Grand Canyon Painting Lesson

Here is another lesson inspiration from the book, "Wow! America!" by Robert Neubecker. A journey across the United States brings us to the great Grand Canyon. Layers of rock, canyons and eroded arches appear endless, broken up only by the slight variations of colors. This lesson focuses on creating depth in a picture. The concept here, near and far can be used or simply the foreground, mid-ground and the background.

The results are quite graphic and dramatic--just like the Grand Canyon!

Supplies:

12" x 18" white paper

Pencil and eraser

Water containers and brushes

Tempera Paints: Mix up some desert-like colors in blues, browns, terra-cotta, yellows, etc.

Black tempera paint (watered down) and small tipped paint brush.

Photographs of the Grand Canyon

Neubecker's book, Wow! America!

Drawing the Canyon:

• Starting at the bottom of the page, draw a line that will represent the edge of a cliff. The line should be about a hands-width from the bottom of the page and should contain curved sections and sections that bend in to one another.
• Draw vertical lines where the lines bend in together. This creates the illusion of depth.
• Next, draw the "pancake" like plateaus. It helps to keep the top part of the pancake relatively flat and then round the bottom. Draw as many "pancakes" as you would like.
• Add the vertical lines that will turn the "flying pancakes" into plateaus. Encourage lines that bend slightly.
• Draw a straight horizon line near the top of the drawing. Add rock formations, clouds, the sun, etc.
• Once the canyon is drawn, students can now return to the foreground and add cactus, rocks, etc. Because the students are using pencils, they will have a tendency to draw these items small. Strongly encourage bigger items as this will make the painting easier.
• Erase all unwanted pencil lines. A clean, concise drawing makes painting easier.

Painting the Canyon:

I find it's helpful to paint the canyon in stages. Chose a color for the foreground and paint this area plus all the plateaus this one color. Some kids will find it very hard to stay with one color and I don't force them. Rather I explain that sticking to one color makes it easier for the eye to pick up the plateaus. This is a great lesson for teaching color consistency for better composition.

After the plateaus are painted, paint the sky. Bring out all sorts of paints for this. I set out some blues, whites, pinks and let the students mix and play until they got their own personal sky color.

After the plateaus and sky, it's time to paint the canyon. This is when the painting starts to look chaotic and messy. Students will fuss, balk and complain that they strongly dislike their painting. Encourage persistence! Suggest limiting the canyon colors to 2 or 3 tones and paint with up and down brush strokes instead of back and forth. This will make a big difference.

For the final and most important step, outline all original pencil lines with a small brush dipped in black tempera paint. The lines might be hard to see, so paint where colors meet.

Third and Fourth Grade Results...

Primary Color Parrot Painting Lesson

Parrots are an art room staple..for lessons, I mean. They are easy to draw and even more fun to paint. I love this lesson because, no matter what the child's perceived artistic ability, most will be totally surprised with how well they did.

1. For this lesson, which took three-45 minute class times, we started with learning how to draw a basic parrot. I use the "shape" strategy. Draw a circle for the eye, draw an arrow for the beak, etc. Most kids find it easy to draw when a confusing and seemingly difficult image is broken down into basic shapes.
2. After the kids draw a parrot on scrap paper, I give them a large sheet of white 12 x 18 sulphite paper. They are free to draw whatever bird they like. I plaster the white board with pictures of tropical birds and give them black and white drawings of birds, used as a drawing aid, for their table.
3. I encourage the kids to use a black marker for drawing. Pencil and erasures take up too much class time. Most kids will spend the entire class period erasing their lines.
   
4. By the second class, each kid will have a completed bird drawing. At this point, I give them a tray with the primary paint colors on it. We go over how to mix the colors to make the secondary colors and then the kids are free to paint their tropical birds.

By the last class, some kids need to finish their painting but all others can add a black marker detail to their painting. Outlining the leaves, feathers and other details really make the painting come alive!

Pirate Ship Art lesson for Fourth Grade

This lesson combines many techniques: drawing, cutting and shaping with paper, painting waves and composition. I chose to do this lesson with an upper grade class but it's suitable for much younger children as well.

Supplies:

• Brown, black, white and gray construction paper (I cut the white, black and gray paper in 4" x 6" pieces, the brown/black in long strips for masts and a larger brown for the hull)
• scissors and glue sticks
• oil pastels
• 12" x 18" white construction/sulphite paper
• tempera paints in blue/green/purple/light blue and white and red/yellow
  
• larger paint brushes

Step One: Creating the Ocean
Mix up some tubs of paint and add some large brushes to the tubs. Paint the entire paper with one blue. If you want to have a sunset, add a horizon line and paint above the line orange and below the line blue.
Now, add a contrasting color and swirl the two together. Students can use plastic forks, the backs of their brushes or even their fingers to create waves. Use any technique you would like as long as the entire paper is covered with paint!
Set aside to dry.

Step Two: Making the Pirate Ship
I drew a few pirate ships on the white board to give the kids an idea of different shaped hulls. Don't get too fancy here as the idea is to draw a very simple hull with an oil pastel and then cut out. To make it easier for the students, I pre-cut brown pieces of paper (approx 4" x 6") and had them draw on that paper. This just makes sure that they don't draw too large or too small. It seems to work, so give it a try.
I also assisted the kids in cutting (with my large trimmer) different sized masts. I mass-produced a big pile and the kids selected two or three.
Once the hull is cut out, turn it over to the bad side and glue on the masts. At this point, the ship is free-standing and not glued to the paper.
Now start cutting out sails with the smaller pieces of paper. Here's a tip: cut out a square, trim the bottom to form a curve, trim the two sides to form curves, leave the top uncut.
Step Three: Embellishments
After the sails are added, flip over the pirate ship and glue to background. Putting the ship on a slight angle will give the picture movement. Using oil pastels and scrap paper (if you wish) add details to the sails, fish in the water, decorations on the boat, etc. The kids love this part. Give them a challenge by asking each student to come up with his/her own insignia for their sails.



Fourth Grade Results:

Onate Bark Paintings

Based on "Folk Art Lesson" in the book Art Projects from Around the World (Scholastic 2006), I adapted the images to create a very cool "bark" painting for fourth grade.

Supplies:

• 6 x 9" brown or tan paper (paper bags or craft paper works well as does construction paper)

• Tempera paints in red, white, yellow, green and blue (to make regular tempera paint stand out against the brown paper, add a bit of white to the green, yellow and blue. It'll brighten it just enough)

• Black "Sharpie" marker

I began this lesson by talking a bit about Amate Bark Paintings used by the Otomi Indians of San Pablito, Mexico. If you've ever made home-made paper before (I did when I was sixteen!), you'll know that you can put almost anything into a blender, whoosh it up, smooth it out and strain it. Once it dries, you have paper. It's the same for bark painting. the kids seem amazed that tree bark can actually turn into paper!
Anyway...instead of mushing bark into pulp, we torn the edges off the paper. I demonstrated the proper technique for ripping paper: use thumb and pointer fingers on both hands and slowly tear.

Then, using images I found on the Internet representing Mexican Folk Art, the kids drew a border around the paper then added fanciful birds, Mexican suns and flowers to the middle. I used the rule of three to encourage repetition: 3 of the same birds (can be different sizes) or three of the same flower, or one large sun and 2 birds of equal size. It mostly worked but many kids still tried to fit every image onto their paintings. Oh well, it's all fun!
After the drawing was done, it was time to paint. I used tempera paints but fluorescent might be better.

This is a good time to review the difference between a LINE and a SHAPE. Paint inside the shapes, but not over the lines. It helps.
Once the paint is dry, the kids can add details with a black pen and go over all their lines (we didn't do this yet).

Fourth Grade Results!