Mexican amate

You need:

1. 
   brown paper bag


2. tempera paint in fluoresecent colours and white


3. brushes


4. jar with water


5. black marker


6. coloured paper for background


7. glue or stapler

Amate is a way of making paper, done for centuries by Mexican Indians. Amate paper is made by cooking the inner bark of various trees. At the beginning of the 20th century the Nahua Indians of Mexico started making amatepaintings as a form of folk art, especially in order to exchange and sell them to tourists.

Show some pictures of Mexican amate paintings. Discuss the striking features: birds, flowers, bright colours and black outlines. A frame around the drawing with a pattern in bright colours too.

Tear the edges off the paper: use thumb and fingers on both hands and tear very slowly. Use a pencil to draw some (two or three) birds and flowers, add a patterned frame and paint everything with fluorescent tempera. When it's dry, outline everything with a black marker. Don't forget the name of the artist!


Paste or staple the artworks on coloured construction paper.

Henhouse

Made by students from kindergarten

You need:

1. box


2. brown tempera paint


3. brush


4. paper plate


5. white paper 


6. red paper


7. black marker


8. straw

Paint the outside of the box with brown tempera paint. Fold the plate. Outline your hand and cut it twice out of a white sheet. Paste the hands on both sides of the chicken. Cut a comb and a beak out of red paper and paste them. Paste some feathers for the tail. 

Put the box on its side. Put some straw in the box and put the chicken in it. Stack the boxes of several students for a big hen house!

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.

Stamped polar bears

 

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. blue construction paper


2. pencil


3. tempera paint white and black


4. marshmellows


5. brush


6. glitter


7. glue

Show how to draw a polar bear out of simple shapes: circle, half of a circle (ears) and a part of a triangle for the body. Talk about the grey shadow under the head. How do you make gray? Tell students they have to stamp with marshmellows or brushes. Do not paint!

Students draw the head of a polar bear on blue paper. Use white to stamp head and body. Use grey to stamp the shadow. Paint eyes and nose with a small brush. Decorate the artwork with glitter.

Blob creatures

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. tempera paint


3. scissors


4. glue


5. black marker


6. black paper for background

Start by folding the white sheet of paper in half and open it up again. Then drop blobs of tempera paint in three different colours somewhere around the middle of your paper. Don't put the paint to close to the edges. Fold the sheet and press by firmly moving hands around. This movement will move the paint around more than just folding.

Open the paper and dry flat.

Look carefully at this creature. Outline the creature with a black marker. Look for typical shapes, like arms, eyes, ears etc. and trace them with a marker. The drawing should be totally symmetrical.



Cut the creature, leaving half cm white around the black lines. Paste it on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 4

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.

Dutch canal houses groupwork

Part of the groupwork, made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheets


2. tempera paint


3. brushes


4. pencil


5. glue plakkaatverf

After a request of Amy Baldwin, art teacher in Millington, my 4th graders painted Dutch canal houses for the Empty Bowl fundraiser in Millington (Mi).

Before starting to paint, we talked about the Dutch Golden Age, a period roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. In this century many of the typical canal houses were built, in that age used as store houses. We looked at pictures of canal houses, discussed the different kinds of gables (neck gable, trep gable, bell gable) and details of the houses (windows, year it was built, stairs).



Every students gets a sheet of paper and has to draw a line on 8 cm of the bottom - this is for the canal. On the left side of the sheet there must remain a white strip of 2 cm (to paste all paintings together).

Every student draws his own canal house. Stop drawing after 5 minutes, to avoid drawint to many details. Paint the house with tempera paint. Mix colours, or for even better results: take two colours of paint on your brush and mix a little while painting.

Paste all paintings together to make a long street. Paint the canal. You might even add the words  'Groeten uit Holland'!

Click to see full site.

Sunflower batik

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. oil pastels


3. pencil


4. tempera paint brown or black


5. liquid soap


6. brushes

Draw some sunflowers on the sheet and on the edges. Colour them with oilpastels, press heavily. Wrinkle the sheet into a ball; make sure the picture is on the inside.

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

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.

Made by students of grade 4

Flowers behind fence

Flowers behind fence with fingerprinted flowers, grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. masking tape


3. scissors


4. tempera paint


5. stencil brushes


6. bubble wrap


7. sponge strips

Create a fence with pieces of masking tape, about 2 cm from the bottom.

 

 

Cut a piece of bubble wrap that is as large as the sheet of drawing paper. Paint it with a thick brush, half blue and half green. Put the drawing sheet on top and rub with the hand, creating a bubble print. Use sponge strips (cut from an ordinary sponge) to stamp steals and leaves.

Use stencil brushes to stamp petals of use your fingers to print them. Stamp/print some flowers under the fence an between the poles of the fence. Leave the work to dry and gently pull off the masking tape.

Flowers behind fence with stamped flowers, grade 2

Sailboat regatta

You need:

1. two sheets of white drawing paper


2. sandpaper


3. tempera paint in blue, green and white


4. brush


5. coloured paper


6. brown paper (grocery bag)


7. glue


8. blue paper A1 size

Spray paint stripes in blue, green and white on a saucer. Lay a sheet of white drawing paper before you, with the small size up. Paint it with coloured waves. Don't mix the colours on the saucer, but dip the brush in two or three colours. Leave the sheet to dry.

Take the second white sheet and lay it before you with the small side up. Cut a piece of sandpaper as wide as the sheet and 8 cm high. Paste the sandpaper on the bottom of the sheet.

Tear the painted sheet in wavy strips. Tear the straight sides of the first and last strip too, so that all strips have two wavy sides. 

Place the strips overlapping on the white sheet. Start below. Place the second strip partly under the first one, the third under the second etc. Paste down the short sides of the waves on the left and right.

Cut boats out of a brown paper bag; bigger ones below, smaller ones at the top (perspective). Cut masts out of the paper bag and sails out of coloured paper. Paste the boats between the waves and paste the long sides of the waves at the same time. Paste sails and masts on the boats.  

Paste or staple all works together on large blue sheets (A1 size) to create a beautiful group work.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Three spring flowers, three materials

 

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

1. three white drawing sheets 10 by 10 cm


2. coloured origami sheets 12 by 12 cm


3. coloured cardboard 14 by 38 cm


4. tempera paint


5. brushes


6. crayons


7. colour pencils


8. tulips, daffodils, bluebonnets or pictures of them


9. glue

Students scetch three different spring flowers on three sheets of 10 by 10 cm: bluebonnet, tulip and daffodil. Colour the flowers with three different materials: crayons, tempera paint and colour pencils. Paste the drawings on coloured origami sheets and paste them then on coloured cardboard.

Painting while listening to classical music

By Marrit (gr. 6, right part) and Luuk (gr. 1, left part)

You need: 

1.  cd's with classical music


2. cd-players


3. drawing sheet A2 size


4. brushes


5. tempera paint


6. jar with water

During a school project about music, students of grade 1 and 6 painted together while listening to classical music. We had five classrooms to work in. In every classroom was a cd-player with classical music: Bolero of Ravel, Four Seasons of Vivaldi, the Carneval of the Animals of Camille Saint-Saëns and two more. On the tables big sheets, paint and brushes.

Every first grader came to the sixth graders and asked a student to work with. Each pair was sent to a classroom where they listened to a piece of classical music. By talking together, 'What do you think of while hearing this?' 'What do you feel?' students had to make a painting. One student on the right side, the other on the left side of the sheet. It wasn't nesessary to make one painting, but they might do it. I was all about interpretation of the music.

Marrit (left, grade 6) and Luuk (grade 1) working together on their fishbowls

Students made great artworks together. Some worked together to make one painting, like the one above: two fishbowls, painted while listening to the Four Seasons - Spring of Vivaldi. It is clear the right bowl is painted by the grade 6 student. Other couples chose to paint tow different interpretations, as you can see below.

A great project, worth to give it a try!

Weaving flowers

 

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. beer coaster


2. coloured yarn


3. weaving needle


4. paper plate


5. white sheet


6. coloured construction paper A4 size


7. scraps of coloured paper


8. tempera paint


9. brushes


10. glue


11. scissors

Cut notches in the beer coaster at intervals of 1 cm. Be sure it is an odd amount. Wrap cotton yarn around the tray, back to front, until the whole beer counter is wrapped. Start weaving in the middle. Use different colours of yarn. Don't weave too tight, to keep the work flat.

To make the flower you have to paint a paper plate with tempera paint. If you use plastified plates, the paint will give a wrinkly effect. Cut a circle ouot of a white sheet circle which is two cm larger then the plate. This will be the outer edge of the flower. Paint it too.

Paste the woven circle on the plate. Paste the plate on the coloured circle. Paste it all on a coloured sheet. Cut petals and a stem out of green paper and finish the flower. 

Printed birds

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. two potatoes, middle and small size


3. knife


4. sauzer


5. tempera paint


6. piece of corrugated box cardboard  


7. paper towel


8. fine black marker


9. brush


10. watercolour paint

In 'The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas' I found this great lesson.

Place a paper towel on a saucer and spray a stripe of brown paint on it. Use the side of a piece of corrugated cardboard of about 7 cm to stamp branches.

Cut the medium potato in half and cut this half again. Stamp the bodies of the birds using red tempera.

Cut the half potato in two pieces. Use the quarter to stamp the tails.

Cut the small potato in half and stamp the faces of the birds.

Clean this half potato with a tissue and cut it in two. Stamp the wings.

Paint beaks, eyes and legs. Leave the work to dry. Paint the background with watercolour paint. Outline the birds with a fine black marker.

To make spring art work, you can add leaves by stamping them, cutting them out of green paper, using real dried leaves or .....use Paint shop pro, like I did!

Fantastic felines in the style of Laurel Burch

You need:

1. pink or purple constrution paper A3 size


2. oilpastels


3. tempera paint


4. brushes


5. gold and silver markers


6. glitter


7. glue

Laurel Burch (1945 –  2007) was an American artist, designer and businesswoman. As a 20-year-old single mother she found metal in junkyards to hammer into jewelry to support her two children, and went on to launch her business, now called Laurel Burch Artworks, in the late 1960s with the help of a small staff that worked out of her house. She began making paintings and was commissioned by restaurants, businesses and private collectors. Burch designed, among other things, beads, jewelry, paintings, T-shirts, scarves, coffee mugs and tote bags, but 90% of her designs derived from her original paintings.



Especially Burch's cats are recognizable. Few some of her paintings on the website of Laurel Burch and discuss the salient features: bright colours, bold pattersn, eyes and nose are drawn out of one line. use of silver and gold.

 

Students draw a cat on purple or pink paper in the style of Laurel Burch. Colour the cat using different materials like tempera, oilpastels, gold and silver markers. Outline the cat with silver or gold. Draw a frame around the artwork. Use glitter to accentuate lines.

All artworks are made by students of grade 5

 

Handprinted chicken

You need:

1. yellow paper 15 by 15 cm


2. green paper 16 by 16 cm


3. brushes


4. stapler

Paint the hand and press onto the paper. Be sure the thumb faces up or forward, not down. Complete the chicken  with legs, an eye, a comb and a beak.  Paint grass and another little chicken if you want to.  

Chicken on a stick

You need:

1. cardboard box


2. tempera paint


3. brush


4. coloured paper


5. wooden skewer


6. scissors


7. glue

Draw a chicken on cardboard. Cut it. Paint the chicken and colour the beak. Cut two wings out of cardboard and cover them with coloured paper. Paste the wings with double sided tape on the chicken to make them look 3D. Cut a comb and wattle out of coloured paper and paste them on the chicken. Use a marker to draw an eye.

Cut three pieces cardboard of 8 by 5 cm and stick them together. Paste coloured paper around it. Insert a skewer into the stand and plug the other end in the chicken.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac

You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint in primary colours
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. paper towels
6. bold black marker
7. black construction paper
8. glue or stapler

The French painter and writer Gaston Chaissac was born in 1910. He came from a poor family and was often ill. In 1934 Chaissac moved to Paris and worked as a shoemaker.
He lived in the same house as the German artist Otto Freundlich. It was through the friendship with Freundlich that Chaissac developed the desire to become an artist. He trained himself as an autodidact, supported and promoted by Freundlich. Freundlich also introduced him to the Parisian art scene.

Chaissac exhibited his works in 1938. During his stays at a sanatorium because of his tuberculosis in 1938 and 1939, Gaston Chaissac used the time to paint and draw. After his wedding he moved to the Vendée.

The artist bridged this isolation in the countryside through lively correspondence with gallery owners, authors and artists in Paris. Although Chaissac endeavored to establish a connection with the artist community, he was only valued as an artist by a small circle of gallery owners, journalists, and friends.

As a result, he didn't receive the expected recognition during his lifetime. Chaissac worked as a tireless experimenter and used materials that he found for his works of art - newspapers, shells, peels etc. He painted on every substrate available to him, created pen and ink drawings, watercolours, oil paintings, collages and unusual three-dimensional works. The artist was sometimes classified by Jean Dubuffet with the 'Art brut'. Chaissac himself called his work rather rustic modern.

Gaston Chaissac died in 1964.

Without title, © Gaston Chaissac

View photos of the work of Chaissac and especially the work above. Discuss the salient features: bold black lines that separate colour planes, little depth, simply drawn faces, white planes. What would those white planes mean?

I chose this painter also to repeat colour mixing skills. The students draw on their sheet one head and one or more limbs. Put a pencil mark in these planes, because they have to stay white.
Then divide the sheet with wavy lines into small areas. Students choose two primary colours and use them to mix several colours. Paint the different planes with these mixed colours. Start with the brightest colour and and add more and more of the darker colour.

When the work is dry, outline every colour with a black marker. Bumps will disappear. Finally draw eyes, nose and mouth in the face. Paste or staple the work on black paper.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac, by students of grade 3