Mollie Filmore art teacher – Page 2

Dandelion Puffs – 4th Grade

April 27, 2019 No Comments

Additional artwork below!!

This easy and fun 2 day art lesson focused on the elements of art; Line, Shape, Color and Value. Students also learned about a new watercolor resist technique using rubber cement before painting!

Special shout out to artroombritt.blogspot.com for this lesson idea!

DAY 1

Students observed various drawings of dandelions and reviewed the meaning of composition in artwork, (composition= the way things are laid out or where things are drawn/placed on paper).

Students drew three stems spaced apart a bit coming from one side of a sheet of 9×12″ tagboard with pencil. They could be drawn coming from either side of the paper going towards the middle.

They drew a small circle at the tip of each stem for the dandelions center and then lightly drew a large circle around it to act as a guideline to where their dandelion seed heads would be drawn to, to create a full, fluffy dandelion puff.

Students drew 1 large dandelion and 2 smaller ones on either side of the large one. Then drew a variety of seed heads stemming out from the center of each dandelion. I demonstrated various seed head tips for drawing before students drew on their own papers. I also offered a handout to refer to and observe, if they wanted while drawing.

Then once all three were drawn, they added drifting seed heads blowing away from the dandelion puffs in the wind. These drifting seed heads were drawn traveling in different directions (just like in real life) and not only adds interest, but creates a nice composition with the three dandelions along the opposite side.

Then students went over their stems lines and dandelion puffs lines and drifting seed heads with a black sharpie. After using sharpie they erased any pencil lines that remained.

Once that was done, after class, (when students were no longer in my art room), I brushed on a thick layer of rubber cement where each circular dandelion puff would be, as well as on the drifting seed heads. The rubber cement was a bit stinky and isn’t healthy to breathe in, so I worked next to an open window. This is why I applied the rubber cement and not the students.

The rubber cement was left to dry until the next class. (BTW- This doesn’t take up much rubber cement at all- I used about 3 small jars for 4 classes (roughly 24 students per class).

I used an old tempera brush rather than the rubber cements brush that it comes with. I found it was much easier to spread that way.

DAY 2

Before applying paint to our drawings, we reviewed warm and cool colors.

I had ice cube trays filled with liquid watercolors (one end with warm colors (warm colors=reds, pinks, oranges and yellows) and the other end with cool colors (cool colors= blues, greens and purples).

We also reviewed the wet-on-wet watercolor technique before painting. After demonstrating, students applied water only to 1/2 their paper quickly with a watercolor brush. THEN applied dabs of either just warm colored paint OR just cool colored paint onto the wet areas using one color at a time.

Students noticed how the paint spread outward from where they dabbed little bits of paint over the watered down paper. The water helps spread the paint and it also changes the value of the color making the color lighter and less vibrant (value= the lightness or darkness of a color).

Then once one 1/2 of their paper was painted, they dabbed the painted section with a paper towel while still wet, to help soften the color and spread the paint even more.

Then painted the other 1/2 of their paper with water only and applied paint to that wet area then dabbed off with a paper towel.

Once paintings were dry, the rubber cement was rubbed off, revealing the white dandelion puffs!

Thanks for visiting my blog!! Check back soon for new 1st grade artwork! Next week!

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Birch Tree Landscapes- 2nd Grade

April 21, 2019 4 Comments

This art lesson took about ( 3) 40 minute art classes to complete. Students learned about foreground, middle ground and background and how it creates a sense of space in artwork.

Read more below students artwork to find out how they were created!

DAY 1 – Creating the birch trees

After introducing foreground, middle ground and background to students, showing them multiple student artwork examples from previous years, and demonstrating the steps for day 1 of the lesson, students got to work creating their birch trees. We used 12 x 18″ medium weight tagboard for the paper.

Students drew 1 large tree in the foreground (area closest to the viewer- with objects drawn LARGEST along the bottom of the paper to show this) going all the way to the top of their paper.

Then drew a land line in the middle ground –(area in artwork that is placed in the middle of the paper or canvas, with objects drawn a bit smaller in this area, to show it is a bit further away from the viewer.) I demonstrated to make sure that they jumped over the tree as they drew the middle ground! Then proceeded to draw 2 slightly thinner trees from the middle ground up to the top of their paper.

Then they drew another hill / land line to show grass and trees growing in the background. This line was drawn near the top of the paper to show objects that are the furthest away from the viewer. Objects along this area are drawn the smallest to show they are the furthest things away in the artwork.

Once these areas were drawn with largest to smallest birch trees, going from the bottom of their paper to the top, students used a small piece of recycled currugated cardboard dipped into black paint to create the birch tree bark.

Dipping the currugated side of the cardboard into a small amount of black tempera paint, then scraping from one edge of the tree to the other, students created the black lines within their birch trees. ***It’s important to tap off extra black paint on the paper plate, before scraping, otherwise sometimes too much black paint can create larger black blocks of sections as opposed to black “lines”.

After creating the black lines for the birch bark in each tree, we created 1-2 branches for each tree by tilting the cardboard diagonally along the edges of our trees, and dragged the cardboard downward.

DAY 2 – Creating grass, flowers and painting the landscape

Students drew grass blades within their landscape using 2 different shades of green crayons and yellow. They pressed HARD as they drew the lines– It’s important to press hard not lightly here because the crayon bits would be painted over in the next step (creating a “crayon wax resist” technique with watercolors).

I showed kids how to hold all 3 crayons in one hand, drawing vertical and diagonal lines for the grass. (Doing this makes it easier and faster!) Some students held all 3 ok, and some preferred holding 2 then drawing the rest with the 3rd crayon after.

Then they drew a variety of flowers using crayons within each grassy section.

I love the triangular shaped crayons Crayola makes! They don’t roll off the tables!

Once complete with grass and flowers, students painted the grass and sky with slightly watered down liquid watercolors! Creating a crayon wax resist.

DAY 3- ADDING THE WOODLAND ANIMALS TO THE LANDSCAPE!

Students referred to a variety of “step-by-step” how to draw animals that I had created and stapled together into packets to draw at least 1 animal to add to their landscapes.

Foxes, squirrels, owls, skunks, bunny’s, racoons, deer, and wild horses (which could OF COURSE be made into unicorns!) were in the packet.

Students chose 1-2 animals to draw, and used their observational drawing skills to draw them, color in with colored pencils, cut them out and glue onto their beautiful landscapes!

LOVE her Amelia Earhart outfit! Some 2nd graders were doing book report presentations on this day in their classrooms!

And there you have it!! Beautiful work everybody!!

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1st Grade- Bubblegum Blowing Self-portraits (before the bubble!)

March 30, 2019 No Comments

I couldn’t resist posting these adorable and amazing drawings my first graders did before adding the balloon for their bubble gum! (I will be adding the balloons to them next week to display in the hallways!)

This was a really fun lesson where first-graders learned the difference between a self-portrait and a portrait! This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.

Students not only learn how to draw the face and facial details, but we also talk about color matching and trying to best match our own unique skin colors, eye colors and hair colors using crayons. We focus on the Elements of Art (Line, Shape, Color, and Form), as well as use (Principle of Art) Pattern in the background!

DAY 1

First, students viewed a variety of self-portraits from first graders from previous years in my Powerpoint, as well as my own example drawings hanging on the board.

Students then watched while I demonstrated under the document camera how to draw the head by drawing an upside down egg shape. Then how to draw two curving lines for the neck and shoulders with the arms going off the page at the bottom.

I discussed how the drawing would be close up and not show the entire body, (like in their school photo that gets taken in the beginning of the year which I think helped them understand better).

They learned how to draw facial features in correct proportion and learned that eyes are drawn like the shape of almonds/footballs or lemons. I talked about how everyone’s eyes are different, but in general, that’s the basic shape of the eye. I also discussed how we have the iris (colored part, and the pupil, the black circle that allows us to see). And that the pupil is ALWAYS in the center of the iris, no matter what direction we are looking in! As I demonstrated how to draw eyelashes I talked about how we ALL have them, to help keep dust and dirt out of our eyes and to help protect them from direct sunlight, and showed them how they are more of a slight curving line rather than straight lines.

I demonstrated a few different ways to draw the nose, which students could choose what they felt they liked best for their drawing (as long as they tried drawing the more “realistic” looking nose (explaining as I demonstrated to to draw “a c shape, curving line up, a “u” shape, then a backwards c shape, as one continuous line), as well as how to draw a more realistic looking mouth, simple “c” shapes for the ears and curving lines for the eyebrows through a demonstration under the document camera.

Kids had a tricky time drawing the nose and lips the most, but they did a fantastic job!!

Once they finished their self-portrait in pencil, students added a pattern of circles in the background, by tracing a circular jar lid, then traced over all their lines with a thick black sharpie to make their lines stand out more.

DAYS 2-3

On the second day of the lesson students began coloring in with crayons.

I explained to look for a crayon or two that would best match their own unique skin color. We discussed how people’s skin have a variety of colors in the world, and that they are ALL beautiful!!

I talked to them about how it’s important to appreciate each others differences and how boring the world would be if we were all the same skin color! Students agreed it would definitely be a boring world if we all looked the same!

Students then found a crayon that best matched their own unique skin color, eye color and hair color and colored in their self-portraits. I demonstrated that they could combine and layer colors to create the colors they needed if need be. I encouraged students to press hard when coloring and to try to color in completely so no white paper showed through.

For a final step, I will poke holes in their papers using a pencil and a pre-tied balloon will be attached to their self-portrait using masking tape on the back! Like in these photos below from last year!

1st Grade Bubblegum Blowing Self-portrait

Students did a fantastic job creating their self-portraits! Balloons will be added soon and displayed in the school’s hallways!

Another blog post tomorrow! Check back sometime then to see! Thanks for stopping by!

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VICTORIAN HOUSES- 4TH GRADE!

March 18, 2019 No Comments

CHECK OUT THESE AMAAAAAZING VICTORIAN HOMES!!!!

SO PROUD OF THEIR HARD WORK AND CREATIVITY!!!

Please visit my TpT store for a 12 page hand drawn PDF printable resource (added Oct. 2025) to download for using with this lesson in your classroom! Link is here

I loove how all these houses are all so unique and students really put their effort into creating them with lots of detail!!

MORE AMAZING HOUSES —STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION!……. 🙂

4^th graders did such a wonderful job creating these Victorian houses! They worked so hard coming up with their own individual, unique style Victorian house!

This lesson took (6 ) 40 minute art classes to complete. I think absolutely worth every class though! Students took their time carefully crafting their beloved houses and I wanted to give them the time!

I love incorporating a unit on Architecture!

Some of my students share that their parents work in the architecture field and I hope many of my students are inspired from this lesson and discuss their knowledge on architecture when they get home.

I wouldn’t doubt that I have a bunch of students that will someday be an architect themselves, designing amazing buildings in their future!!

DAY 1:

Students learned about Victorian Architecture and learned about some of the common characteristics found within the Victorian architectural style, (i.e., gables, turrets, towers, bay windows, fish-scale shingles, brick and stone details, decorative wood carved “gingerbread” details etc.) and were challenged to envision and create a drawing of their own Victorian style house that included some of these elements.

I showed students a powerpoint of various Victorian homes which pointed out these particular elements. I also showed students a variety of Victorian house drawings students created from previous years, as well as my own examples, to view for inspiration.

Students then were asked to share what similarities they noticed in a side by side viewing of two different Victorian homes on the whiteboard. These images did not include the arrows with descriptions on each house as previous slides depicted.

I wanted to see how much they remembered from viewing the previous slides and through discussion. Students always impress me when they raise their hands to share what they saw, noticed and recalled!! There’s a ton of slides (about 15??) that I go through and discuss before this point. It makes me so happy to see students so engaged!!

Students then practiced drawing these various Victorian elements on a worksheet after doing a demonstration on each.

We also reviewed the Elements of Art and how students would be utilizing 6 out of the 7 elements of art to draw their homes. Line, Shape, Color, Space, Texture, and Value!

Each student received a “step-by-step” how to draw packet (that I created) to look at, if they needed to refer to while drawing.

DAYS 2-3:

I demonstrated to students under the document camera how to begin drawing their homes. FROM THE ROOF DOWN– Starting with the rooflines for the gables. I also demonstrated again how to draw details step-by-step like the bay window, 3D stairs, fish scale shingles, bricks, stone work, gables, and turrets and towers.

I explained (as well as posted on the whiteboard) what Victorian elements/details were needed to be included in their home, but besides that, they had free rein to create their homes any way they wanted!

Students began drawing their Victorian homes on a sheet of 9×12″ 80# drawing paper.

As mentioned above, I had handouts to refer to with photos of various victorian style homes (not to copy exactly!! but to use as reference and be creative!! ), as well as step-by-step drawing packets to use as reference while they drew.

These handouts are print outs from my powerpoint I previously showed them in the last class. ****TEACHERS— I HAVE A FREE DOWNLOAD OF THIS FURTHER DOWN IN THIS BLOG POST!!! BOTH MY STEP-BY-STEP DRAWING HANDOUTS, AS WELL AS THE POWERPOINT, (WHICH ALSO CAN BE PRINTED AND STAPLED TO MAKE PACKETS)*****

Students were instructed to use a ruler to draw any straight lines (just like an architect!) within their work.

DAYS 4-6

Once finished drawing their houses, students carefully colored in their unique Victorian homes using colored pencils.

I demonstrated how to color in the chimney’s bricks (or other brick details within the house) using a variety of reds, browns, tans, and pinks and suggested to stagger the same color. Just like in real chimneys!

I also reviewed/ demonstrated that they could alter the value of the color by pressing lighter or harder (students did this in a previous lesson in the beginning of the year).

Students were also shown how to color in areas showing any stone detail. Neutral colors like: Greys, tans, dark browns, black, white, cream colors were staggered within those areas.

Students could color in the rest of their houses any way they wanted! In previous years I asked them to use a Monochromatic color scheme. BUT—since we already learned about that with their “mini- monochromatic self-portraits” (you can find that one through search section of my blog) they had the freedom to color them they way they pleased! Students were quite happy with that!!!

Students did such an incredible job creating these drawings! They worked very hard and I’m very impressed!

Teachers / educators and anyone really! CLICK Here to a link to download my own drawn FREE step-by-step Victorian detail drawing handouts on my Teachers Pay Teachers page as well as my own Victorian Architecture Powerpoint (which can be printed out to use as a packet for reference!) YAY!

I hope you find them useful and enjoy using them!!! If you choose to download and use them….. I’d love to hear from you and learn how it worked for you in your classroom!

Thank you for stopping by!! Check back VERY soon for a new blog post on…….

…..sorry…….. YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE!!! : )

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PRINTMAKING –VASE OF FLOWERS!

March 18, 2019 No Comments

Today in both my special needs classes we printed flowers using markers!

I drew the flowers in vases on styrofoam plates for each student ahead of time with a black sharpie.

Students then traced over the black lines with a dull colored pencil, pressing into the styrofoam. This creates an indentation in the surface of the styrofoam where ever it has been pressed in. With my help and the help of Para’s in each class, we assisted each student hand over hand. This is a great muscle strengthener and fine motor control building art activity for people of all ages and levels!

Once the black lines are traced entirely, students then colored in the flowers, leaves, and vase with washable markers. They could use any colors they wanted.

Once colored, I sprayed water, using a recycled spray cleaner bottle, 6 times on a sheet of 9×12″ 80# white drawing paper. Two sprays at the top, two in the middle, and two at the bottom. Then students helped wipe the paper with a pre-dampened sponge, to help spread the water over the paper evenly.

Then the styrofoam was placed color side down, over the damp paper, and students pressed using their hands to transfer the image from the styrofoam to their papers.

(Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a photo of these few steps)– then after pressing all over the back of the styrofoam, students used a brayer to roll over the back of the styrofoam to help further transfer their marker image.

Then the styrofoam was lifted off the dampened paper, revealing their wonderful flower print! I LOVE how they all turned out!!

It’s always so fun to show students a new art making process, and students loved it!!

To check out a more detailed description with additional photos on printmaking with markers, click on my 3rd grade art lessons page HERE and scroll down! My 3rd graders are all currently learning about printmaking with markers as well, and will be posting their “Complementary Creature Prints” soon!!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY!!!

PLEASE CHECK BACK SOON FOR MORE AMAZING STUDENT ARTWORK!!!

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OP ART BY 5TH GRADE!

March 14, 2019 No Comments

5th Graders did such a fantastic job creating these op art paper cone drawings!!! I’m super proud of their hard work!!!

Students LOVED it too and couldn’t believe it could be created using just sharpies, and colored pencils!

This lesson took about 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

ON DAYS 1 and 2: Students were introduced to various OP Art by artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, and learned what Op art was (Optical Illusion Art) with a quick slideshow of work.

Six straight lines that intersect at the same spot, were drawn ahead of time on 80# 10×10″ paper for each student with a ruler; Creating 12 “slices” in total.

Students followed along with me while I demonstrated under the document camera how to draw alternating curving lines within each pie slice, starting in the center.

Then they labeled every other slice with a “B” lightly in pencil, to mark that space as black.

Students then started tracing over the smallest slices labeled “B” in the center, using an extra fine point Sharpie, then filled in.

As areas got larger, kids switched to a Fine Point Sharpie, (since it has a thicker tip), and filled in the rest.

ON DAY 3, I reviewed the element of art VALUE with students and showed them how to create subtle value changes within each pie slice with colored pencils.

Students used a white colored pencil in the black areas first to create highlights, pressing hard with the white colored pencil down the middle, creating a bright white strip. Then as they drew from the middle outward, to each side, they pressed lighter and lighter, leaving the sides black.

Then, using a black colored pencil in just the white areas, they drew darkest along the sides and gradually pressed lighter and lighter towards the center—leaving the center strip white.

This lesson ties in nicely (and is a great precursor) to the grid drawing lesson that occurs later on in the year!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the page “STUDENTS CREATING ART” —NEW PICS HAVE BEEN ADDED : )

AND BE SURE TO CHECK BACK THIS WEEKEND FOR 4TH GRADERS VICTORIAN HOUSES!!!

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2ND GRADE ABSTRACT SELF-PORTRAITS!

March 6, 2019 2 Comments

This fun self-portrait 3 day lesson combines art exploration in abstract art and color theory.

I’ve done this a few years now and it’s definitely one of my favorite lessons for 2nd grade!

More details on how they were created below students artwork!

Students could pose anyway they wanted for their photos— I Love the variety! Some fun and silly, some serious and contemplative, and some just happy and smiling!

DID SOMEONE SAY HEAVY ON THE PHOTOS PLEASE?!!

YOU GOT IT!

DAY 1

On the first day of the lesson, I showed students my examples, students artwork from previous years, as well as just the abstract drawings before paint was applied. I asked students what they thought abstract artwork might be while looking at all the examples. Students noticed that the drawings and paintings were basically lines and shapes! We discussed how abstract art focuses mainly on lines, shapes, and colors and didn’t show a “picture” of anything (a person, a dog, a tree etc.)

Students then looked at a fun, quick slideshow of artwork by various abstract painters (Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock and William de Cooning).

Students drew various lines and shapes on 12×18” tagboard in pencil, then went over all the lines with crayons being sure to press super hard (later on we would do a crayon wax-resist). They then filled out a short questionnaire with questions asking about their favorite things and questions about themselves.

DAY 2

On day 2 of the lesson, they painted their drawings with watercolors creating a crayon wax-resist.

While students worked, I took each students photo (which I later printed as a high-contrast black & white photo on printer paper).

DAY 3

In the following art class, students added additional color using NEON oil pastels by drawing shapes and lines on their dry paintings. I LOVE the addition of neon to their paintings!! Adds a nice layer of texture and so much color! This step was a new one this year, and kids and myself are happy of this new edition to the process!

LOOK AT ALL THIS FABULOUS LAYERING OF BRIGHT FUN COLOR!!

They then glued their black and white self-portrait onto their painting as well as their printed sentences that were cut into strips ahead of time.

ET VOILA!

I hope you enjoy these awesome abstract self-portraits as much as I do!!

MORE ON THIS LESSON FROM PREVIOUS YEARS HERE!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR CHECKING OUT MY BLOG! MORE ARTWORK (ALONG WITH SOMETHING EXCITING AND NEW IN THE WORKS FOR 5TH GRADE!!) ALL COMING VERY VERY SOOOOOON!!!!!!

STAY TUUUUNED!!!! : )

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1st Grade “LOVE IS IN THE AIR!”

February 12, 2019 No Comments

LOVE IS IN THE AIR Mixed media art lesson by 1st grade

This fun 3 day lesson incorporates the elements of art; Shape, Color, Line, Form, and Texture! We also review overlapping, and crayon wax resist painting throughout the lesson.

Kids finished them up JUST in time for Valentine’s Day!

DAY 1: CREATE WARM TISSUE BACKGROUND

Students glued pre-cut warm colored tissue paper onto a sheet of 12×18″ tagboard using watered down glue. They glued an area of the paper first, then tissue, one piece at a time, then applied another thin layer of glue on top of each piece. This ensured the tissue laid flat and stuck to the paper.

Students were encouraged to overlap as they glued pieces, and to fill up the entire paper.

Day 1- gluing tissue for the sky background — Let me tell you… creating art with tissue paper and glue are probably my LEAST favorite art materials to work with! So flippin MESSY, and seems to get EVERYWHERE!!!
BUT… in the end, I think the beautiful artwork created was well worth the mess and clean up

DAY 2 – CONTINUE GLUING TISSUE / CREATE PLANE

Students continued gluing tissue until their paper was filled in entirely. Then they each received a sheet of 8.5 x 11″ medium weight tagboard with a pre-printed outline of a plane. (I drew the plane ahead of time and photocopied them)

Students drew a variety of lines and/or shapes using crayon, pressing hard inside their plane, leaving a bit of white background showing.

Once colored to their liking, they painted over the entire plane using watercolors, creating a crayon-wax resist. Students could paint with whatever colors they wanted. Planes were set aside to dry along with their tissue backgrounds until the next class.

DAY 2: CREATING THE PLANE WITH CRAYON WAX-RESIST

DAY 3: ADD PLANE AND HEART!

Students cut out their planes, and glued using a glue stick to their tissue paper backgrounds. Then glued on the cotton batting for the planes smoke in the shape of a heart!

I demonstrated how to take SMALL chunks from the bag, and pull with their fingers creating a thinner line of “smoke” before gluing into place. This was the trickiest step! Kiddos did great!!

DAY 3: ATTACH PLANE AND COTTON BATTING FOR THE HEART! ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICS OF THE PROCESS!!!

KIDS LOOOOOVED FEELING THE TEXTURE OF THE COTTON!

BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR 2ND GRADERS “ABSTRACT SELF-PORTRAITS” AAAAANNNNNNDDDD 5TH GRADE “OP ART“

THANK YOU FOR VISITING TODAY!!!!

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MY NEW ART ROOM AND MUCH MUCH MORE! …

January 24, 2019 No Comments

https://youtu.be/xiP_H_8B7fY

I found out late summer that I was no longer going to have to teach art off a cart, and I’d have my very own art room! Of course, as you can imagine I was thrilled with this exciting news!! I had been teaching from a cart, rolling it with art supplies for each class, down the hallways to each classroom for 4 years in the district I teach now. So since Sept. 2014!

I couldn’t wait to set up my new space and decorate all the walls! The room is awesome and has huge windows all along one wall, a sink (my other classroom at the other school I teach at doesn’t have a sink) and is pretty spacious but still cozy!

I took the video above in early December before the holidays, so that’s why you’re hearing “Christmas Time is Here” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio in the background.

I bought all my twinkly curtain lights from Amazon, which are not just up for the holidays but I am keeping them up all year round. I think it adds a nice warm, cozy, inviting (and soothing) environment.

I was so excited to show my students once I put them all up and they looved them! I had kids work with only those lights on in the room for the majority of the holiday season. With all the windows, it’s still plenty of light to be able to see while creating art!

Here are some pics of what the room looked like BEFORE below!

Here are some AFTER pics!

So here’s a re-cap snippet of SOME of the things we’ve been working on in the art room since September!

3rd-5th Monochromatic Mini Self-Portraits

Students at Amvet in 4th and 5th grade drew mini monochromatic self-portraits. Each class had their own designated color of the rainbow. At this school, I have (3) 4th grade classes and (3) 5th grade classes. At Roosevelt I had 3rd, 4th and 5th create them, since there are only 2 classes per grade level.

Students learned a variety of ways to draw different expressions and what monochromatic means. They learned how they can achieve a monochromatic look by pressing hard or light with their colored pencil to achieve various values of one color, and can create a variety of values by using various shades of a colored pencil.

Students in 1st and 2nd grade drew circles creating an abstract collaborative mural inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky (BELOW). They colored using a variety of colorful oil pastels, then painted around the circles filling in the remaining space of the square paper with watercolors. Once complete, I assembled them on a large sheet of black paper and hot glued into place.

1st and 2nd grade completed a Kandinsky inspired collaborative mural

Below are some art lessons we did in order by grade level so far. (These are not all of the lessons however we have finished up to this point).

1st Grade:

Hot Air Balloon Collage

To view Hot Air Balloon Collages from previous years – click on 1st Grade Art Lessons under the main menu and scroll down! Or click HERE.

Mixed-Media Alphabet Soup

This photo is from my hallway display from last year. Art will be hung up once the spoons and plastic letters are hot glued into place!! One of my favorite lessons for 1st grade!

Here are some cute pics of students working on their soups!

First graders creating their background plaid tablecloths for their alphabet soup!

To view additional mixed-media alphabet soup art from previous years, learn how it was made and what the learning goals are for the lesson, check out the 1st grade art lessons page HERE and scroll down!

2nd Grade:

Birds Eye-View Snowman Collage

To learn more about how we created these adorable snow people and what the learning goals are for the lesson, click HERE and scroll down!

Catching Snowflakes

Click HERE and scroll down to check out previous years “Catching Snowflakes” and to learn more about this lesson!

3rd Grade:

Day of the Dead Skulls

To learn more about this lesson and see additional Dia De Los Muertos Skulls – click HERE and scroll down!

3D WINTER MUGS

To learn more about this lesson and see additional mugs (using paint rather than markers) click HERE and scroll down.

4th GRADE:

Mixed Media Donuts

To view additional mixed media donuts by 4th grade, and learn how we created them, click HERE and scroll down. To view my YouTube video tutorial click HERE and select the video!

5th Grade

Falling For Foreshortening

To view additional Falling For Foreshortening artwork by 5th grade and learn how they created them, click HERE and scroll down!

Holiday Lights

Students at Roosevelt were able to complete this lesson before the holidays but unfortunately, due to time constraints classes at Amvet didn’t have time to create these. Next year I will start this lesson earlier and try to make sure everyone in 5th has a chance to do this fun lesson for the holidays!

This wonderful lesson was inspired by the amazing art teacher artwithmrsnguyen

To view additional Holiday Lights and to learn how these were created -click HERE and scroll down to the lesson!

Here are some fun pics of students creating them! Enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I’ll be posting more artwork very VERY soon!!

I promise!!!!

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GRID DRAWINGS inspired by Chuck Close! -5th GRADE

August 3, 2018 No Comments

Hello again everybody! Sorry for the long hiatus….. I meant to post this over a month ago when school was just out, but things have been pretty busy around here (and by busy I mean basically just totally chillin out and relaxing focusing on family, friends and my health—-but c’mon, can ya blame me?! It is summer break after all!

But back to the art lesson I’m posting about—-Grid drawings inspired by the amazing artist Chuck Close!

This was my last art lesson of the school year for 5^th grade. I have taught this lesson now for 5 years (4 years at the schools I’m teaching in now, and 1 year within another district). I think it’s one of the more challenging lessons for 5^th grade.

The images I print out aren’t super easy and although students have a choice on what image they want to draw, the lesson requires a lot of attention to detail and focus. Usually it takes students about 6 (sometimes even 7 (40 minute) classes to complete.

So with that in mind, I have NO IDEA why I planned on teaching it with only about 4 art classes left in the school year…. (you’d think by now I’d of realized doing so would mean kids probably wouldn’t finish. Well… that is what happened. BUT—art isn’t always about the final product. It’s about the PROCESS. Learning about new techniques, learning about different artists, creative decision-making, discovering things about yourself, learning from mistakes and persevering through challenges.

Many students did finish, and I’d say most were probably ½ way finished. I DID however, have them draw on WAY smaller paper. In previous years kids drew on 9×12” or 8×10”, but this time round, I had them draw on 5×7” to help speed things up a bit, while still keeping the same learning goals in mind.

Students worked so hard and I’m truly impressed with their beautiful drawings! Even if unfinished.

Ok, sorry….that was a lot of text to read… so here’s the artwork!! 🙂

Students selected one black and white photo of an animal. They could choose from about 15 different pictures.

I looked for images on Google that had a variety of value changes, were challenging enough in that they had some nice details, but tried to find ones with a simple background. Then I printed each of them as a 5×7” on 8.5” x11” printer paper.

When making a selection, I laid out each image in stacks of about 10 along a long table, then called groups of kids up (5 or 6 kids at a time) to make a choice.

Students used a 1” strip of cardboard to create their grids. I’ve had them use actual rulers before, but it proved to be too tricky getting accurate measurements and straight lines.

They drew a grid on their chosen black and white animal picture, then numbered each square, then drew the same exact grid on a piece of 5×7” drawing paper and numbered that grid as well.

Here’s some pics of students doing just that!

I explained to draw very lightly on the white drawing paper (so later on the grid lines and numbers wouldn’t show as much) but they could draw pressing much harder on their black and white animal pic in order to see the grid lines and numbers better.

To help students draw with a lighter touch, I showed them how to hold the pencil so their fingers gripped near the eraser rather than towards the pencils tip. The closer your fingers are towards the tip of the pencil, the more likely it is you will draw darker lines.

Once their grids were drawn and numbered, they drew just the contour lines of their animal, while observing just one box at a time. Like so…..

Once all the contour lines are complete, we reviewed what VALUE meant and after doing a demo under the doc camera, they started shading using various drawing pencils. I had them use just 2B, 3B, 4B and 6B.

I also had small handouts to refer to on a value scale with references on what pencil would probably work best for each value within their picture.

We also reviewed how you can change the value of the pencil marks by simply pressing harder or lighter as well.

Students also learned how to use a TORTILLION or aka a blending stump to soften/blur lines and create lighter values.

You can see the tortillion (not tortilla! Tortillion I joked with the kids) on this students picture of a giraffe.

Kids were amazed at how much detail they acheived and how accurate they could draw what they were seeing—-just by simply slowing down, and really paying attention to all the little details and nuances within each and every square!!

To view a great video and interview with Chuck Close himself– click on the video below!!

And another if you like!….

To view additional Grid drawings by my 5th graders in the past—- go HERE and then scroll down until you see it! This is also where you can view the learning goals of my lesson.

Thanks for stopping by!! I will be posting again within the next week or so—so Stay Tuned!! 🙂