Symmetrical Mandala Drawings

Mandalas are a great way to teach and reinforce good coloured pencil techniques because they can be a small format. I teach this lesson to Grades 7-9. 

See all my instructions in my previous post HERE.

The hardest parts is 1) cutting out the circle, lol and 2) encouraging the kids to use alot of pressure and get rich saturated layer of colour. 

 

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: