Glue and Chalk Tropical Bird Lesson

Drawing with glue has always been a favorite art project with my students. It really doesn't matter what the subject is: the technique is the same and the results are always spectacular.
I've always used black construction paper for the background, feeling that the chalk contrasts better than with any other color.
Of course, glue is messy and hard to control, so here are my tips you can share with your child or students:

Drawing with Glue

1. Pretend the tip of the glue bottle is a pencil lead. Instead of holding the glue bottle in the air and allowing the drip, drip, drip of the glue to splatter your paper, touch the tip directly onto the paper. Give a little squeeze and let the glue flow in an even line.
2. Pulling the glue bottle towards you is always better than pushing the bottle away from you.
3. If the drawing is complicated (i.e. fish, bird, etc.) use a soft lead pencil to lightly draw the subject onto the black paper first. If drawing something simple, let's say a flower, then let the glue bottle lead the way.
4. Draw BIG. This step is important, so I'll repeat it. Draw BIG.
5. Don't worry about big puddles of glue or in one particular case, footprints from an absent minded parent walking across the art that is innocently lying on the floor waiting to dry...it'll add texture and by gone it, tons of interest.

For a full set of instructions, please check out the project: Under-the-Sea Chalk and Glue drawing.

Helpful tips #1 Setting Up Painting Projects and Making them Look Good!

Inspired by a recent comment from Sarah S, I thought I'd address a few concerns that some teachers face when teaching art to their students.
Sarah commented that when she painted with her students, the projects never really seemed to "turn out". I know exactly what she means. Perusing art pages and seeing countless beautiful works from little bitty kids makes me wonder too, how the heck did they do that? First of all, it can be done, BUT it takes a bit of organization and a few fail-safe techniques. Here are my secrets....

Tip #1 Making the Art look
"Picture Perfect".

Okay. So before I go any further, I want you all to know that I believe strongly in the mantra that art is about the process not the end-results. Still, it doesn't hurt to make the most out of every project.
For painting lessons with younger kids, I often use black oil pastel to trace over the lines once the paint is dry. Similarly, I used black paint for the same purpose. This simple step creates the strong contrast that is so appealing in kid's art.

Here are a few examples:



(Click on the photos to read the instructions)

How do I set up for a painting lesson?
Use plastic "muffin tins" for paints (see sidebar). These can be found in any art catalog and are quite helpful in reducing the amount of paint you use and saves time in set-up. If I have 25 students, I set out one tray for every table. That means 5 trays for 5 tables. Easy peasy.
Each child then gets a paint brush and access to two water containers. If you are in a classroom with individual desks, art set-up will be a bit tough. This is a worse case scenario if you ask me! All I can suggest is to use paper plates with small blobs (quarter size) on each plate.

What about mixing?
I get asked this all the time. I encourage my students, especially the lower grades, to mix paint onto their artwork. Yes, you read right. Kid's often get way too hung up on finding the "perfect" color and really mixing is just a waste of time. I teach the kids to "double load" their paint brush. Dip the brush into one color (say yellow) then dip straight away into another (say blue). Now, the paintbrush has two colors on the bristles. The kids love smearing the brush along the paper and seeing the colors mix by themselves. A bit of art magic.
Of course, this only applies to lessons when the paint colors are up to them. For a lesson teaching color mixing like my Colorwheel Clowns, I use plastic or paper plates.