NurkhiPaints Inspired Botanical Watercolours

 

Here's a lovely pen and watercolour project inspired by Vancouver artist  Nurkhi Paints.

I previously posted about this project HERE.

We watched some of her Instagram reels to get an idea of her process first.

Then students looked online for images of botanicals. Clip art images are a good starting point.

They sketched out just a contour drawing onto watercolour paper.

Then used the wet on wet technique to paint the plants. They needed to use at least two colours.

Once dry, they added parallel line work within each leaf using micron pens.

 

Some finished Grade 7-9 paintings:

Mixed Media Insect Drawings

This is a really cool lesson using transparency sheets, sharpies and paint pens layered over a tissue paper collage background.

I saw the lesson on the fabulous Talley Street Artists Instagram account.

I taught this project to a mixed class of Grade 4-6. They were all successful with it.

First class: create a tissue paper collage using watered down glue and tissue paper onto cardstock (it should match the size of the transparency film). Let dry. These curled up ALOT during the drying process and was a huge pain both flattening them and trimming them!! Allocate time for that.

I had pre printed out a few sheets of a variety of insect clip art. Students chose one and traced a variety of sizes on insects onto the transparencies using sharpie. They were so excited to be able to trace, lol.

Then they chose three paint pens and added lines and patterns, dots and outlines.

Then we taped them onto their tissue paper background using double sided clear tape.

They look so cool!! This project's a keeper :) It took two 80 minute classes in total.

 

Shaking Dogs Mixed Media Art Project

 

Grades 4-6 students looked at the work of artist Iris Scott. She is a master finger painter. 

Her specialty is dogs shaking off water.

Students drew their dogs on 12 x 18" white construction paper. The goal was to tilt the head and add flapping ears to give a sense of motion. Some kids got this, others did not, lol. I really had to emphasize tilting the head. 

They coloured these in with oil pastels. Then cut out.

Previously, they had splatter painted on turquoise construction paper with watered down white tempera paint. Once dry, they glued their dog on. Then they used different shades of light blues to add fingerprints all over in curved lines. 

Faux Batik with Wax Crayons

 

This is a great fool proof lesson (if you use the right paper) that yields fantastic results for all students. I've posted this lesson previously HERE and HERE.

I normally teach it to Grades 4-6.

All you need is:

photocopy paper (whatever size you like), Sharpies, wax crayons and dark acrylic paint.

Students draw a design of their choice on the photocopy paper. I encourage them to draw large, somewhat simple designs. Tiny, intricate designs don't work well necessarily with this process We're aiming for something big and bold, perhaps with simple patterns as well. You could give a specific theme like flowers, insects, food, etc. 

Trace over your drawing with Sharpie. We use paper placemats under our work so the Sharpie doesn't bleed through onto our tables (but if it does, hand sanitizer gets it off - aka: rubbing alcohol!!)

Press hard when you colour. If you don't, this won't work.

Once it's all coloured, the students really enjoy crumpling it up. They get all nervous and it's so cute to see! So crumple it up a couple of times. This creates cracks in the paper that the acrylic paint will stick to.

Painting station- I offer dark blue or purple acrylic paint, watered down.

Cover the entire piece with paint and wipe off immediately!

Wipe off excess with paper towels or damp sponges.