Patchwork landscape

By a student of grade 3.

You need:

1. white drawing sheets


2. tempera paint


3. brushes

This is an easy lesson in perspective for younger students. Talk about perspective and show the picture of the disappearing railway.

Do a step by step guide on the blackboard to make this drawing:





1. Put the sheet in the width for you.

2. Draw a wavy line on 2/3 of the bottom.

3. Place a dot in the middle on the top of the sheet.

4. Draw lines with a ruler from the bottom and sides of the sheet to the dot.

5. Divide the strips in squares.

6. Draw houses and trees on the horizon line.

After this the students can finish their artwork independently. Paint the squares all different and use different patterns. Stpale or paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Peaks and valleys

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. 
   drawing sheet A4 size
   
   


2. 
   crayons in bright colours
   
   


3. 
   watercolour paint
   
   


4. 
   brushes
   
   


5. 
   jar with water
   
   

Discuss with the students the difference between hills and mountains. When do we call something a mountain, when a hill? What does the top of hills look like? And what about the top of a mountain - this can be a sharp point or eroded and round, depending on the age of the mountain. 

Show students step by step how to draw a landscape with hills and mountains. Start with two wave lines Start with two wavy lines on the bottom of the drawing sheet. Draw diagonal lines down from the lowest points. Draw some high mountain peeks behind the hilss and draw a sun behind the peeks.

Fill the mountains and hills with patterns. Use crayons in bright colours. Each mountain should have its own pattern. Paint the mountains and the sky with watercolour paint. Patterns and lines will resist the watery paint.

Pasta and beans landscape

You need:

1. cardboard A4 size


2. glue


3. several sorts of pasta and beans


4. pencil

Students have to draw a simple landscape on their piece of cardboard. Fill the several parts with glue and put beans and pasta on them.

Artwork made by students of grade 3

Patterned landscape

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A5 size
2. black fine marker or Indian ink
3. coloured paper for background

Children sketch a simple mountain landscape with grey pencil. Use different patterns to colour the mountains: spheres, lines, triangles, squares, leaves - as different as possible. Patterns can by filled negatively of positively: fill a moutain with circles and colour the space between them with black, so the white circles will remain.
Paste the drawing on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 3

Abstract relief

You need:

1. piece of grey cardboard 18 by 24 cm (cereal box)
2. tissue paper
3. wood glue
4. several zijdevloeipapier
5. houtlijm
6. various free materials like rope, pasta, shells, sticks, buttons, etc.
7. varnish
8. coloured cardboard for frame

Look at the painting Catalan landscape of Joan Miró (Google pictures). Discuss what is on this painting, what things are definable and which are not. Explain the difference between realistic and abstract.

Tell the students they are going to make an abstract relief. Students make a composition of different items on their grey cardboard. They have to make a horizon line at least. Paste the different items with glue. Don't paste the items too close together and make sure it is not too full.

When the composition is ready, bring wood glue on all items and the cardboard. Cover everything with tissue paper. Push the paper firmly against the pasted items to make the tissue paper crumple. Here and there the paper will rip, so paste multiple layers of the same colour paper.

Finish with a layer of wood glue or wait until the artwork has dried and then apply a layer of varnish. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students grade 3

Thanks to Ann de Naegel and her students.

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.

Summer memory

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. glue
6. colour pencils
7. grey or light brown cardboard

Passed holiday's are always full of memories. Sunset on the beach, a sunny afternoon in the woods or impressive threatening clouds above the sea. What colours belong to that memory? What colours belong to a sunset, to the woods and what colours would you use for the threatening thunderstorm?

Paint your sheet full with your holiday memories using watercolour paint. Paint sloping strips in different colours. After drying, tear the sheet in strips while following the different colours. Glue your strips with a little space between them on the grey/light brown paperboard.
Write a title in beautiful characters and decorate the frame with little holiday memory doodles (shells, clouds, flowers etc).

Made by students of grade 5

The sky is the limit

Golden Gate Bridge, made by Veerle, 12 years old

Welcome, 100th follower!

You need:

1. grey paper A4 size
2. white and black pencils
3. pictures of famous skylines

During a visit to the Museum in The Hague in 2005, I saw an artwork that Escher had made on gray paper. The only colours he had used were black and white. Together with the gray, you do have a lot of colours at your disposal. The Escher drawing I saw then, was the inspiration for this lesson.

Show photos of some famous skylines. Discuss skylines, skyscrapers and remarkable buildings. Ask children to search a skyline on the internet. Print this in black and white and then copy it so that you can see how the shadows of the buildings are (settings light - dark on copyer).Tell the children they are going to draw on grey paper using only white and black pencils. The gray don't have to be coloured, because that's the colour of the sheet. With black the darker parts are drawn, with white the parts that have to be highlighted. Look closely at the photo to see the shades.

Sydney skyline by Adnan, 12 years old

Desert sunset

Made by a student of 8 years old

You need:

1. coloured paper
2. black construction paper
3. scissors
4. glue

By tearing stripes of different colours of paper, children create a sunset. Draw a big cactus on black paper and cut it out. Paste the cactus on the sunset sheet.

Dutch flower bulb fields

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 20 by 10 cm
2. markers
3. fine black marker
4. ruler
5. pencil

Situated less than 30 miles from Amsterdam, the town of Lisse is widely regarded as the center of Holland's bulb district. Each spring, the area's sandy coastal plain becomes a sprawling blanket of fantastic color as millions of Dutch tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs emerge in perfect rows. Show the kids pictures of these fields like these. Google on 'bollenveld'.

Draw a horzion line about 2 cm from the upper edge. Put a dot in the middle of this line, the vanishing point. Draw lines from the bottom and sides towards that vanishing point. Colour the bulb fields with bright colours. Colour walkways between the bulb fields.

Colour the sky. Draw with a black fineliner some buildings on the horizon, like farms, windmills etc.

Foodscape, in the style of Carl Warner

You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. (food) magazines
3. scissors
4. glue

The English photographer Carl Warner (click on this link and amaze yoourself!') is known for his terrific photos of landscapes who are made of food.
Warner is born in Liverpool in 1963. He draws from childhood, creating imaginary worlds inspired on the artwork of Salvador Dali, Patrick Woodroofe and Roger Dean. Warner went to art academy to become an illustrator, but he realized soon that he could achieve his ideas better and faster by using photography.
First he photographed landscapes, still lifes and people. Then he entered the world of advertising. He now designs and photographs food landscapes ('foodscapes') for companies in the food industry.

The ‘Foodscapes’ are made in Warner's studio in London. Warner works together with a stylist to search for the right food and to make the exposure and composition of the stuff. He works with layers, from background to foreground. Each element is then put together in post production to achieve the final image.
“I tend to draw a very conventional landscape using classic compositional techniques as I need to fool the viewer into thinking it is a real scene at first glance, it is the realisation that the scene is in fact made of food that brings a smile that brings a smile to the viewer, and for me that’s the best part.”

Show several photo's of Warner's foodscapes on the digital board. Discuss those photo's: what do you see? What food do you recognize? Look especially to the photo with the rising sun: what food is used to suggest the sea? How come we sea salmon as the sea? What is the beach made of? And the mountains?

After this children are going to make their own foodscape in the style of Carl Warner. Thye search for food in magazines and cut it out. Encourage children to consult each other. Sometimes you don't see anything special in a photograph, while your neighbour sees an interesting part of a landscape!

Place the cut out parts on the sheet and slide it until you are satisfied and then paste all parts.

All work is made by students of 11-12 years old

A field full of daisies

Made by Annika, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. tempera paint in blue, green, white, yellow and red
3. egg boxes or saucers
4. brushes
5. jars with water
6. newspapers
7. paper towels
8. coloured paper for background

Daisies (bellis perennis) are, until it freezes, found in lawns. View pictures of daisies and discuss what they look like.
Children start to paint the grass. They have to make their own green colours by mixing blue, white and yellow. Paint the entire sheet with small vertical strokes.

When the grass is dry, the daisies can be painted. For on the field daisies are larger bigger then further away. Use a small brush and a lot of paint, to make sure the green grass is really covered with the white paint of the flower.
Use a different colour green for the stalks or take the unmixed colour green directly from the bottle. Paint the hearts of the flowers with big yellow blobs.

Paste the artwork after drying on a matching background after drying.

Made by children from 9-12 years old

Easter Island

You need:

1. drawing paper A4 size
2. charcoal
3. black construction paper

Easter Island is a volcanic island in the Great Ocean and belongs to Chile. It has been discovered by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday in 1722.
Easter Island is famous for its large statues, the moai. These statues are till 10 m high and made of soft volcanic rock (tuff). The makers were the ancestors of many of the current island inhabitants. The whole island since 1995 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

Start this lesson by telling about Easter Island and looking at pictures. Tell about the statues and the meaning of them (Wikipedia).
Ask children to draw their own Easter Island. Show them how to make shadows in their drawing, to give a statue depth.Paste the works on a black background.

Skaters in Dutch landschape

Made by Brittany, 11 years old

You need:

1. light blue construction paper
2. dark transperant glossy paper
3. glue
4. flour
5. colour pencils
6. scissors

Beautiful photographs of Dutch landscapes and skaters on frozen water, are the inspiration for this lesson. There are many of these pictures on the internet (search for 'hollands landschap schaatsen'). Show some of these pictures and discuss them.
Take a light blue sheet (or paint one) and paste and paste in the middle transparent dark, glossy paper on it; this is the ice. Cut a circle from a white sheet and paste in on the light blue sheet. Make the white streaks on the ice by drawing lines with a glue stick and sprinkling flour over it; shake the rest of. Draw a windmill or a landscape. Draw some skating people on another sheet and colour them with bright colours. Cut those skaters and paste them on the ice.

Made by students from 10-11 years old

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.

Greetings from ... Holland!

And this is Holland too ....

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 20 by 10 cm
2. markers
3. fineliner
4. ruler
5. pencil

Draw a horizon line about 2 cm from the upper edge. Put a dot in the middle of this line, the vanishing point. Draw lines from the bottom and sides towards that vanishing point. Make six lanes or more - this is the highway. Colour the highway with gray marker, leaving out the white stripes. Colour agriculturul fields besides the highway. Colour the sky. Draw a cityscape with high buildings and houses on the horizon and colour them with black and grey markers.

Together with the lesson about the bulb fields, we have a nice postcard! Greetings from Holland!

Landscape of tissue paper

You need:

1. tissue paper in several colours
2. wallpaper glue, made with extra water
3. glue brushes
4. white drawing paper A4 size

Look with the students at pictures of different landscapes: mountains, volcanic landscape, coastal landscape, river landscape, hills, flat landscape. Discuss the differences between those landscapes.

Students are going to make a landscape out of tissue paper. They may just tear the sheets, so no scissors! The landscapes have to be constructed from behind, so the front sheets have to be glued at last. While doing it this way, colours can be glued overlapping, which gives more tints. Explain the students to use white tissue paper to make colours lighter. The glaciers on the mountains in the example are created by not glueing the white tissue paper entirely. Dry parts will stay white, wet parts take over the colour that's underneath.

Autumn trees near the water

You need:

1. light blue drawing paper A4 size
2. oilpastel crayons
3. tempera in autumn colours
4. brushes

Fold the paper in half. Above the fold is the country, below the fold is the water. Students draw with oilpastels some trees without leaves in the grass. Those trees have to be coloured firmly. Below the fold is the reflection of the trees in the water. The trees have to be drawn again, but mucht less thick coloured.

When the trees are ready, students get a plate with five colours of tempera: yellow, orange, red, brown and green. leaves have to be made by tamponning with the brushes. Tell your students to tampon with two or more colours at the same time, so don't mix up the colours.

When the leaves are ready and the paint is still wet, fold the paper again. There is now a lighter print of the foliage at the bottom of the sheet: the reflection in the water. The branches of the tree will now be visible again, because part of the paint is now on the bottom of the sheet.

Desert

You need:

1. brown construction paper A4 format
2. pastel crayons
3. hairspray
4. wood glue

Look with the students at photographs from deserts and discuss what they look like. What kind of plants do you see? What about the colours?

Sketch with a pencil a simple desert landscape with little details. Cover the lines with wood glue. Try this first on a another sheet. Wait until the glue is dry; it has to be transparant instead of white.
Colour your drawing with pastel crayons. Use different colours together and make sure you blend them with your fingers. Fix your drawing with hairspray.

Remembering summer

You need:

1. square drawing sheet 20 x 20 cm
2. colour pencils

Divide the sheet in four squares. Draw in every square your own summer memory! Decorate the edges in four different ways.