Fractured Cubist Style Drawings

This is a great lesson for introducing both Analytical Cubism as well as coloured pencil gradients to junior high students. I previously posted about it HERE where you can see all the steps.

We used 9x12" heavy white tagboard and Prismacolor scholar pencil crayons. 

Students chose any object to draw as well as a simple shape to trace overtop in order to 'fracture' the entire drawing into sections. Colour each section a different colour making sure to use a gradient.

I taught this to a mixed class of Grade 7-9. 

 

Negative Space Poppy Painting

Here's another poppy lesson for Remembrance Day. In Canada, Remembrance Day is a national day of commemoration, observed annually on November 11 to honor the men and women who have served and sacrificed in times of war, conflict, and peace.

I found this project on a fellow Canadian's art blog. She was one of the originals: Gail from That Artist Woman. 

Grade 7-9 students first taped off a sheet of watercolour paper, then painted in in shades of red. They added salt for texture. Let that dry.

Once dry, they sketched out a poppy design onto it. Then, using black acrylic paint, they painted all the negative space black. 

I love how delicate these are.

 

Remembrance Day Poppy Collages

In Canada, where I live, Remembrance Day is observed every year on November 11. 

It honors the men and women who have served, fought, and died in the line of duty during times of war, conflict, and peace.

All schools hold meaningful assemblies each year and our school is no exception.

These collages will be put on display for our assembly.

I found the idea for this idea on Instagram on the account: @art_studio_arbuz. It's an art studio for children in Russia. Russian children's art is very advanced- I would love to learn from a Russian art teacher! I was immediately mesmerized by their gorgeous collages and love the very Eastern European look to them.

Grade 4-6 students painted (tempera) two sheets of 12 x 18" construction paper. One was in shades of red and the other in shades of green. This took one period.  Once dry, they cut out stylized poppy shapes and glued three layers together. Then they cut out stems and leaves from the green paper and carefully composed their composition on 12 x 18" black paper. These look STUNNING in the hallway and received countless compliments!

Some finished artwork:

 

Pumpkin Observational Still Life Drawings

Here's a quick 40 minute lesson for October- observational drawings of pumpkins. 

I was inspired by THIS lesson. 

I bought all these pumpkins at Dollarama. I was tired of buying real mini pumpkins year after year! I taught this to Grade 4 students.

 

Canadian Animals with Antlers Silhouette Watercolor Painting

This is a watercolor project inspired by a Social Studies teacher I used to work with. He wanted to teach about Canadian animals with antlers. See my more detailed post about this lesson HERE.

Discuss with kids all the different animals we have in Canada with antlers. Don't get confused like me and say 'big horn sheep'- they have horns not antlers!  Antlers are made of true bone, are grown annually, and are dropped and re-grown each year. They are found in the deer family (Cervidae). 

Did you know that the moose is the largest member of the deer family!

Horns (found on animals like Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, or Bison) have a bony core covered in a permanent sheath made of keratin, and they are never shed.

We are lucky to live near Banff National Park so most, if not all of my students have seen these animals in the wild!

I changed it up a bit this year. Instead of painting the animal with black paint, we used sharpies. I'm finding the kids joining my classes in Grade 4 are lacking the fine motor skills kids pre-covid had. It's really disheartening to see. Kids are having way too much screen time and art teachers are seeing the consequences of that big time. 

Some Grade 4/5 finished artworks: