Fine lines

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 12 cm
2. coloured construction paper A4 size
3. pencil
4. ruler
5. scissors
6. cutter and cutting mat
7. glue

This lesson is about lines. What kind of lines do you know? Straight, wavy, curved, bumpy, broken, spiral, zig-zag. Discuss different types of lines and let students draw examples on the blackboard.

Draw with a pencil nine different lines on the black paper with 2 cm between them. Cut the sheet carefully following the lines and place the individual pieces in cut order on the coloured paper.
Draw with a pencil on the left and bottom of the colored sheet lines on 1 cm from the side. Paste the first black strip on the coloured sheet against the drawn lines. Paste the other strips with about a half cm space between them against the pencil line left.

When all stripes are pasted, cut at the top and right the excess coloured paper away leaving a frame of 1 cm.

Tumbling blocks

Even though I'm not a fan of colouring pages, this one was a hit in my classroom!

You need:

1. printed sheet with tumbling blocks
2. markers

I downloaded a sheet with tumbling blocks on Incompetech, a site full of free downloadable graph papers. Students had to choose three colours markers to colour the blocks. When finished, cut the drawing and paste it on a coloured background.

There's a ghost in my bedroom!

Made by Maarten, 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A5 size
2. indian ink
3. dip pen
4. pencil
5. paper towel
6. black paper for background

Help, there are ghosts in my bedroom! Behind the wardrobe, Achter de kast, under the bed, under the rug.... Sketch your room with a pencil: bed, wardrobe, toys, window, door. Draw ghosts on several places. Trace the drawing with indian ink. Leave the ghosts white, and fill the rest of the drawing in with various textures. Look for a lesson on texture at this link: Exercise in drawing texture. Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

Made by Floor, 11 years old

Mirror faces

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. markers

Which facial expressions do you know? How do you draw the expression of a face? Talk about faces and emotions and show students with pictures or quick drawings how faces can change with certain emotions. Consider the state of the mouth, eyes and eyebrows.
Divide the sheet into four sections by drawing three diagonal lines from top to bottom to bottom. Then draw a diagonal line from about the middle of the short side to the first vertical line. Do the same to the second line, third line and go through to the other short side of the sheet. See picture a.

Picture a.

Then pull vertical diagonal lines from top to bottom; be sure the lines go right through the middle of the sections. See picture b.

Picture b.

Draw the half of a face to the red line of the first upper left section and draw the mirror image on the other side of the red line. Choose two colours markers. Colour the facial parts of one half. Colour the background or the other half, leaving the facial parts white. Draw another face in the section below and colour it as written above, but change coloured in white. See picture c.

Picture c.

Finish the drawing and draw as many facial expressions as you know. Colour everything, alternating white and colour as a checkerboard. See picture d.

Picture d.

Magnificent magnifier

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. coloured paper for background
4. magnyfying glass

Give students a magnifying glass and send them out to look how things increase looking through it. How does a blade of grass look through the magnifier? Or tree bark? Leaves? Flowers? Insects?

For this lesson children draw something from nature. Part of the drawing has to be seen through a magnifying glass. This magnifying glass will actually be drawn too. That what is seen through the magnifying glass, has obviously to be much more detailed as the environment.

Stained glass spiderweb

You need:

1. black construction paper 15 by 15 cm
2. transparant drying glue
3. pencil
4. ruler
5. metallic markers

Draw a horizontal and vertical line through the middle of the paper. Draw two diagonal lines too. Trace these lines with transparent drying glue. Draw circles with the glue around the middle. Then draw glue circles around the center, each with one centimeter space between them. Waint until the glue has dried and colour the spaces between the lines with metallic markers. Trace the glue lines with a silver marker.

Birds in the style of Corneille (2nd lesson)

This lesson about Corneille is almost the same as the lesson I posted a few days earlier. However, drawings in this lesson are made with oilpastels by students in a lower grade.

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. coloured ink
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille

Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist who is born in Belgium and died this month in France. He is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter who was highly admired by Corneille. As a painter Corneille is an autodidact. In his early years, he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes.

In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBRA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBRA group. The artists' group leaves only three years, but has been the basic for the work of Corneille. According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing unprejudiced with colours and shapes.

Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?

Show examples of Corneille's work on the digital board. What issues do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the salient features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

Draw the outline of a bird with a black crayon and make sure this animal reaches at three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Colour the bird in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background with deluted blue ink. Glue or staple the drawing on a coloured sheet.

All artworks made by students of grade 3

Report of my holiday

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. colour pencils
3. markers
4. atlas

At the beginning of a new year in school children often make a drawn report of their holiday. Where have you been? Where is that area of country? Which language is spoken there? What What currency is used? What have you done there? Where did you stay? To which sites have you been? What else did you do there?

The mission is: make a drawn holiday report and write interesting information in your drawing.

Both works are made by students of 11 years old

In the style of Corneille

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. paper towels
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille

Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist who is born in Belgium and died this month in France. He is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter who was highly admired by Corneille.
As a painter Corneille is an autodidact. In his early years, he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes. In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBRA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBRA group. The artists' group leaves only three years, but has been the basic for the work of Corneille. According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing unprejudiced with colours and shapes.
Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?

Show examples of Corneille's work on the digital board. What issues do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the salient features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

In this lesson, students may only sketch very briefly, to avoid drawing to many details and to force them to work big. Allow them to scetch with a pencil for only 5 minutes. Children can also choose to sketch with a narrow brush and light yellow paint. This will automatically result in working big with little details. The yellow lines can easily be painted with different colours later.

Sketching with yellow paint

Scetch the outline of a cat or a bird and make sure this animal reaches at least three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Paint the animail in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background too. Leave the work to dry and outline everything using a narrow brush and black paint. Paint with black letters your name somewhere at the work, just like Corneille did. Glue or staple the painting on a coloured sheet.

All artworks made by students of 11 years old

A picture in pieces

In this lesson students have to copy a piece of a very detailed drawing by using a viewing window. The main issue in this lesson is texture. This lesson is a continuation of 'Exercise in drawing texture'.

You need:

1. detailed pen-and-ink drawing (download)
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. paperclips
5. drawing paper
6. indian ink
7. dip pen
8. paper towel
9. coloured cardboard
10. cutter and cutting mat
11. glue

Step 1

Give students half A4 sheet of stiff paper. Draw somewhere in the middle of the sheet a square of 5 by 5 cm and cut it out: this is your viewing window. Measure securely! The square doesn't necessarely have to come in the middle of the sheet, because it will only be used as a viewing window.

Step 2

Give students a sheet of white paper and tell them to draw two or three squares of 5 by 5 cm with some space between them. Students can use the mold from step 1, but measuring and drawing may be a good exercise too. (The squares will be cut at the end of the lesson, so the space between them is not so important.)

Detailed pen-and-ink drawing, click to enlarge

Step 3

Now each student has a viewing window and a drawing sheet with two or three squares on it. Give stuents a copy of the detailed house drawing (or search another drawing yourself) and two paperclips. The mission is: search with the viewing window a piece of the drawing you like most. Fix the viewing window with paperclips on the pen drawing and copy that piece as accurately as possible with indian ink in a square on the drawing sheet. Than copy one or two other pieces.

Step 4

Cut the drawings and paste them on one or more layers of coloured cardboard.

Made by children of 11/12 years old

Exercise in drawing texture

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. indian ink
5. dip pen
6. coloured paper
7. glue

Tell students about texture: the way something is made, how the surface feels and what structure looks like. Let them feel several textures: the wall, an orange, stuffed animal etc. Discuss how texture can be drawn. A wall is not so difficult, but how do you draw texture in an orange? And how would you draw texture in a stuff animal?

Students draw six squares from 5 by 5 cm on their sheet using a ruler and pencil. Draw with indian ink six different textures in the squares. Cut the squares and make a composition of them on a coloured paper.

Exercise in colour mixing

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. yellow, red and blue tempera paint
3. brushes
4. pencil
5. ruler

Purpose of this lesson to learn students how to make secondary colours. Show Itten's colour circle and discuss it. Tell about primary and secundary colours and show how to make the secundary colours.

Students make a simple drawing on their sheet. In this lesson is chosen for a still life of vases , but you can also opt for houses. After this a 5 cm grid has to be drawn using pencil and ruler. The squares of the objects are painted with primary colours red, yellow and blue; be sure there is never the same color next to each other. The background squares are painted with the secondary colours orange, purple and green. Again: alternate, not the same colour next to each other. To avoid errors, it is useful to write the first letter of the colours in the squares before painting.

janet hill : artists who blog

I adore Janet's beautiful, dreamy paintings - her color schemes, her still lives of kitchens, pastries, dresses, and shoes from another time. Janet has a lovely sense of humor too, which makes her interview a pleasure to read. Enjoy!

Janet's blog: www.janethillstudio.com/blog

Janet's website: www.janethillstudio.com

Janet's shop: www.janethillstudio.etsy.com

Why did you decide to become an artist and could you imagine doing anything else? If so, what?

It was more of a situation that all roads kept leading me towards it.  For many years I tried to be anything but an artist.  Sounds a little odd, but when I was in my fine art program at university, my profs kept telling everyone how difficult it is to be an artist.  There were ugly sacrifices to be made, starvation, rejection, etc, etc.  It didn’t sound very appetizing.   So, I worked in the corporate world, and at one point owned my own retail store, but nothing ever felt right and I kept thinking I was one big fat failure.  Eventually, karma kept kicking me in the head until I listened and just went for it.  Because I’ve done ‘everything else’ I think it’s made me realize that painting is the only profession for me.

Do you still believe "do what you love and the money will come?"

Absolutely!  That’s my mantra.

How has blogging and the Internet affected your work as an artist?

It’s crazy how much the Internet has affected my business.  I never understand when I encounter other artists who don’t have websites or haven’t ever heard of sites like Etsy.  The internet is such a powerful and creative marketing tool and exposes you to the world in just a few clicks.  I’ve discovered that my main buyers are in fact not Canadian (like myself) and instead are American, Australian, and Norwegian.  These are buyers that I never would have had access to if it wasn’t for the internet.  Having a blog and website has also led to other things like magazine coverage, gallery interest, and corporate opportunities.

Please name 3 of your favorite blogs and tell us why these blogs are special. 

I tend to jump around a bit, but for the past few weeks I’ve spent time poking around on the following blogs:

simplybreakfast.blogspot.com - I love her photos and it’s always interesting to know what other people eat for breakfast.

absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com -  A classic. I love her sense of style and colour.  Anna also covered my work on her blog a couple of years ago which I think was what helped get me off the ground initially.

dubuhdudesigns.typepad.com - I’ve become obsessed with her gorgeous dolls.  They seem to exist in their own elegant world.  I desperately want one!

What is your greatest fear and what do you do to overcome it?

Flying.  I try to avoid it as best I can, but when there is no other choice booze and sedatives seem to get the job done.

Who would you like to trade places with for one day? Why?

If I could be anyone for a day I would choose Ava Gardner when she was playing Kitty Collins in the 1946 film 'The Killers'.  It just seemed like such an interesting time in Hollywood and Ava was a woman with a lot of sass.

What are your secrets for managing your time wisely?

I don’t.  The only reason why I get anything done is because I basically work every day.  I spend way too much time mucking about on the computer, looking through magazines, emailing friends, shopping online, and staring off into space.  I won’t even discuss ‘snack times’ and ‘cocktail hour’.  I think I’m just a fast painter - thankfully.

If you could live anywhere in the world – all expenses paid – for one year, where would that be? Why?

Maybe Argentina.  Living somewhere with that much good Malbec and good BBQ can’t be a bad thing.

How do you maintain a healthy balance between your professional and private life?

I don’t think I do maintain a healthy balance.  It just seems to all blend together.  I’ve learned to not check my email after 8pm just in case something awful has transpired and I don’t want to lose sleep over it.  My main problem is that my brain doesn’t shut off and ideas are always popping up.  Fortunately my husband is tolerant to my idea outbursts.

What are your top 5 goals that you’d like to accomplish within the next 5 years?

I’m working on a project that will likely take 5 years to complete.  It’s called ‘364 Days of Dresses’ which I hope will end up as a book.  I would also like my husband to quit his job and deal with the business side of what I do.  I think I’m due for a show too, so I would like to start working on pieces for that.  Aside from that my goals are pretty basic like pay off my credit card someday….and take a good vacation.

What is your advice for someone who would like to turn his or her creative dreams into reality?

Stop fiddling about and just do it!

Thank you Janet!