Patterned leaves

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size


2. pencil


3. black marker


4. water colour paint


5. jar with water


6. brush


7. white pencil


8. coloured sheet

Draw contours of leaves with a pencil on a white sheet. Don't forget some half ones on the edges. Draw veins. Trace the leaves and veins with a black marker. Fill the spaces between the veins with as many different patterns you can.

Paint the space between the leaves with water colour paint. Leave a white edge around the leaves. Let dry. Paste the artwork on a coloured sheet and finish the half leaves with a white pencil on this frame.

Printed mushrooms, group work

Group work by students of grade 3

You need:

1. piece of linoleum 15 x 15 cm


2. lino knife


3. block printing ink


4. flat piece of plexiglass


5. linoleum roller


6. white sheets


7. lino press


8. autumn leaves


9. scissors


10. glue


11. coloured cardboard

Draw a mushroom on your linoleum. Cut away the linoleum around the mushroom. Remember: what you cut away will not print. It is not important to carve deeply into linoleum, just enough so that carved area is lower than the linoleum surface. Always carve away from your hand, always keep your hand behind the back edge of linoleum. When you want to check your printing block, place a piece of paper on the linoleum and rub over the paper with a crayon. This will create a “rubbing” and will give you an idea of what the final print will look like.

Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet. 

Put your linoleum block on a newspaper. Roll one or two colours ink onto the linoleum printing block, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay the block on a sheet in the printing press and press. Take away the block and your print is ready.

To make a group work, all students have to cut out on of their their prints. Leave a white edge around the mushroom. Ask some students to make a collage of all mushrooms on  a piece of dark coloured cardboard. Paste some autumn leaves on the bottom of the collage.

Autumn leaves mandala

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. compasses


3. pencil


4. oil pastels

Draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Draw within about 1 cm another circle (the edge of the mandala). Cut out and fold into 8 pieces. Draw against one of the folds half of an autumn leaf using black oil pastel.

Fold the sheet and press firmly with the hands to get a print of the leaf on the other side of the fold. Trace this half with black oilpastel. Repeat this and draw the other three leaves. Colour the leaves and background with oil pastels in warm colours. Colour the edge with a nice pattern.

Outlined autumn leaves

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. liquid water colour yellow and red


3. brush


4. colour markers


5. glue


6. scissors

Paint a wet white sheet with red and yellow liquid water colour. Leave to dry.  Outline some autumn leaves on this sheet, cut them and paste them on a new sheet.

Choose three markers in wamr (autumn) colours and outline the leaves until the sheet is full. Draw the veins with a fine marker.

Paper batik autumn leaves

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. oil pastels


3. brown tempera


4. liquid soap


5. brushes

Step 1

Ask students to bring autumn leaves. Outline some of them on the white sheet and draw veins in them. Colour the leaves and background with oilpastels, press heavily.

Step 2.

Wrinkle the sheet into a ball; make sure the picture is on the inside.

Step 3.

Smooth the paper out.

Step 4.

Use brown tempera with a tiny bit of liquid handsoap, and paint over the entire paper.

Step 5.

Then rinse the paper under cool water. The paint sticks in the little crinkle wrinkles giving it that batik look.

Leave the work to dry and press it flat between two books. Paste or staple it on a coloured background.

Haunted house in the moonlight

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size 


2. black construction paper


3. yellow chalk pastel


4. scissors


5. cutting knife


6. lijm


7. white pencil


8. black marker


9. blue and purple tempera paint


10. sauzer


11. sponge

This lesson is all about Halloween and haunted houses. First make a word web about haunted houses: skeletons, spiders, bats, old, tombstones, dark, scary, etc.



Tear a strip of black paper from about 5 cm and paste it on the bottom of the white sheet: the ground. Draw on black paper ahouse that looks old and cut it out.

Use a cutter for doors and windows. Paste the house on the white sheet. Draw details such as bricks, ghosts, spiders, webs with a white pencil. Use a black marker to draw things in the white window openings.

Cut a circle, the moon, from a scrap of paper and lay it on the work. Outline moon and house with a yellow chalk pastel and smudge the chalk outwards. 

Use a sponge piece to stamp the background with purple and blue tempera paint. Do not get too close to the yellow chalk. Finally paste the artwork on a yellow background sheet.

Gnomes

You need:

1. some sturdy branches


2. saw


3. scraps of wool


4. felt


5. scissors


6. markers

Saw before the lesson starts for all students from a piece of the branche in different lengths, between 5 and 10 cm. Saw one side bevel and the other right.

The bevel side is the head of the gnome. Cut threads from the wool for the hair De schuine kant is het hoofd van de kabouter. Cut strands of wool for hair and beards, and paste them on the branch. Cut a triangle out of felt and shape into a pointed hat. Paste the hat on the head. Draw a face with markers.

It's Time For A Visit To Autumn's Garden!

 

Autumn has arrived and there's a chill in the air!!

Well, actually, I think maybe the humidity has just dropped as the high for today is suppose to reach 92º in Florida! Still, you can see and feel the changes....you just really have to be paying attention. Of course, many of you have really begun to feel the chill and see the changes.

And all this means it's time to start preparing for An Imaginary Visit to Autumn's Garden! This class is scheduled to begin on November 18th and run through December 16th. There will be one assignment each week.

For more information and to register for the class, please click here. If you're interested in registering, I suggest you not wait as this is one of the really popular classes over at Imaginary Trips!

Neon leaves

You need:

1. black construction paper A3 size
2. pencil
3. coloured chalk pastel

Neon light tubes form coloured lines with which a text can be written or a picture drawn, including various decorations. Neon is often used in advertising and commercial signage. Show some neon advertising or ask children if they know some. Discuss the features of neon light and the restrictions you have to deal with when you use neon lights.

Draw the outlines of some leaves onto a dark paper using a pencil. Let some of the leaves overlap. Choose a colour chalk pastel and carefully go over the lines of one leave. Make nice thick lines that follow the original. Do the same with the other leaves, using different colours. Then carefully go over all the lines with your finger. Just follow the direction of the lines rubbing backwards and forwards. Try not to smudge the lines outwards!

Now to turn the neon lights on: take a white chalk and go over all the lines again with the sharp edge. Use the sharp edge just to create a thin bright white line down the middle of the existing lines.

Fixate the drawing with hairspray, or laminate it to create your own neon placemat!

Printed leaves

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. flat dried autumn leaves
3. white tempera and another cool colour
4. brush
5. colour pencils
6. piece of sponge

I found this project on Artsonia. Ask students to take some autumn leaves for this lesson. The leaves should be dried flat, for example in a phone book.

Paint the veined side of a leaf with thick white tempera. Press the leaf on black paper; use a clean sheet to cover the leaf and press on it with flat hand. Do this with several leaves.
Then pick an additional cool colour to blend with the leftover white paint and sponge paint the background. Be sure to leave a little black around each leaf for contrast.



Add some autumn colour to each leaf using coloured pencils.

Fall things

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 30 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. crayons
5. liquid watercolour
6. brush
7. jar with water
8. coloured paper for background
9. glue

Practice the student's measuring skills by letting them draw a 5 cm grid on the drawing sheet, using a ruler and pencil. Trace the pencil lines with crayons. Draw crayon lines along the outer edges of the paper. Create a pattern of returning autumn drawings in the squares. In this lesson is chosen for diagonal lines.
Trace the outlines and details of the drawings with crayon. Paint the drawings and background of the squares with liquid watercolour. Be sure the regular pattern is also to be seen in the colours..
Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Cool web, big spider

You need:

1. white drawing paper 20 by 20 cm
2. left overs of white drawing paper
3. yellow crayons
4. liquid watercolour
5. thick brush
6. jar with water
7. scissors
8. glue
9. black construction paper

Students draw a web with a yellow crayon. The easiest way is to first draw diagonal lines from the corners of the paper. Then draw more lines from top to bottom, left to right. The lines must all go through the center. After this draw circles around the center, until the sheet is full.

Paint the sheet using liquid watercolour ink in cold colours. Take two colours. Leave the work to dry.

Draw some leaves with a warm colour crayon on a white sheet. Draw the veins. Paint the leaves with warm colours liquid watercolour. Let the leaves dry.

Make a spider of black construction paper. In the example above, the spider is made of a circle with a diameter of about 4 cm. Cut the circle in to the center and stick the cutting edges on each other so the center rises. Draw a cross on the back if you want to. Cut a smaller circle for the head, draw eyes on it and paste it on the body of the spider. Cut the feet: 8 strips of 8 cm by 1/2 cm. Glue the legs on the underside of the body. Make a fold inwards on the mid of the strip, and 1 cm from the end a fold outwards.

When the work is completely dry, cut the leaves and paste them on the web. Put the spider in the web by pasting the lower parts of the legs and the head.

Paste the artwork on a black background. You may draw the spider web lines on the background too.

Whirling leaves

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. small and broad black marker
6. col0ured construction paper for background
7. glue

Ask students a week before this lesson to take some flat dried leaves. Every student chooses one of his own leaves and outlines it several times with a pencil. Remember to draw not all the leaves in the same way on the paper, because they whirl down from the tree. Make sure some leaves go over the edge; those leaves will later be finished on the background.

Paint the leaves with watercolour paint. Use water to dillute the paint less or more. Choose real warm fall colours and try to make transitions in the colours by using wet in wet technique.

Paint the background blue. Use again the wet in wet technique, and/or choose for wet on dry. You don't have to paint exactly against the leaves, because they will be outlined with a marker.

Leave the work to dry and paste in on a coloured background. Outline the leaves with a thick black marker. Use a fine black marker for drawing the veins, while observing carefully the real leaves. Don't stop with outlining and drawing veins when you reach the background, but go on with it there.

Both artworks are made by students of 11 years old

Autumn leaves in cubist style

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. tempera paint
5. brushes
6. gold colour marker

Ask students to take autumn leaves. Watch them together, paying particular attention to the form: heart-shaped, oval, round, oblong, etc. The composition of the leaves may vary: a leave can be single or composed of several leaflets (pinnate or palmately).

Students draw several leaves on their sheet. The leaves should not overlap. Draw parts of leaves against the edges. Only the outer form of the leaves have to be drawn, so no veins. If the leaves are drawn and the sheet is largely filled, draw four diagonal lines with pencil and ruler: two lines from left to right and two lines from top to bottom. Make sure these lines pass through the leaves. Do not press too hard with the pencil, otherwise they'll come through the paint!

The drawing has to be painted with four warm colours tempera: two colours for the leaves and two for the background. Paint the leave parts within a square in one colour and the background in a different colour. In the box next paint the leaves in a third colour and the background with colour four. See diagram below.

When the artwork is dry, trace the contour lines of the leaves and the diagonal lines with a gold marker.

Made by a student of 11 years old

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.

Weather proverb on a tile

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. white tile 15 by 15 cm
2. china markers
3. drawing sheet 15 by 15 cm
4. pencil
5. paper towel

During our school project about water and weather, children made their own tile with a Dutch proverb on it. The proverb had to be about water, of course. After making a concept on a drawing sheet, students wrote their proverb on a white tile with china markers. They added decorations with china markers too.

Umbrella

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. colouring page of umbrella
2. tempera paint in blue, white and brown
3. brushes
4. black marker
5. scissors

A good exercise in mixing colors, this umbrella. Show children how to make different colours blue by mixing blue and white. Learn them to start with white and than add blue and more blue. Paint every part of the umbrella in a different colour blue. Paint the handle brown. Outline the different parts with a black marker. Cut out the umbrella.

It's raining cats and dogs

Made by students of 11-12 years old

You need:

1. two pieces of cardboard A1 size
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. white oil pastel
6. white drawing sheets A5 size
7. markers
8. scissors
9. glue

Ask two or three students to make the background for this artwork. Draw on the cardboard raindrops with white oil pastel. Dilute blue tempera paint with lots of water and paint the cardboard. The oil pastel will resist the paint. Paste the sheets to each other on the short side.

The other children draw one or more falling cats or dogs with umbrella's and colour them with bright colours. Cut all animals and paste them on the cardboard. It's raining cats and dogs!

Blowing trees

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. tempera paint
4. indian ink
5. q-tips
6. straws
7. black construction paper

Practice blowing the ink droplets first on a scrap paper.
Drip a drop of indian ink at about one third from the bottom of the sheet and blow through the straw to the top of the sheet and to the sides. Keep blowing to get smaller branches. Make three trees this way.
Let your work dry. Paint a background with watercolour paint. You can paint over the trees carefully, the indian ink will not smudge if it's dry enough. Let the work dry again.
Take tempera and a q-tip to paint autumn leaves on the branches, the ground and in the air. Near the tree many leaves, further less leaves.
Paste your work on a black sheet.

Leaves pattern

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 21 by 25 cm
2. markers

Draw lines around your sheet a half centimeter from the edges. Divide the remaining square in 16 compartments from 5 cm by 6 cm. Draw a leave on construction paper and cut it out. Trace the leave in the 16 rectangles. Draw patterns in the leaves: take a pair for each pattern. Colour them alternately with two colours. Outline all leaves with a black fineliner. Draw a square in two colours around your work.