Van Gogh Sunflowers Art Lesson

A perennial favorite...what student can go through elementary school without completing his own version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers?

I usually do a collection of Sunflowers in oil pastel, but decide to try out a tempera paint version instead.

Here's what we did:

Using an oil pastel, students drew a vase, table line and the flower centers. I demonstrated this step first and gave all sorts of examples to encourage students to create a vase and flowers unique to them.

Then, students painted the "tables" in one color and the background in another color. For simplicity, I set out two colors. You may not choose to limit the kids this way, though.

This usually marked the end of our first lesson (approx. 45 minutes). For the next step, I set out an assortment of paints and demonstrated how to blend paint using the double-load technique. (dip paint brush first in one color and then another. Mix directly onto paper).

After painting the leaves and petals, children painted their vase and added shadows and hi-lights. Some children added shadows to the table as well. For a final flourish, the children opted to outline their lines with black or white paint or not at all. I left that decision up to them.

Second and Third Grade Results: