Terrific Toucans: Drawing and Painting Toucans for Fourth Grade

Aren't these fantastic? I absolutely love how each toucan has it's own personality. This is the yardstick I use to measure how successful a project is. If the artwork is unique to the artist, then I'm happy.

To begin, I show my students a few images of toucans and talk about the beak. I demonstrate a few drawing techniques and then, using a black oil pastel, the kids draw their own toucan. I suggest they begin with the eye and then draw the beak. If the beak is large enough, then it almost doesn't matter what the body looks like; everyone will know it's a toucan!
I really think not using pencils in this project is beneficial. Using an oil pastel loosens the kids up, encourages them to draw large and if they make a mistake, I tell them that the tempera paints will cover it.
After the drawing is done, the picture should look like a coloring book page; black and white and ready to color.
We use tempera paints and once the painting is dry, the kids go over all the oil pastel lines with a small brush dipped in black paint.








This artwork is created by the artists in Mrs. Kornahren's 4th grade class at Brandon School

How to Draw a Pig

Using the same technique as the Kinder Cows, this lesson teaches your little ones simple drawing techniques and offers enough options for each child to create their own little piggy!

Supplies:

• 12" x 18" white drawing paper
• Black, pink, white, green and yellow oil pastel or crayons
• Red (watered-down), green and blue liquid watercolors
• Brushes and Water
  

Step One: Begin with a 12" x 18" white drawing paper and a black oil pastel and draw a small circle towards the LHS of the paper. Then, draw a large curve, starting at the right of the circle (head) and going all the way around until you reach the bottom of the circle (chin).


Step Two: Draw two straight lines for legs complete with inverted letter "V" for hoofs. Draw a small circle with two short vertical lines inside for a snout, two dots for eyes and two ears. Lastly, draw a curly tail.
Step Three: Using a white oil pastel, color in white clouds and a fence line. Using a green oil pastel, add grass. Yellow oil pastel for a sun, etc. Continue until the child has enough detail in his picture. You can suggest butterflies, flowers, etc.

Step Four: Set out a tray of blue, green and pink (watered down red) liquid watercolor paints and large wash brushes. This step takes very little time.
Set out to dry and Viola! Pretty Pigs!


The artwork in this post is from Mrs. DeLaney's Kinder Class at Brandon School

For more watercolor lessons, checkout Deep Space Sparkle's "Watercolor Projects" PDF booklet. Click HERE for more details.

DEEP SPACE SPARKLE presents...Fun with Portraits!

The second in my series of PDF downloads, "Fun with Portraits" is a 24- page packet that contains everything you need to teach fun portrait lessons to your students or children. I've include SIX portrait lessons designed specifically for elementary students:

• Two dynamic Matisse-inspired portrait lessons for upper and lower elementary
  
• Paper-Cut portraits with optional lesson ideas
  
• Tempera/Watercolor portraits
• Imagination portraits
  
• Collage portraits with optional lesson ideas
  

The PDF includes original how-to-draw handouts, two "head" templates to reproduce, full picture tutorials and the best yet, over 75 students samples!

ALL PDF'S ARE DOWNLOAD ONLY. THEY WILL NOT BE EMAILED OR MAILED.

Click on the "Add to Cart" button below to purchase.
Only $5

Kinder Cows!

I had a request from one of my kinder teachers to teach a class on drawing animals. Not exactly my forte, but I remembered a cute lesson in the Art Projects for Kids Blog. Kathy created an adorable cow, complete with a graphic on how to draw the little Holstein. Here is Kathy's post.

I experimented with the instructions, but with only 30 minutes to draw and paint the cow, I knew my instructions had to be fool proof.
I debated whether or not to use a pencil. As you might know, I'm not a fan of pencils for most elementary art projects because it gives the kids a chance to No. 1, draw too small and No. 2, be too perfect.
But I knew if the kids drew directly onto the paper with a black crayon, there would be lines where lines shouldn't be (neck and legs).


I threw caution to the wind and decided to try both methods. For my first class of kinders, I handed out crayons and proceeded to show them how to draw the cow. I drew it on the white board and used lots of adjectives so they'd remember the steps. Then, I let them go to it. Some kids eliminated steps on their own, thus didn't have the extra lines. (Unfortunately, I didn't take photo's of this step).
For the next wave of kinders, I used pencils and we drew the cow together in direct line sequential. Here, I found my original theory to be accurate. The legs looked like toothpicks and a few kids added way too many details. Not a bad thing mind you, just harder to paint. After the pencil drawing (and yes, many requests for an eraser), the kids traced over their pencil lines with a black crayon.


I encouraged the kids to add clouds, a sun, flowers, large back spots, etc.
The painting part was super fast. Set out large wash brushes and premix some blue and green watercolor paints. Easy peasy.


So, the lesson in all this? Don't use pencils.







I saved my best tip for last: If you're in a time crunch, use a cardboard template to trace for the cow's body. I set a couple of these per-cut templates on each table and gave the children the option of using them. Some kids turned up their noses at the extra help, while others dove right in. For teachers, it's really a quick way to get the project started and makes for a good sized cow.

The artwork featured here is from Mrs. Moore's and Mrs. McCabe's Kinedr class at Mountain View School

For more watercolor lesson ideas, check out Deep Space Sparkle's "Watercolor Projects" PDF booklet.

New! Eric Carle Inspired Lessons Plans Booklet

Introducing a new feature on
Deep Space Sparkle...

PDF Formatted Lesson Plans!

My first lesson features my very favorite illustrator, Eric Carle. His iconic style is an inspiration for many of my art projects and according to your emails, the subject of many of your lesson requests.
Children adore these projects. They get to play with paint, experiment with textures and best of all, create their own masterpiece. But how do you reign in one child (let alone thirty students!) to create this project?

This lesson plan will show you.

Jam-packed with complete tutorials, templates and student artwork, this
16-page printable PDF includes all you need to create several Eric Carle inspired art lessons.

Buy your copy now!
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The PDF is designed to be printed out or you can read it directly from your computer screen. The lesson plan features my most popular project, Seahorses, but extra templates and instructions are included to create additional Eric Carle inspired projects!

ALL PDF'S ARE DOWNLOAD ONLY. THEY WILL NOT BE EMAILED OR MAILED.

To purchase this PDF, click on the "Add to Cart" button below. You'll be able to download this packet immediately after purchasing.

Foil Turtle and Fish Collage

This lesson was inspired by a lesson in The Usborne Book of Art Projects. It was a huge hit with my third grade class. The lesson in the book focused on fish but I thought a sea turtle would look lovely swimming in these glittery waters.

As for the glittery waters, I had some glitter concoction left over from my Fancy Fish Lesson, so I had the students brush the leftovers onto a piece of blue or lavender drawing paper. The results were shimmery and ocean perfect.

If you don't have the supplies to make the glittery concoction (glitter paint, Mod Podge and liquid watercolor) try making the background using 6" x 9" pieces of watercolor paper. Wet the paper with a sponge or large brush, then mix blues and green watercolors and paint on the wet watercolor paper (wet-on-wet technique). Salting the surface will give the "ocean" a sparkly quality.

Drawing the Fish and Sea Turtle:

While the paper dried, I demonstrated how to draw simple fish and a sea turtle. See diagrams for a step-by-step.

After demonstrating the drawing technique, hand out pieces of tin foil (regular is fine, but heavy duty works really well), colored Sharpies, and texture boards (instructions below). Put tin foil directly onto texture boards and draw fish or turtle. Color with Sharpies and watch the texture of the netting show through. The kids LOVE this step. I do, too. It's really cool!
After drawing a large turtle or a few fish, carefully cut out fish and glue (white school glue) onto glittery or watercolor paper.



To make a Texture Board, cut heavy board (tag board, etc) into 9" x 6" rectangles. Sizes can vary so don't stick to my suggestions. Cut up old vegetable or fruit bags and tape to cardboard. I made about 25 and had a few 6th graders help with the taping.

Fish and Turtle Artwork by Ms. Welbourne and Ms. Hinkley's 3rd Grade Classes at Brandon School