Kindergarten- Empire State Building

I borrowed a fantastic lesson from Deep Space Sparkle based on contemporary illustrator Marz Jr. 's graphic drawings of famous people and landmarks including the Empire State Building. Students loved drawing the skyscrapers in perspective and filling in their buildings with windows.

Kindergarten- Hear Me Roar

Super easy and satisfying lesson! Students drew a simple line drawing of a lion's face and made the mane by painting in outward strokes. 

First Grade- The Flower Seller

Students drew Diego Rivera's The Flower Seller using oil pastel and collaged flowers. After reading about the artist from a children's book, students followed a step-by-step drawing lesson on the painting before coloring everything with oil pastel. The calla lilies were made by cutting out heart shapes and smudging pastel in the middle. 

Kindergarten- Cats in Pastel

 With just a rectangle, triangles, circles, and a heart, students drew charming fluffy cats each with their own unique personality. 

Kindergarten: I am Dali self-portrait drawings

More examples of student artwork coming this way, but here's a super adorable one for now. This lesson on Surrealist, Salvador Dali, was a lot of fun and so easy for young students to understand, thanks to the awesome book above that I heard of via Cassie Stephens equally awesome blog. Every page is a surreal picture in itself so I had the students look for what was surreal about each picture. My basic definition of it was art that looks real, but couldn't happen in real life. As a fun tribute to Salvador Dali, students drew self-portraits with Dali's famous mustache. You can imagine all the laughs that ensued when I showed them my own example;) Stay tuned for more drawings!

Fourth and Fifth: Chinese Bamboo Paintings

I love doing this lesson as it forces students to work sloooowly, methodically, and of course, learn about a different culture. In the Chinese culture, because bamboos can bend during storms, but are not easily broken, they symbolize strength and integrity.  Students first mixed black sumi ink and green paint to create a dark green color for their bamboo. Beginning from the bottom of the paper, they painted upward in calm, confident strokes, lifting up their brush to make thin gaps for the bamboo nodes. For the delicate stems, students used just the tips of their round brush to create the thinnest lines possible. I told them this part needed to be fast or else their lines will be bumpy and "nervous". One of the funnest steps to this project was making a chop of their names. After coming up with an interesting  signature that fit inside a tiny square, they carved it in reverse on a styrofoam square. Then they glued the styrofoam onto a wooden block and stamped it on their painting. Finished!

Second and Third: Saguaro Paintings

As I drove home a little later than usual from work, I noticed the gorgeous sunset and the striking contrast made by the shadowed trees in the foreground. I had to make a lesson out of this as it is a picture that students see everyday.  Students learned the wet-on-wet technique in which they sprayed their paper with water and painted on the paper with watercolor.  This created really cool effects and the students loved watching the colors branch out and move around. Once their sky dried, they painted their foreground black and the middle ground a lighter color since it's farther away. Since we're living in a desert, I thought it was appropriate that students painted saguaros and palm trees!