In the Art Room: How to Paint Skin Tone!

My first grade students learned how to paint their own skin tones last week. When I shared this image on my IG, I was asked by several folks how I taught them to paint their skin tone in 30 minutes. Not gonna lie, with the reading of The Colors of Us and an explanation of just how to mix the "right" colors for us, we were pushing it time-wise. But I'm pretty infamous for running a late. Thankfully, my work buddies are super forgiving. 

Instead of explaining to y'all how I teach the firsties to make their own skin tone, I thought I'd film myself. You can find more videos of me teaching (so as to see what NOT to do, ha!) on my YouTube channel under the playlist A Glimpse Inside. 

Just a note: The book is The Colors of Us by Karen Katz and has been a favorite of mine for years. I read it every chance I get when it comes to us creating selfies. Also, we are using Blick tempera paint. I've used a lot of tempera over the years...definitely splurge on the more expensive stuff. I like Sax Versa Temp, Blick and Crayola...but not the washable stuff. Just a thought since I'm sharing our painting process.

And in case you are wondering what we are creating: our Royal Selfies, thank you very much! This image is from last year. We've just moved on to creating our faces...tomorrow we'll add our hair and start our crowns. If you'd like to see the complete lesson, you can find it here. 

In the Art Room: Charley Harper-Inspired Fawn Collage

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've seen me share my teacher sample of this Charley Harper-inspired lesson. I filmed the demo a week or more ago...and finally got around to editing it and posting it to my YouTube channel. My plan is to do a series of woodland animal videos inspired by Harper...we'll see how many I manage to complete. I have a tendency to be a pokey lil puppy. 

But enough about that, let's get to the lesson video:

Now, like I said, this is the second in a series of Harper-inspired lessons. In case you missed it, the other lesson is a mash-up of van Gogh's Starry Night and Harper. You can find it here. In this lesson, I'm using the same supplies as I did in the raccoon project. Here's the list:

* Faber-Castell Oil Pastels Full disclosure: I work with Faber-Castell frequently and create lessons for them using their supplies. That being said, I do enjoy their oil pastels for a couple of big reasons: they are sturdy. Unlike many other oil pastels I use, they don't break as often. They don't roll! I love that we aren't constantly chasing after them rolling off the tables. AND they are big...some oil pastels are very small and hard to hold for my students. Not to mention, they wear through them quickly. For all those reasons...and the fact that the colors are fabulous...I would definitely recommend these oil pastels.

* Brown Watercolor Paint This is for the light wash used on the raccoon.

* Texture Rubbing Plates or Burlap Don't have texture plates? Burlap makes for a great rubbing surface!

* Construction Paper I love Tru-Ray because the paper doesn't fade and seems stronger than most.

* Tempera Paint 

* Tempera Cakes My new favorite discovery: painting with tempera cakes on construction paper. Like, whut?! The colors stay true and I just love it! 

 I just had a GREAT couple of questions thrown my way after sharing this lesson on YouTube:

Fabulous questions, don't you think? Here's my response...

May I have a soapbox moment? I'm aware that there are art teachers who do not like guided drawing instruction. I've grown tired of folks speaking of the right and wrong ways to teach art. I'm also super leery of those who speak as though they have all the art teacherin' answers. Here's a secret: they don't. NONE OF US DO. We're all working with our students everyday, listening to them and trying to figure out how to best teach this amazing creative process to them. There are many different ways to teach art...and it's good to dabble in them all. But it's no good to put the methods of other art teachers down. Okay, soapbox moment over and out.

I will keep you posted on how these Harper-inspired projects progress! Until then...

In the Art Room: Patterned Landscapes with Houses!

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.

 I would totally live in this colorful village!

Wouldn't you?! 

DIY: Halloween Crafts, Dracula!

News Flash! I have a Halloween Crafting Addition! 

Oh, wait, that's nothing new. Now, I vant to show you how to do dis super simple craft. But first I must count out the supplies...for that I'll need a little help.

Okay, not gonna lie: when I first started these Dracula's, I totally had The Count in mind...I knew I didn't want to portray them super realistically as the surface of the Celluclay doesn't really lend itself to painting easily. So, I decided to go the silly kind of cartoon route and The Count was what came to mind. BUT I suppose I'm getting head of myself. Let's count out the supplies for making this super easy blood-sucker!

1. Aluminum foil! I like the cheap precut sheets you can find at the Dollar Make You Hollar Tree.

2. Celluclay! Y'all know I love the stuff. You do have to mix it yourself...just don't ask me what the measurements are. I don't measure stuff because math is gross and makes my head hurt.

3. Rigid Wrap! I love this stuff and it adheres to the Celluclay without any glue.

4. Acrylic Paint! 

5. Extra: Black Sparkly Glitter! It makes everything better. 

Now, on with the show: 

Seriously, it's that easy! Don't forget to dry in front of a fan and rotate often. Otherwise, mold. And that's just nasty.

Now, when I started to paint the faces, I had no intention of going to mobster-town but, what can I say, they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. Maybe it's because of my summertime bender of re-watching all the Godfather movies and Goodfellas...who knows? All I know is, when I started to paint, these faces appeared and I just went with it. Cuz, why not?

 I started by mixing up a light tint of purple and creating a large T shape for the forehead and the nose. Then I used black for the beady eyes and the eyebrows. From there, I painted a slash for the mouth and some fangs...

 Once the paint dried a pinch more, I went back and added more details: darker purple under the eyes and more highlights to the face. 

 I love it when art takes you to unexpected and unintended places! This is totally not what I had in mind and yet I totally dig it!

A little pinstripe for the paints and white for the socks and I was done. Oh and glitter because, duh, glitter. That fine black sparkle glitter is where it's at, man.

 I added the glitter with some glue and some sprinkling. I will officially be finding black glitter in my house for the rest of time. 

 There's a reason I keep that stuff far, far away in my art room. But at home, I'm all LET THE GLITTER FLY! 

 I'm sure the Godfather would approve. 

 So, up next for these guys, I'll be adding a hanger to the back and adding them to my Candy Corn Tree...where I can find the space. By the way, if you are looking for some Halloween Crafts, I'm uploading more all the time on my YouTube channel...I have a serious backlog of stuff for y'all! 

Until I get the rest of the goblins and ghouls uploaded on this here blog, I'll leave you with these lovelies. 

 Blood-suckingly handsome, don't you think?