So, I totally thought I shared this video lesson with y'all in a previous post but after some digging, I couldn't find it on my blog! So sorry! I oftentimes post a video to my YouTube channel without adding it here simply because I'm crazy and forgetful. However, if you subscribe, you can stay up to date on my instructional videos (along with some other stuff) that you are more than welcome to use in your art teacherin' world.
But first, let's talk about these amazing third grade patterned landscapes!
Forgive me but this blog post is gonna be photo heavy...I'm just in love with this project! Every single one turned out so happy, colorful and bright. Here's the video used to teach this lesson:
This did take us about three and a half art classes. While working on this project, my early finishers worked on this lesson which was a great tie-in what with the pattern review:
My students are now obsessed with drawing three dimensional houses!
I'm going to tell you exactly what art supplies we used for this project because, let's be honest, one of the reasons these look so good is because they are so bright and colorful. Kid artists deserve to use quality art supplies just like grown folk. That's easy to say...but not always easy to afford. The supplies I'm about to share are not bananas expensive...but they aren't your bargain basements fare either.
To start, my students used fluorescent oil pastels by Sargent. These are my favorite to use when we are creating a watercolor resist because of how bold and bright they shine through the paint.
They run about $7 a pop...and I purchase enough for two kids to share. You can find them in just about any art supply catalog. We don't use these all the time...like I said, we love them for resist. I've shared these many times before on my blog, I just love them!
I love both liquid and watercolor paint. However, I wanted the kids to use pan watercolor paint for this project because I'm still learning the liquid watercolor paint ropes. How much water do I add to dilute? It looks black in the cup and that confuses the kids...you get the idea. I'm working on my issues with liquid. When it comes to pan watercolor tho, not all are created equal. I LOVE Crayola's Mixing Colors:
Okay...here's the deal. I didn't always love Crayola's watercolor paint until I discovered theses guys. Here's the deal: DO NOT BUY THIS SET unless you don't have any watercolor trays. Instead, by the refill colors in the set. Here's what I have: I got rid of the black, white and brown from my watercolor trays. Now I have refill pans that I simply pop out and replace of the following Crayola watercolors: red, red-orange, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, blue violet, purple and magenta. I place them in the paint pan in that order.
These photos have not been altered...that's truly how bright the watercolor and oil pastels are! Now you see why I love 'em so!
For our houses, we used cereal boxes. I sent out an email at the start of the year asking for cereal boxes simply because we need that cardboard for projects like this!
The kids used "naked" oil pastels to do a rubbing on the house before either collaging the doors and windows on or painting them. That was a hot mess of a day, not gonna lie. We had paint, cardboard, paper, glue and puffy paint all on the tables.
As far as puffy paint goes, I like Tulip brand that can be purchased in most craft stores. It's expensive at about $3 a bottle...but I LIVE for puffy paint and so do my kids!
Once the houses were dry and the background was complete, the assembly was ready to happen.
I am the proud owner of a TON of foam core from matting and framing artwork. I simply chopped that into bits for our pop out foam.
To really get those houses in the foreground to stand out, the kids made sure to double up the foam core. One piece was used for those in the middle ground and either one or none for the background.
With these complete, my students are moving on...we are now onto creating self portraits for our winter art show!
I decided to give myself a wee break and use a lesson from last year for our selfies...it was a huge hit so I'm excited to give it another go:
We'll be using my favorite chalk brand for this project: Faber-Castell!
Alright, I did say this post was going to be photo-heavy, right?
But, can you blame me?! Each one is just so happy!
I definitely will be doing this project again. I can't think of anything I'd change about it.
Even when some friends went wild with the puffy paint, it worked!
You'll have to keep me posted if you give this project a try in your art room. Please be sure and tag me. Not only would I love to see but it also helps others find the details on the lesson.
Just a peak at the foam core. I stressed that none should be visible from the front of the house.
Today my second grade friends started a new printmaking project that I thought I'd share with y'all. In our 30 minute session together, they were able to watch the first half of the video, discover a little about Andy Warhol, learn some new vocabulary, work with printmaking tools and complete about two sets of prints (one positive and one negative). Whew! Next time, we'll print again to insure that we have enough crisp prints to pick from to create our own Andy Warhol Flower-inspired collage. Lemme show you how we are creating these pop art beauties:
Here's what you'll need: * Colorful copy paper. I found mine super cheap in the Back to School section of Walmart a while back. * Fake flowers. I tried real sunflowers in my experimenting and found that the petals kept falling out onto the printing plate. Fake flowers from the Dollar Tree were my best find. * Acrylic paint. I tried using tempra and it didn't work on the Gelli Arts printing plate. * Brayers * Printing plate. I used Gelli Arts but you could also use this recipe to create your own gelatin plates. * Scissors and glue * Those two little words that get everyone excited: PUFFY.PAINT.
After the kids have created their prints, we'll proceed on to the collage and puffy painting portion of the video. I'll keep you posted in a follow up on just how these colorful beauties turn out. In other news, I kinda sorta totally wanna wallpaper my entire house in these. Who's up for a flower printing weekend?! Party at my house, you bring the flowers, I'll bring the brayers. I'm telling you, this project is so fun, just ask Andy...
I mean, doesn't he look thrilled?! Ha! Love that wonderful Warhol, y'all.
This lesson is going to be followed up by a flower painting project by our next artist inspo: Vincent van Gogh. I thought printing the sunflowers would give the kids a good opportunity to see them up close, check out those textures and better prepare them to recreate them in paint. I'll keep you posted.
Until then, have a super happy and colorful week, kids!
