Inside-Out Seascapes

This is a great lesson I found in a 2007 edition of "Arts & Activities" magazine. It was created by Art Teacher Judy Kalil from Florida. It's a seascape lesson with a twist- the seascape is inside the underwater creature's body, so it's super fun and imaginative for students!

I've done this lesson both as a watercolor and with colored pencils (perfect for a sub lesson). 

So students started off by researching and choosing an underwater creature to draw. Fish are more or less the simplest and most popular, but you can also look at whales, sharks, octopuses, etc.

Draw the main outline/shape of the body. Don't add any details inside the body other than an eye and a mouth. Draw some sand along the bottom of the ocean and a few little seascape-y accessories.

Inside the body, draw the main details of the seascape. We brainstormed ideas of what one might find in a seascape (boats, pirate ships, islands, palm trees, coral, etc.) to help give a starting point.

Once the drawing is complete, outline everything with a permanent black marker/pen.

Next class period: crack open the watercolors! 

We painted the inside seascape first and then the background last. 

Completed watercolor examples:

Colored pencil examples:

Mondrian-Inspired Animals

I finally got around to trying out the popular "Mondrian Animals" lesson. I originally saw it in "Arts & Activities" magazine by art teacher Berniece Patterson - find the lesson plan HERE.

It's a great project for those on a budget because it uses very simple supplies: white paper, regular water-based markers and a ruler. I started off by showing kids a slideshow of Mondrian's famous squares and rectangles art. We talked about the colours used, why he might have limited his colour palette and if they thought his artwork would be easy to create or not (seeing as it's so simple.) His style of art is considered 'non-representational'.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) Composition C (no.III), with Red, Yellow and Blue, 1935

Kids started off by drawing a simplified outline of an animal of their choice. They were instructed not to include any details within the body other than a simple eye. The, using a ruler, they drew horizontal and vertical parallel lines within the animal body. Keeping the lines parallel proved to be quite a challenge for them!! I find that students rarely use rulers (for drawing straight lines at least) these days in class, and it shows during art class!! 

Once all the lines were drawn, students coloured in some of the shapes using Mondrian-esque 

colours of red, yellow and blue with touches of black. 

The last step was to use the ruler again to trace over all the lines with a thick black marker.