Watercolour and Contour Drawing - great projects for warm weather! Lessons  


Here's a great way to enjoy art in the outdoors - by landscape sketching and painting!  The animations say it all! Usually a light drawing is done to block in the shapes and arrange the composition.  

Start with a detailed contour sketch of your subject - whether it's a fence and trees or a playground or trees and some buildings...then use watercolour to paint and and add detail and mood.

Don't forget to put wires into the back of projects that you want to hang - it's too late once the project has been cooked!   Check here for instructions to make the alligator at the right.   (Hint: start at the lightest colors and work toward the darkest.) NOTE: Sculpey Super Flex may need to be warmed under a light bulb if it is quite firm. It contains a special ingredient that can crystallize in cold weather. Warm and then soften small quantities by rolling vigorously between the hands.
BE CAREFUL: It is very heat reactive and can get sticky. If it becomes sticky, set aside or place in refrigerator for a few minutes. Skunk bookmark.

Here's links to a "whole bunch" of great sculpey projects: Ladybug fridge magnet.  Sports clip magnet.  Rocking horse ornament (for Xmas) Santa penguin.  Santa ornament.  Christmas countdown ornament.  Christmas holiday cards.  Little angel.

ORIGAMI is a great project.  The word is Japanese and it means "to fold."  Here's a great starting page for projects and ideas: Origami USA.

 

 

 Photography

 Here's a web page I created that deals with principles of good design and composition in the field of photography and can be applied to composition in any art project.

The key principles of design are: 

  • a) Limit the number of colors, and objects in your picture.
  • b) Repeat the colors, objects and shapes in your picture.
  • c) Use related colors, objects and shapes.

 

 

 Here's a great project idea to help students build confidence in drawing.  Give students printed out photographs of themselves and have them convert the photos to contour line or dot drawings - by the time they add in pencil shading, the original photograph won't even be visible.

Scrapbook
Creative Memories
Provocraft
Sticker planet
Scraphappy
Tons of Links
Scrapbook Lady


What is Scrap Booking?      Scrap booking is the practice of combining photos, memorabilia and stories in a scrapbook style album.  The simple process of accumulating photographs, writing down memories and saving memorabilia is a simple way of celebrating our existence and recording our history.    Ideas Archive     Links       

 Half and Half

 This is a type of collage project.  Cut out a fairly large size picture, cut it in half and draw in your version of the side you've cut off.  It's a great art skills builder.   The drawing right of the bearded man is one I did (a bit of a rush job) using Paint program.  

 Rule of Thirds
Have students draw "rule of third line" grids over old photographs and discuss the results of these constructions.

 Imagine your picture area divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically.  The intersections of these imaginary lines suggest four options for placing the center of interest for good composition. You can often achieve balance in a picture by placing a secondary object at the opposite intersection of grid lines.  It's only a guideline, not a principle.  

 

 Here's the homepage for Sculpey Projects.  It's like a coloured plasticene that sets and hardens in an oven at a temperature of 275 degrees for 30 minutes. (for every 3 centimetres thickness) Prepare the clay by kneading and rolling it until it is softened and warmed somewhat. Primo is easier than other clays to condition--just slice it off of the brick and roll it up, flatten, and repeat.  You can use cookie cutters to shape the clay and at the left you can see that the craftsman pressed designs into the sculpey using the flat of a comb.  Colors can be used straight from the package (there is a wide variety available) or mixed. Many craftsmen  like to mix with Pearl White as a base for colors with lots of shimmer.  PS - the picture was baked in the oven with the project. 

 
Draw your bedroom - a simple sketch or series of sketches would be fine...do the water painting or colouring at school the next day.  Note the use of perspective by Van Gogh in his famous bedroom painting!  @ Van Gogh Teaching Program  Van Gogh painted The Bedroom in October 1888.  It shows his own bedroom, furnished with the basic items of life: a bed, chairs, table, window, mirror, and art on the walls. Each object is closely observed and lovingly portrayed. Van Gogh's everyday life experience is communicated in the most mundane details. The windows, for instance, seem to have been opened slightly to let in a bit of air. It is almost as if Van Gogh himself has just left the room. But the artist's presence is most clearly experienced through his technique -- the way he moves paint across the canvas. He has put himself into every stroke of paint.  

Cartooning

 Cartoon Network

Variety and Interpretations - give students all the same project and watch the different interpretations of the subjects...try the experiment...you do a simple drawing and pass it on to a student who privately does his own... ...watch the results after this has gone through 30 students or more...remember, none of them save the first student to get the project gets to see the original till the assignment is over.

Design Competition

 Give students a set of chess pieces - have them arrange in a composition then check and explain how they've used principles of design to arrange the pieces.

What is outside the window of Pierre Bonnard's
kitchen window?  Students receive a photocopy
of the painting at the left and draw in whatever
they feel would suit the theme.  Click on the pic
to see the full original painting.

Click for a larger view

 Collage

Tissue Paper Collage

Express yourself creatively - click on picture to see the original

Here's a Thomas Benton composition to complete - click on the picture to see the original!

Another Anti-Coloring Masterpiece challenge - click also on picture to see the original. Roy Lichtenstein's Preparedness!

Mosaics   Sally's Mosaics Mosaics