Oil Pastel Snowman

I made a cool discovery today. The oil pastels that I had previously thought were too bumpy to make a nice picture, worked perfectly for this rough, outdoor snowman. In the future, I’m going to save my smooth Portfolio pastels for blending projects, and the bumpy Rembrandt brand for coloring textured pictures like this one.
1. My goal for this drawing was to have the student think about giving their drawings dimension just by moving lines and shapes. I started by giving them a large black paper (12" x 17") and a cardboard circle template (5" diam.) They used the template for drawing the bottom circle, and then had to draw the middle and top circle themselves, in pencil.
2. Next, they were to choose to draw their snowman as turned to either the right or the left, just not head-on as they probably have done in the past.
3. After the pencil drawing was done, the lines were to be traced heavily with a black pastel. Finally, the snowman and background are colored in.
4. I wanted to find an easy way to display the artwork, and found that some leftover white packing boxes were the perfect solution. I taped them shut and spray mounted the art to the smooth side. Voila! A poor man’s self-standing canvas!

Paper Chain Christmas Tree Card

I call this my “minimalist” tree card. Art stores like Michael’s have lots of pretty scrapbook paper these days; I prefer ones with a small scale print like this brand.
1. Cut strips of paper that are 5" long by 1/2 " wide. Follow the folding and chaining technique that is demonstrated on my post “Paper Chains, Gum Wrapper Style” which is located under the “Craft” label.
2. Fold and chain 6 links for the bottom row of the tree, 4 for the middle row, 2 for the top and just one for the trunk.
3. Arrange the chain segments as shown on a nice piece of white paper, about 5" x 7" and glue in place. Glue the white paper to a slightly larger colored paper for an accent.

Tinted Christmas Tree Painting

This picture looks best with just white crayon lines (no pencil) so my lesson plan uses mostly tracing of cut-out shapes instead of drawing them.
1. Each student needs to draw three trees on a smaller sheet of scrap construction paper and cut them out. They may use a small piece of double-stick tape to stick the three trees to a piece of watercolor paper. (Please note that the diagram to the right uses a gray paper only so that the lines may show.) The edges of the trees may go off the page, if necessary. A ground line is drawn with the white crayon below the trees.
2. Using the white crayon again, trace around the edges of the three trees, pressing firmly to make a thick line. A moon may be added to the sky, along with lots of dots for snow, and a yellow star (in yellow crayon) above the middle tree. The crayon lines may be hard to see at this point, so the students have to work carefully to not miss any steps.
3. I used watercolor that comes in tubes as the white will not be found on your average school watercolor tray. Each student needs just a bit of white and blue, and some water so they may mix a tinted paint color. After removing the two outside cut-out trees, the tinted blue may be painted over those trees, and the sky, and around the moon. At this point the white lines become apparent so that the last paint step is easier to do. Let the tinted paint dry.
4. A bit of straight blue paint is mixed with water and then painted around the trees to fill in the sky. The moon and middle tree and ground remain white. The star could be deleted to just make a non-religious winter landscape painting.

Homemade Christmas Card

There’s nothing like a homemade holiday card. I tried this method to make a quick “quilted” card that didn’t actually call for any sewing.
1. Start with giving each student 3 colored cards that measure 4.5" x 6.5". Next, they each need 3 sheets of contrasting card stock that measure 4" x 6" (I used a cream color.)
2. Older students can draw and cut out a separate template of an evergreen tree, and then trace it in the middle of each of the cream sheets of paper. Younger students could choose from some precut templates and trace their image on each card. As for cutting out the shapes, I haven't found a better way than using an xacto knife. I had a small class, so I ended up pre-cutting the cards for them.
3. The students will need some holiday-colored fabric scraps. They are to cut a shape that is large enough to cover the tree hole and a glue it to one side. Any excess fabric should be neatly cut away. Then the colored card stock is glued to the back of each cream card. I think glue sticks will give you the neatest results.
4. After all three cards are done, they may be taped together on one side to make what is called a “Z-fold”. With a sharp colored pencil, small dash lines are drawn around the edge of each tree to look like stitch lines.

Kandinsky Cityscape

Kandinsky is perhaps best known for his abstract work, but I personally love the rich city life paintings he made, such as “Houses in Munich”.
1. I tried out some pastel chalk pencils for my sample, but I think you could get very similar results with construction crayons. I like the pencils as they can be sharpened and your fingers need never get covered in dust. Starting with a sheet of black paper, ask the students to draw in pencil a horizontal ground line. Afterwards, they are to draw a series of building rectangles that sit side by side. Windows and roofs may be added.
2. Ask the students to trace all of their pencil lines with the black pastel, going over each line at least twice to thicken it up.
3. When coloring in the buildings, they should choose the brightest and boldest colors – anything except the normal brown and gray. The sky and ground may be experimented on as far as mixing color, but the buildings should be just one flat color.

Paper Weaving

To be honest, I've never been able to get too excited about paper weaving. But I just can’t deny that it is a good way to introduce kids to the technique as the patterns are more visible than with yarn. And as I encounter 4th and 5th graders these days who have never tried any kind of weaving, I realize that this art area gets overlooked too often.
1. I did myself one favor and at least bought some good construction paper from Staples that was much brighter than the public school brand. One large 9" x 12" sheet needs to be chosen for the background “warp”, the term for the parallel lines in a weaving. Parallel lines need to be cut 3/4" apart from each other, leaving the top and bottom edge intact. This is most easily done with an xacto knife and ruler.
2. I cut varing widths of 9" strips of paper for the “weft”, the lines that go up and down in a weaving. Starting at one end, a paper needs to be woven up and down from one side to the other. The next paper is woven in the same manner, just done in the opposite way as the first. Shove each strip close together as you advance and repeat until the area is filled.
3. To add an extra bit of color, the students can go back to the widest strips and add another skinny strip on top. It makes for a kind of instant plaid look.

Mondrian Watercolor Painting

Piet Mondrian is widely considered the founder of abstract art. There are many ways to imitate his style of painting, but I like this one best as the crayon naturally creates a wall between the watercolors.
1. With a ruler, the students are to draw lightly draw about 4 parallel horizontal lines across a piece of watercolor paper, and then about 4 vertical lines.
2. Ask them to randomly erase about 4 sections of the horizontal lines.
3. Next the students need to add about 5 lines, in any direction, chopping up any the the large rectangles to make some small ones. The goal is to have relatively even amount of large, medium and small shapes when complete.
4. Give each student a black crayon and have them trace all their lines, pressing heavily to make a dark line.
5. Each student then needs the three primary watercolors: red, blue and yellow. When painting in their squares, they are to consider the balance of each color (including white) so that there is not a concentration of any in any one area.

Turkey Scratch Drawing

This scratchy-looking technique is called “sgraffito”, and it works well with drawing something like a turkey with all it’s lines and feathers.
1. I made a simple line drawing of a turkey for the students (that you can download here) as they are a rather unusual and complex shape. Have the students trace the lines with a black Sharpie marker to thicken the lines.
2. The turkeys are to be colored in with oil pastels. Important: this layer needs to be thick and it really helps to use some very soft oil pastels like the Portfolio brand. I'm not sure that the less expensive ones will work very well as they tend to be harder and not as easy to get really good coverage with.
3. With a black pastel, the entire picture is colored over, pressing hard to cover as much of the color as possible.
4. With a wooden stylus or other sharp object like an embroidery needle, scratch away the black pastel to reveal the color underneath. Encourage the students to think about and change the direction of the scratching often to give their shapes more separation and dimension.

Snowman Drawing

I sometimes look at stock illustrations on websites like gettyone.com for inspiration. I found a simple drawing of a snowman on skis that I really liked, and remade with my glue and pastel technique.
1. Drawing lightly on black paper, make three overlapping circles, each getting a bit smaller as they go up.
2. Draw simple stick arms, a face and buttons.
3. Add stick ski poles attached to the hands, and a hat that sits on top of the head. Stripes are nice as they allow for extra color.
4. Draw two skis below the bottom circle, and then a curved horizon line. Trace all lines with a thin line of white glue and let dry for 6 hours or so.
5. When dry, color in all the areas with pastel. I used Art Stix for this picture, which are a kind of new-fangled stick that don't have all the chalky-ness of the chalk pastels. They aren't cheap, but they are clean and sturdy and seem to last forever.

Turkey Pinch Pot

I also found this in the Arts & Activities magazine, and it works great for any student that has already made a pinch pot. I'm saving it for 1st graders on up.
1. Give each student a lump of clay about the size of a small apple. Tell them that softening the clay is an important first step, and this is best done by squeezing it and spreading water on it for at least five minutes. After the clay is warm, they are to roll it into a smooth ball.
2. To make a pinch pot, they are to stick their thumb in the middle of the ball, and then pinch the sides until a bowl forms with walls that are about the thickness of a pancake.
3. On one side of the bowl, a small fold can be made and pinched together to gather extra clay to make the turkey head. On the opposite side, clay can be pinched a bit to make a curve of the tail. When the shape is complete, feathers can scratched in the sides to add some texture.
4. Fire the clay, paint with glaze, and fire again. A very cute addition to your Thanksgiving table!

Oil Pastel Landscape

This is a great lesson for teaching foreground, middle ground and background in a landscape. I found this project at www.artsonia.com, a wonderful source for creative ideas.
1. Each student is to position a piece of paper horizontally, and draw three lines that tilt a little to each side. These sections will each represent foreground, middle ground and background in the picture.
2. Draw three simple tree shapes, one extending up from each line. All should be spread out to give the branches room.
3. The ground lines within each tree then need to be erased. The students will then trace all the pencil lines with a black sharpie.
4. Lastly, the hills, trees and sky are to be filled in with oil pastels. Most pastels have a dark and light green, orange and yellow and brown, which may be used to shade each section to give it depth. If you use water-soluble pastels, you can brush the artwork with water to smooth the edges between the colors.

Positive / Negative Pumpkin

One last Halloween project. This is short and sweet but makes a very graphic image.
1. Give each student a square piece of black paper and an orange that is half the width of the black. With the orange lying on top of the right side of the black, they are to imagine the center line as the middle of a pumpkin.
2. Starting on the middle line, they need to draw half of a pumpkin. Next, one eye and one half of a mouth are drawn. When complete, the eye and mouth are cut out, all as complete shapes, not bits and pieces. I show them how to cheat with the eye by cutting a line over to it and then cutting around to get the triangle out. The little slice will seal itself back up when glued.
3. The newly cut shapes are to be flopped from their cut out positions, and then glued down with a glue stick. Voila, a positive/negative and symmetrical pumpkin face!

How to Make a Paper Pumpkin

I just tried this today and a room full of picky 4th graders loved it! I can't wait to see all our pumpkins hanging outside at our school festival.
1. I used orange construction paper in the standard 9"x12" size, and then used a paper cutter to make a pile of orange strips that were 1" wide by 12" tall. The students were given 10 strips of paper, a push pin and two paper fasteners. They were to stack the strips and use the push pin to help make a hole in each end through all the layers.
2. The pin is removed and replaced by the paper fastener. It's best to push it through just a couple of layers at a time.
3. The paper fastener legs are opened and the strips are adjusted around each pin until they are equally spaced apart and a globe shape takes place.
4. Black eyes and mouth are cut out and glued on with a glue stick. A string of yarn may be tied to one end.

How to Draw a Cat

I've never had a student say that they didn't want to draw a cat. They make a great subject matter for boys and girls of all ages.
1. I first made 3.5" cardboard circle templates. Each student was instructed to place their circle near the top left of an 8.5" x 11" paper. The circle is traced, and then slid down near the bottom of the paper, and traced again, very lightly.
2. The cat body is drawn by making curves that go from the neck down, adding space around the circle. The reason for this is that we want the bottom of the cat to be wider than the head. When complete, erase the bottom circle.
3. The eyes, nose, mouth, collar and whiskers are added.
4. The tail and leg shapes are added.
5. When the drawing is complete, all the lines are to be traced with a thin black marker. Lastly, the cat is colored in with oil pastels. Encourage a wide variety of color, and a lot of contrast between the cat and the background.

How to Draw a House

I had great success with the project for kinders just last week. Several even came back later saying they went home to draw more houses. Love it when that happens!
1. I printed out 1/4" graph paper on 17" x 11" paper to help the students draw straight lines. Using just plain white paper would probably be fine though too. Start by showing the students how to draw a straight horizontal line for the ground. A basic house shape is added above it, sitting a bit to the left of the paper.
2. Show the students how to draw two horizontal lines for the edges of the roof. If possible, ask them to make them approximately the same length.
3. Starting at the top line, the two ends of the roof need to be connected and then a straight vertical line goes down.
4. Now the details of door, windows and sun may be added. All the lines are traced with a thin black marker, and then shapes are colored in. Encourage them to include the background so the image has lots of color.

Skeleton Drawing

I've grown to really love this process of drawing with glue and then coloring with pastels. The wiggly lines seem to only add character to the art.
1. Starting with black construction paper, show the students how to draw in pencil a large skeleton head, which looks a lot like an upside down pear. Circles are added for the eyes, a triangle for the nose, and rectangle with lines for the mouth. A skinny neck and shoulders are added.
2. After the pencil drawing is complete, the students are to take white glue and trace all the lines. Let dry for at least 24 hours.
3. Oil pastels are used to color in all the shapes made with glue.

How To Draw a Fall Tree

I found this project on Artsonia.com, and I love how it makes students think of trees as a series of branches, and not just a fluffy shape that sits on a stick (which is not a bad place to start, but can be left behind at some point).
1. Ask the students to draw a large "Y" on their paper.
2. Show them how to add smaller "Y"s on each side, alternating as they go up each branch. To make the "Y"s the most realistic, they should be directed toward the sky somewhat, and not at 90 degree angles.
3. When the lines are complete, they need to be thickened. The fattest part of the trunk should be at the bottom, and all the lines should gradually get thinner until they end in points at the top.
4. Lots of fall colors can be colored around the branches. I used my favorite Portfolio oil pastels here.
5. The background may be added, with grass and shadow and sun and clouds.

Fall Leaf Butterflies

I admit this idea is taken directly from Lois Ehlert's book “Leaf Man”. But figuring out how to get dozens of colored leaves that are easy to glue down was my own. I’m only sorry I didn’t think of it until now.
1. If you are so fortunate as to live near some fall foliage, you can take the real thing to a color copier and make lots of prints of multiple leaves. Or if you are like me, nowhere near any maple trees, you can go to www.gettyone and search for “leaves, close-up”. Download the preview images, which are free, and print out on a color printer. I splurged and used photo paper as the color seems to be about 10 times brighter when I do.
2. Young students can cut out the leaves leaving about an 1/8" of white around the outside. The reason is that intricate leaf shapes can be tricky to cut right on the edge, but because the background will be white, it will look OK. Older students can be more precise and cut out the leaf exactly.
3. The leaves are then to be cut in half right down the middle, along the spine. The two sides are then glued down with a little space left in between. A body and antennae are cut from scraps pieces, or from leftover stems.

Magazine Color Collage

Collage is a French word which means "glue." The term was coined by Braque and Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century, when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.
1. I've found this to be a really good project for kinders and 1st graders. They enjoy the hunt for images, and benefit from some simple guidelines.
2. Each student needs a couple of magazines, white paper, scissors and glue stick. They are to choose one color, and then collect as many different objects or swatches in that color that they can find.
3. All of the images are glued onto the white paper, with the goal of overlapping and filling up as much of it as they can. This is really simple, but the fact that each picture will have a theme really unifies the images and can create some stunning artwork. Plus, everyone is getting lots of scissors cutting practice, without really thinking about it!

Haunted House Coffee Painting

I saw this idea in a recent Arts & Activities magazine, and loved the look. I thought a haunted house would be a good subject matter because of all the moody brown tones that could be created.
1. Halloween can be such a mixed bag when it comes to art lessons. I really like simple spooky fun, but have seen enough drawings of RIP headstones, etc. to fill a lifetime. So I set up rules that this project was to be 'drawn' with a paintbrush (so the kids wouldn't draw tiny shapes they couldn't paint) and that it was essentially a landscape (no ghosts, no zombies, headstones, etc.). Each student gets a white paper, thin brush, water and a tablespoon or so of instant coffee.
2. The students are to dissolve bits of coffee with water on a plate. Show them how to paint a ground line, then an old-fashioned house that is made up of lots of sections. Windows and landscaping may be added.
3. After the outlines are done, ask the students to fill in the painting by making as many different tones of brown as they can. Their finished painting should have a range of white to light to medium to almost black-brown. I love this idea - where else can you get cheap instant paint?