In the Art Room: Fourth Grade Fauves!

I just wrapped up a super fun and VERY COLORFUL Fauve-inspired self-portrait lesson with my fourth grade kiddos. This lesson included so many things: drawing a cartoon or caricature version of ourselves, using chalk pastel in an unusual way, creating pattern and design with oil pastel for a watercolor resist. It was mixed-media to the max with beautiful results. Here's a quickie lesson I put together just for you and your kiddos:

Lemme just say this: I DO NOT enjoy teaching self-portrait drawing to my older kids. They are so stinkin' hard on them selves that it is painful to watch. We will do a more in depth selfie drawing later this year (if time allows) but for now, this was a fun way to ease in to it. These works of art will be featured in our Artome Art Show and therefore have to be 9" X 12"...I really think this would be a great lesson on a bigger scale as the kids could achieve more detail. 

 Normally, my lesson for fourth grade and Artome is this Romero Britto one. While I love that lesson, it does take forever. Also...I have a group of kiddos this year that would just be frustrated with that lesson. I decided to create a lesson based around their interests (working big and bold!) and their attention span (I know my people, what can I say) and this proved to be it. Each kiddo was super proud and successful. 

 Day One: Each kiddo had a bingo dauber filled with slightly diluted India ink. After doing some quiet sketching for the first five minutes, we gathered and chatted about creating simple selfies on our paper. Because of the large line of the dauber and the small size of the paper, the kids learned quickly that they had to work big and without tiny details. They also were not to use pencil first but to just GO FOR IT. I only had one rule: YOU CAN MAKE AS MANY AS YOU LIKE...but if you start a selfie, even if you think it is a "mess up", you must finish it. Each kid ended up with between 3- 5 to choose from for the next class. Extras will be used in upcoming projects. 

The following art class, we started using chalk and "elephant snot" or liquid starch. I get my Sta-Flo liquid starch from Walmart. The best chalk pastels I have found are made by Faber-Castell. The colors are just so bright!

Day Two: Chalk and starch those bad boys! If they finished one, many kids asked to work on their other drawings. I was totes cool with that!

Day Three: Create a background! Using our Sargent bright oil pastels, we drew patterns all over the background of our selfies. Then we used liquid watercolor over that. Each is just as beautiful as the next! I cannot wait to see these at our art show. Will keep you posted on what the other kiddos are creating!

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