativity!

Line and Pattern Collaborative Painting!

Hey, friends! I'm coming to you today with a lesson that has been rolling around in my head for a while. I know this time of the school year, so many of us focus on LINES and I thought this painting project, that could serve as a school-wide collaborative, would be perfect!

Like my more recent lesson videos, I'm doing a little bit of a teacher-talk at the start of the video to walk you through the prep process. There isn't much but I do think it's important.

By the way, for A TON MORE line lessons, check out this blog post!

Okay, let's dive in!

For this lesson, you'll need:

* 9" square paper

* 9" square template if creating a collaborative mural

* Paint-filled bingo dauber, 1 per 1-2 students

* Tempera paint

OF COURSE you're gonna need a copy of my book, Larry the Line, right?!

I find that templates work great and just make one per table! Then the kids can add the tick marks so they know where to start and end their first lines. I think the mural would work best if those first lines were all the same. I decided to use a dark blue.

I've been using the Prang Tempera Paint and really loving how bold and bright the colors are. Looking for a crash course in using tempera paintin the art room? Check out my Top Ten Tips for Tempera Paint here!

If you do this lesson and post on social media, please be sure and tag me, I'd love to see what you and your artists create! Please do not rewrite this lesson and sell on TPT as your own...I hate to say that every post but, it happens!

Have a great week, friends!

Let's Create a Folk Art Flower Crayon Batik!

I Hey, y'all! Have you ever tried doing a crayon batik with your students? It's something that I've seen art teachers do and have always wanted to try but...just didn't seem to know how to make it happen. Do I use ink or acrylic paint? Do the kids rinse it off or wipe it with a sponge? Do I dilute the paint or no?

I decided to give it a go and I will say this: there was a huge learning curve! I tried several methods and came up with what worked best for me.

But! Even if you don't go the batik route, the flower drawing portion of this lesson still yields beautiful results. Says me.

I created both a video for your artists AND this free download!

And here's the video:

Now, if you don't want to go this route, you could use this flower idea sheet to create this lesson that I did with my second graders. It's always a hit and the results are so stunning:

You can find all the details for that lesson right here! In fact, you can find ALL of my favorite art lessons for spring in that link...and most come with video!

I've always wanted to do a crayon batik lesson. I learned some things along the way and I shared a lot of those tips in the video. But...here are some other things I'd recommend:

* Use thick paper Because this paper is going to be crumpled and then saturated with paint and water, it could tear easily if thin paper is used. I'm using 80 lbs. mixed media paper.

* Work small I learned this the hard way! Because students will be adding color by firmly coloring with crayon, be ready for a little coloring fatigue. A way around that is to use small paper. I used 6" and 4" squares. I wouldn't recommend anything larger!

* Use India ink, not paint I noticed that with acrylic paint, it didn't really stay in the crumbled areas once rinsed where the permanent ink did.

* Crumble the paper ONCE I tried crumbling the paper multiple times to add more cracks and you can see that in the piece that is in the golden frame. However, once I rinsed the ink off the paper, all those cracks caused weak spots in the paper and it did tear in a couple of places. Which leads me to my next suggestion:

* Rinse once and that's it! I would recommend students carry their artwork to you on a tray so as not to drip. Then, simply slide the artwork under the running water, allow the ink to rinse off quickly and then set on a paper-towel covered surface like a counter. This should be a quick process to keep the paper from becoming too saturated and fragile.

And...by the way...the "gold frame" I used for mine is actually a paper plate from Hobby Lobby! I spotted them a while back and had to get them to frame student artwork in!

Also! Are you going to NAEA next week? If so, I'd love to see you there! I'll be hanging out with my friends at Prang in their booth number 117. I'll be there on Thursday, March 20th and Friday, March 21st from 11am - 2pm. I'll have all of my books with me to sell and sign. Prang has some super fun hands-on activities planned for you that I know you'll love!

But if you can't make it, know that you can always find my books here! I always sign my books before sending them out.

Have a great week, y'all!

Let's Make a Sandwich Collage!

Hey, friends! I'm coming at you today with a fun lesson that's the perfect thing to introduce collage, ignite the imagination and review shapes...a Sandwich Collage!

I shared a similar lesson years ago and you can find it here. And, if you want to continue on the food theme, I have a whole unit of lessons for you! It's one of my fave themes and you can find details here.

For this lesson, all you'll need is construction paper, glue or a glue stick, scissors and maybe markers and crayons. I created this video for you to play for your students so...have fun!

For a quick link to the supplies I am using, jump over here!

I mentioned that this lesson would be a great way to reintroduce the element of art of SHAPES to your students. When I wrote my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes, I wanted it to go beyond the basic shape books I had on hand. So I dug into the first and second grade curriculum on shapes and made sure to include that.

As an art teacher, I focused on geometric and organic shapes. However, in the classroom, teachers talk a lot about sides and vertices. Which...I learned from my students! To support the classroom teachers and continue the education of shapes in the art room, I included the vocabulary and standards in my book.

Because Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes introduces so much, I recommend reading it in two parts! On the first day of the collage project, try reading about how line creates shape, the difference between organic and geometric shapes and what makes a shape. The first half of the book chats about geometric shapes, what makes them unique and how to tell them apart. From there, the book discusses organic shapes. Perhaps that could be discussed on the second day, when the artists focus on the organic shapes of the food they wish to include in their collage sandwich.