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.

Fancy Glitter Fish

I love seeing the expressions on my second grade student's faces as they arrived into the art room. Eyes wide, big smiles and yes, even a few squeals from the girls. These "Glitter Fish" are always a welcomed project.

I begin by asking my students the difference between a realistic and a whimsical drawings. They all know. After all, how many fish do you see wearing crowns?
I tell them that they can draw any type of fish they want as long as it has a body that is round or oval in shape, a mouth for eating, a tail for propelling and fins for beauty!
They get busy drawing in oil pastel (no pencils, please!) or crayons and then I pass out the paint. Not just any paint, mind you, but glitter paint.
Tip: The glitter paint I buy is somewhat of a disappointment. It's too sheer. So to remedy this problem, I add a few squirts of liquid watercolor and a dollop of Mod Podge to my glitter paint. Give it a stir and you have the perfect paint.

This lesson can be done in one 40-minute sessions. To add more interest to the painting, the children can cut around the fish and mount on pretty paper.

Multi Media Winter Birch Trees

Painting birch trees is a perennial favorite in art rooms. And for good reason. They're easy, accessible and impressive.
I thought this take on the standard birch trees was equally as pretty.
I believe I found the idea on Artsonia, but shame on me, I forgot to note the art teacher.

Supplies:

White 12" x 18" Sulphite drawing paper (1 per student)
Tissue papers in warm and cool colors
Mod Podge mixed with water
Brushes
Black cake watercolor
Strips of white sulphite paper (see side bar for brand name)
Glue sticks
Scissors

Step 1: Creating the background
After a discussion on warm and cool colors, the children chose which temperature they preferred. Choosing only those colors, the children tore the tissue paper into small scraps and adhered them to the top of the paper using Mod Podge. Tip: brush both the paper and then again on top of the tissue to make sure it sticks well.
I encourage the kids to brush the tissue paper flat; no bunching.
Most important part of this step is to create a smooth line of tissue paper across the page. If the tissue paper has dents and cuts, it won't look like a horizon line.

Step 2: Making the Trees
Using scissors and scraps of white sulphite paper, cut long strips of curvy--not straight--trees. Vary the dimensions. Make sure no straight edges remain.

Step 3:Painting the Trees
Using black watercolor cakes, demonstrate how to vary the intensity of the black paint using water. With a watery "gray", run a strip of paint along one side of the trees, going from top to bottom.
Glue the trees to the paper, varying the distance form the bottom that the tress are placed (closer to the bottom, the closer the tree). Make sure the kids extend the trees right off the top of the paper.
Tip: The shadow side of the tree needs to be consistent.
Now, using a very small brush, paint black lines (use little water here) going around the trees for the bark

Step 4: Creating Shadow
Using a medium intensity black paint, brush "shadows" from the base of the trees to the bottom of the page.

Step 5: Step back and admire!

Symmetrical Butterflies

This is a lesson I usually do with my third graders, but it could suit almost any grade level.
It's great to have a variety of butterfly pictures posted on the white board for visual interest.
This lesson begins with a sheet of 12" x 18" white construction paper.
Instructions:

Step One:
Instruct the students to fold their paper in half (width wise).
Now, on one side of the paper (using the fold as a guide) flatten out the paper and draw one half of a butterfly.

Step Two:
After drawing half the butterfly, fold the paper over and rub the paper. The oil pastel will transfer onto the other half of the paper. It's important to use a dark color oil pastel that is creamy not brittle, otherwise, the pastel will not transfer properly. Also, make sure the kids generate a little heat! This aids in the transferring of the oil pastel.

Step Three:
Open up the paper and you will see the lines appear of the other side of the paper. They will be faint. Now, trace over the lines to create a perfect symmetrical butterfly!

Step Four:
Paint the butterfly with watercolor paints. Cake form is best. Stress how important it is to keep the colors the same on both sides of the butterfly.

Step Five:
If desired, cut out butterfly and glue onto a colored piece of construction paper.

Chameleons Are Cool! Watercolor Chameleon Lesson

After a trip to the library, I was inspired by the book Chameleons are Cool illustrated by Sue Shields. I love her use of color and large shapes plus the abundance of watercolor techniques on each page. If I had a color printer at school, I'd photocopy a page and hand a sheet to every student, just so they could be inspired by the wet-on-wet techniques, the wet-on-dry techniques and the splatters!



Instructions:
1. Pencil Drawing
I demonstrate strategies for drawing the chameleon, looking at shapes and position on page to ultimately create the outline. I encourage the kids to make teh subject large, but of course, some students insist on making them small. No problem but we all know it's easier to paint larger items!

2.Outline pencil lines with indelible black marker.
This takes some time so stress that very little detail be placed inside the outline of the chameleon. Details will come with the watercolor techniques.
Tip: If doing this lesson with younger grades, try using an oil pastel to create the chameleon. Skip the pencil and pen step and have the children draw a large chameleon.

3. Watercolors!
For each table, I set out a tray of liquid watercolors, a small cup of rubbing alcohol and a small cup of salt.
For the watercolor demonstration, I have the children gather around a table, instead of watching on the board, as the results are so much better up close.
Wet-on-wet: I show the kids how to paint one color, then while the paint is still wet, add another on top to blend.
Wet-on-dry: Since this lessons takes 2-3 classes, once one section of the chameleon is dry, they can then paint over that section to create spots, stripes, dots, etc.
Rubbing alcohol: While the paint is wet, drop some RA onto different sections to create a "scaly" or "rubbery" texture.
Salt: While paint is wet, sprinkle some salt to create small twinkles of star-like dots.
Splatter paint: using a brush loaded with color, run your fingers along the bristle to create large and small splatters.

The results of this project was spectacular. If and when I do this again, I'd recommend that the kids not put in any background details. I think the chameleon can hold it's own!

(The art shown here is from Mr. Ranson's class at Mountain View School)



For more watercolor lesson ideas, check out Deep Space Sparkle's "Watercolor Projects" PDF booklet. Click HERE for more details. To purchase, click on the Google Checkout button below.

Drawing Barns and Rural Settings

This lesson took five classes for my sixth grade students to complete.
I found this idea on the Artsonia website, but after trying to locate the source, I fell short. So, although the original idea was not mine, the lesson structure is....
It's a good idea to show a variety of farm/barn pictures just so the students get an idea for color choices, structures and backgrounds. Most art teachers know that the best sources for visual aids are calendars...so shop for them when they go half-price.

Day One: Cut tag board into 6" x 10" pieces. Each student gets one rectangle (or shares). I instruct them to trace a light pencil line around the tag board onto white watercolor or art paper. This is the size the barn will be. Then, the math begins. You can use your own dimensions, as they are fairly easy to figure out, or you can try to enlarge my picture above to see the measurements I used. Obviously, the idea is to use a grid to create the shape of a barn. The slope of the barn roof is created using different measurements for different pitches. I had all my students use one pitch but if you have a smaller class, a variety of pitches would make the barns more individual. Using pencil, we created the roof, side (need to extend beyond rectangle), barn door, windows and a loft.




Day Two: At this point, all the kids have is a pencil grid with a few shapes inside. The rectangle is starting to look like a barn (or a funny hat as some kids pointed out) so now it's time to add background. I asked teh students to "frame" their windows (using rulers to draw and echo line around all doors and windows to make it look like a wooden frame), add a silo, and a fence.

Okay. Creating the fence. This is a challenging section. I instructed them to draw a post right beside the barn door, making it half the height as the door. Then, add another post way off to the side of the door and towards the bottom of the page (about 3 1/2" to 4" high). The farther the second post is away from the middle of the picture, the less angle the fence will have, and thus, an easier time creating it.

Tip: This is a good time to talk about Here, Near and Far:the closer an object is to the bottom of the paper, the larger the item will be; the closer to the top of the paper, the smaller the object will be.

So, now that the kids have two posts drawn, they can begin to make the dots that will eventually be used to create the fencing. On the small post (next to the door), have them draw two sets of dots: two near the top of the post, two near the bottom. Repeat this step with the larger post. Connect the dots using a ruler. The lines will be at a steep angle and you will lose many kids. Extra parents or aids in the classroom really is helpful at this point! Now that the kids have the fencing penciled in, have them draw one or two up and down posts. Now, creating a fence along the bottom of the paper is a lot easier, and if you understood my directions so far, this part will be easy to figure out on your own. If you didn't understand my directions, I don't blame you. Hopefully you are the visual type and can figure this out on your own!



Day Three: This is the day the kids add a simple background. Then using a waterproof pen, outline ALL pencil lines the students wish to keep. Pay special attention to the grid lines inside the barn frame: make sure the kids don't outline thses lines as they are not part of the drawing, merely guidelines.
Note: Some kids will be quick with this, so they can start painting (see below).


Day Four: Start painting! Using watercolor paints, I demonstrate how to mix colors to create interesting rural colors. Instead of painting the barn red straight from the palette, show them how to mix the red with brown or even blue. The results will be richer and deeper. For the background, show how to mix different shades of green (mixing with blue and brown and yellow). Ask the kids to paint their backgrounds many shades of green. For the sky, ask the student's to think of colors other than blue. Use orange and blue for a deeper, ominous sky; yellow and orange for a brilliant sunset.




Day Five: Finishing Touches/Details. This is the fun day. I show the kids how to paint blades of grass using wet-on-dry technique, clumps of trees in the distance and then finally, adding shading/wood panels on barn with a black pencil crayon.
I think the finished artwork proves that longer lessons yields great results!
Congratulations for all the 6th grade students at Brandon School for creating such wonderful pieces of art!