Line Designs with Chalk and Glue!

At this point, I feel like I'm spamming my own blog with LINE lessons! Just for a recap, I'll add links to them all right here:

* Line Sculptures

* Line and Shape Paintings

* All About Me Line Portraits

I'll be sure and do a Best Line Lessons post soon but if you are looking for more ideas now, see THIS review of my fave line lessons here!

And if you are looking for all of my Larry the Line lessons, see the end of this post!

Before we dive into the lesson at hand, let me just share my LOOOOVE of lessons with black glue! Now for some of these, I didn't know about this epic time-saving hack and I MADE my own black glue with ink and Elmer's Glue All. It's a REAL DRAG, lemme tell you: the bottles clog, the ink spills, the glue leaves a permanent mess because of the ink...it's all such a pain. I will say...the end result of the black glue versus this hack is better but not so much that it's worth the hassle. 

Here's some of my very favorite black glue lessons:

* Abstract Faces Inspired by Sandra Silberzweig

* Black Glue Tigers with Chalk

* Black Glue Abstract Fish

* Stained Glass Trees

When we use chalk, this is our set up: a divided tray with warm and cool colors and black, gray and brown removed. These divider trays were donated to the art room from a hospital...so I can't tell you exactly where they are from. BUT I do love that they keep the colors separate. 

We also use a tissue for cleaning our finger AND a laminated color wheel.

I always get so many questions on where I got the color wheel...I found it online YEARS ago and I couldn't tell you where. So...I made one for you! You can download it here.

And now for the lesson! Here you go:

I know art teachers tend to have a love/hate with chalk pastel (I just call it chalk)...it's messy and often the artwork smears. BUT I love the stuff. The colors are bold and bright. And if you use a color wheel and really teach the kids about analogous colors, I think you'll find it fun to teach. I use that same color wheel method you saw in the video for every chalk lesson.

For my VERY favorite chalk lessons and more of my tips and tricks, visit here!

When studenst are done with their chalk lessons, I will often spray their work with an aerosol hairspray like Aqua Net from the dollar store. It will dull the work a pinch and can leave little speckles of spray but...it works pretty good. As long as the artwork is not man-handled much once complete, the spray works fine.

And, OF COURSE, if you don't have my book on LINE and SHAPE already, now's the time to get 'em!

You can find Larry the Line here.

And Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes here!

Line and Shape Paintings!

Y'all, I don't know if you have noticed but...I'm on a bit of a lesson-sharing roll lately and I hope you all are here for it! Because...I have much more to come. The best way to stay tuned is to check back here often, join my email list or subscribe to my YouTube channel. My lessons are always FREE and usually come with free downloads too. 

I'm so excited about this lesson!

This video lesson has THREE lessons in it...and you can decide what works best for you and your artists. Before we dive in, here are the supplies I used:

* Oil Pastels (I like neon ones, you can find them here)

* Square paper (I only use 80lbs paper)

* Ink-filled bingo daubers

* Watercolor Paint

This first portion of the lesson goes perfectly with my book Larry the Line...if you don't have it and would like to take a look, you can find it here. 

This video is broken down into three different lessons. It's perfect for a wide range of learners! Here's what I would recommend: K-6th Grade: Everyone can do the first portion of this lesson! It's a wonderful line introduction and review. Students will also learn how to use their watercolor paint to add color. 3rd-6th Grade: The second portion of this lesson is great for these learners as it will introduce them to geometric and organic shapes as well as positive and negative space. 4th - 6th Grade: The final portion is perfect for these learners but does require paint pens (I am using the POSCA brand) or metallic Sharpies. I know these supplies can be pricey so you may wish to limit this portion of the project based on the supplies you have available.

The second half of this lesson focuses on SHAPE. I dive into all things shape in my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes!

I dive in deep in this book...I wrote it when I noticed that most books on shape just focus on learning the names of shapes and seem to cater to very young children. I used the second grade curriculum to guide me in writing this rhyming book and it covers ALL things shape!

For this final portion, students can use paint pens or metallic sharpies. Both can be pricey...which is why I recommend this for your older students who may take better care of supplies. 

Regardless of which portion of this lesson you use, I know you and your artists will love it! I especially know they will love the first portion of creating lines from sounds!

If you have not used ink-filled bingo daubers, I have lots of info about it here. It's one of my very favorite art supplies!

Thanks for letting me share, y'all! Have a great weekend!

16 of My Favorite Watercolor Lessons!

Hi, friends! 

Since I recently shared a tips and tricks video on all things watercolor paint, I thought I'd dive in with my very favorite watercolor lessons of all time. I have 16 of 'em just for you but before we get to those...I thought I'd share some of my all things watercolor.

Let's start with PAPER! If you'd like to check out the blog post on paper, visit here.

Now let's talk supplies! You can find my list of supplies right here.

For ALL of my watercolorin' tips and tricks, check out this video here!

And here's a short video of me introducing my kindergarten students to watercolor!

If one of the things your students struggle with is BRUSH CONTROL (or just not abusing those poor paintbrushes!), might I recommend my Paintbrush Ballerina method? You can kick things off with my book The Paintbrush Ballerina and then dive into my free downloads!

First, I recommend using these (totally free) downloads. Slide them into sheet protectors and allow students to practice their brush control with just water. I'll show you what I mean and share the downloads here.

Once complete, students can 'graduate' to painting with watercolor paint in these fancy frames...and even earn a Paintbrush Pro certificate! Those downloads are here.

Now let's get to those lessons!

In my Tips and Tricks video, I share that one of my favorite things to do is create customized watercolor trays. I like to have a warm and a cool tray on hand as that allows my students to explore with watercolor paint without the messy/muddy paintings. Warm and cool colors are analogous which means that they not only sit next to each other on the color wheel but...they also look great when mixed! 

For this second grade lesson, students had to decide which they wanted to use: warm or cool. Then we traced a circle and created this sunset or sunrise scene.

Once dry, we created these silhouettes with India ink. You can find the lesson details here!

And see how we wrapped up the lesson here. Aren't they so pretty?!

Here's an oldie from over 10 years ago but LOOOOK how pretty! This is a similar process to painting the background with an exploration of Ming vases. Details here.

This one might be my favorite!

Another example of my students using the customized watercolor trays is this kindergarten rainbow lesson!

If you'd like to see my introducing watercolor paint to my kindergarten friends, visit here!

Now this lesson is usually one I do with tempera cakes BUT you could also do it with watercolor paint. It's the perfect rainbow follow up lesson for kindergarten (or any grade!). Lesson here!

So precious, I would frame it!

For another rainbow lesson, check this one out!

Now I never did a blog post on what we did with those rainbows but...I do have the evidence! I did this lesson EVERY YEAR (which is wild I never blogged about it) and they always made me so happy. We created the sun and cloud images and added them later. We used blue chalk to add color to the sky before we added the cloud and the sun.

Exploring abstract painting is always fun...especially when you can tie it in with the combo of crayons or oil pastels and watercolor. They always look so fab together! This could also be a super fun LINE review. Which seems like the perfect time to reread my book Larry the Line! Find this lesson here.

What do you do with the abstract paintings? Well, you could just admire their beauty OR...use them for weaving! Details on first grade paper weaving here!

Now I don't think I ever created a lesson on this one (my googling turned up empty handed) but what we did with the weavings was create these fun houses! To do this, we painted with tempera on a large sheet of paper a sky and the ground. Once dry, we cut out a house silhouette and glued it over our weavings. Early finishers had fun learning how to do a little bit of stitching!

Here's a spin on pattern making and resist! My first graders created these and you can find out how here. 

I love this lesson for learning how to do a fun wet-on-wet technique. In the video, I'll walk your artists through the process and they will love the magic! 

Once dry, students can use permanent markers to create floral designs on the watercolor paint. Find the lesson and the free download right here!

One of my VERY favorite things to do is create these texture cards for use with oil pastels and watercolor. I've created several vidoes on how to create these but...it's so easy! Just use tag board and glue to draw some line designs. I used the line ideas I created in Larry the Line.

To create them quickly, I cut a ton of those little cards and laid them all on a table before attacking them with lines drawn by my glue gun. Then my kindergarten friends used oil pastels to create texture rubbings!

From there, they painted over the texture rubbings with watercolor before using ink filled bingo daubers to add an alphabet. This lesson is always a hit! Also...those texture cards will last FOREVER. I made one set and used it for over 10 years! Lesson details here.

This lesson was created for a sub to use and the kids LOVED it! This one comes with a video and a free download. You can find it here!

The download is actually here! I just love this lesson so much!

Check out this fun one! This could be the next step in the house lesson  where your artists create little pop up houses. The most fun was in created the patterned background. Lesson details here.

Okay, so I didn't realize I had a thing for house lessons! The little road was my favorite part of this project. Find the lesson details and video here.

I love a lesson that ties in a couple of concepts. This one explores LINE (featuring Larry!) as well as the wet-on-wet watercolor technique. You can find the full lesson here.

I love a fun and funky art project and this one, which is also a shape review, is just that. You can find the video lesson here. 

Another shape lesson is this one! Both of these lessons are based on my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes!

Let's Learn Shapes: Funny Face Geometric Shapes!

Recently, I shared a lesson on organic shapes. Today I thought I'd share one on geometric shapes!

Both lessons are inspired by my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes. You can check it out here!

And before I forget...I did create a BIG post of my top 12 favorite lessons on shape! You can check out all of those lessons here. 

Back to the lesson at hand! In this one, students will use watercolor paint and a wet-on-wet technique to create their jumble of geometric shapes! For my favorite watercolor supplies, you can visit here.  Here's the video lesson:

This lesson pairs perfectly with my previous one on organic shapes so they are fun to do together. And they are quick lessons, so no need for a lotta days set aside for this!

Transparency film is totally not necessary BUT...I have found that kids love to draw on the slick surface of a dry erase board. With that in mind, I thought of my stash of transparency film when it came to these projects. If you ask around at school, there is usually a ton under a pile of dust somewhere in the librarian's closet! Or you can pick it up here. 

OR students could simply draw directly onto their paintings!

This shape sheet can be found in the back of my book!

OR you could just totally leave 'em like this! I love the look of these with the watercolor dots!

Regardless, I do hope you and your amazing artists have fun!