Lady Liberty Art Lesson

The Statue of Liberty is a great subject for teaching art techniques; watercolor, collage, tempera, marker...pick any medium and the project will turn out great. The drawing itself is quite simple, especially if you stick to the head and shoulders. You can read my basic instructions here. For this lesson, I panned out and asked my students to draw the entire length of the statue, complete with a city scene in the background.

Supplies:

12" x 18" white paper

Black water-proof marker (Sharpie Brand is great)

Colored markers (I use Crayola Brand)

Liquid watercolor (blues and a green/black)

Optional: Embellishments such as paper scraps, sequins, etc.

Drawing Lady Liberty:

For this project, I decided against pencils and erasers. Fifth graders tend to be perfectionists and if given a pencil, will toil away for hours getting the draping just right. Of course, if you are doing this project at home and time is not a concern, go ahead, use a pencil. But in my opinion, learning to draw without an eraser is very rewarding.

I often ask my students to draw with just a marker. In order for this to work, you need to do a little work yourself. I demonstrate different ways to draw Lady Liberty on the white board. I use a marker (or course) and prove that if mistakes happen, they can be "fixed". Try this yourself and make sure that not one of your finished Lady Liberty's are perfect. The drapes on the dress, the curls in the hair and points on the crown all yield well to mistakes, so really try to instill in your students that mistakes happen and you can still have great art.

Remember to mention that if the kids run out of room, it's okay to go off the page.

Painting Lady Liberty:

Once the students complete the drawing of Lady Liberty and the background, set out a limited palette of watercolor paints. I like to combine green and black liquid watercolors to achieve the patina of the statue. If you don't have liquid watercolors, use food coloring. It works great.

Suggest that the students consider painting the statue green (they don't have to paint it all) and the water and sky. Big spaces=watercolor. Little spaces=marker.

Coloring the Details:

Once the paint is dry, pull out the markers. If you are a teacher, finishing the watercolor will allow you to manage the completion of this project better. Students who have completed the drawing and watercolor parts, can return to this project anytime to finish the coloring. Pulling out markers is much easier than prepping watercolor paint.

If you have any embellishments in your art closest, bring them out now. Some kids like to use sequins in the crown or skyscrapers. Since I have tons of painted paper scraps, I allow the students to access that as well. Some will chose to embellish, others won't.

Fifth Grade Results!

Keith Haring Art Project

I thought I'd revisit this lesson from a few years ago. It's a perfect lesson to get you through an end-of-the-year slump. 5th graders love the graffiti nature of this project. To expedite completion, use a smaller size paper.

Fifth and Sixth grade students love Keith Haring! They are inspired by the simplicity of his action figures and influenced from his break dancing and graffiti like-art.
As a teacher, I love this lesson. I pass out a container full of prisma-color markers and let the kids go wild! I only have a few tips for this type of lesson. Practice drawing the Keith Haring figure first and then tell the kids to color in their figures with a solid color.
We brainstormed over backgrounds, but mostly I wanted the kids to come up with their own. We spoke about color and energy, but really, the kids got it.

Repeat Fish Collage using Painted Paper

Kids love painting paper. Place a piece of white paper and a few tubs of paint on a table and watch 'em go at it. Pure joy. If you think Kinders love this technique, watch your fifth graders. They go all out.

This project is simple. Set out 2 pieces of white paper per student and approx 3-5 tubs of paint (reds, blues, greens, yellows...mix it up) per table. Place large brushes in the paint tubs. I suggested creating two coordinating sheets of paper, explaining that one paper will be used for the bodies and the other paper will be used for details. Well, the kids barley listened and came up with their own agenda. Honestly? It worked out much better.

When the painted paper dries, draw one or two fish (silhouettes only) on the back of the paper or on a separate sheet. Trace onto painted paper and cut out.

Use the cut-out fish as a template to trace onto more painted paper.

Cut out as many fish as you would like (alternating painted paper choices...the kids made two) and adding fins, tails, decorations, etc. Arrange fish on a sheet of black construction paper.

Use metallic paint to add bubbles, scales and other embellishments. if you don't have metallic paint, use oil pastels, gel pens, crayons, even glitter.
Anything to add another dimension to the project.

Fifth Grade Results!

Free Expression City Scape Art Project

For my last class with my fifth grade students at Brandon School, I asked them to create a self-expressive city scape. We spoke about things you would find in a city, including skyscrapers and roads but also parks, zoos, shopping malls and skate parks. We traced the skyscrapers using cardboard templates and placed them on a lightly draw horizon line. Then, that was it for instructions! Using pencils, the kids drew whatever "scene" they wanted and painted the entire piece using tempera paints. Sadly, most kids couldn't finish the project in the allotted time frame. Sometimes this happens with free expression because of the lack of "direction". I can understand this. Many times I have sat down to paint only to feel a bad case of artist block attack my brain. I encouraged the kids to paint anything even if they thought it was silly. This seemed to loosen them up. Hopefully, they will find their art this summer during a lazy day and find their "expression" again.

Big Fat Hen: Chalk and Oil Pastel Drawing

A trip to the library last fall yielded a plethora of art ideas. Keith Baker's Big Fat Hen is filled with fabulous illustrations. Colorful, vibrant, detailed and adorable. Perfect for fifth grade! Similar to my chalk lizard project, this lesson produces fabulous results even for the self-proclaimed artistically-challenged student's.

I photocopied a few of the hens from the book and handed out the images to the students. We talked in detail about the different patterns and silhouettes Baker uses in his illustrations. I encouraged the students to become the illustrator...to draw as well as they could, in Keith Baker's style.

Supplies:
Blue 12" x 18" drawing paper
Black oil pastel
Oil Pastels in a variety of colors
Chalk Pastels

Step One: Drawing the Hen

I use the same basic technique for drawing the hen as I do for most animals: Start with the eye placement, then draw the head"cap" (the head looks like a sideways letter "U"), then the beak (two triangles), then the body. Try looking at the pictures in the book and drawing the hen for yourself. Make note of what you draw first and how you might explain that to a student. Often, if you can't figure out why you draw something first or last, that indecisiveness translates back to the student. Keep the shapes simple, and you'll be fine. Fill the page as best you can!

Step Two: Adding Patterns with Oil Pastel

The next step is fun. Set out the oil pastels and let the children color as they see fit. Keeping the illustrations in mind, encourage whimsical colors. No black and white hens please! Here's a tip: layer a section of the hen (feathers, wings, etc) with one color then add patterns on top of that color using black or another strong contrast color. Again, check out the book for Barker's incredible color combo's.

Step Three: Background

The background is meant to be simple. Using chalk pastels, add sweeping layers of colors. No need to draw anything in particular, just swaths of color are fine.


Fourth and Fifth Grade Results!