drawing Archives - Page 8 of 10 - Art is Basic

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Abstract Oil Pastel Trees with a black trunk and branches, surrounded by vibrant, multicolored background segments.

This is a lesson I teach every year because the results are so beautiful! Each of the kid’s drawings just turns out wonderful. The 4/5s drew trees to complement their studies in Science class. How can line be used creatively to make a stylized picture? How can oil pastels be used effectively? The students aimed to use line creatively and made stylized art. A focus of the lesson was color mixing, blending and layering of the oil pastel. Steps: Day … Read more… →

Mondrian– Primary Colors lesson plan– Kindergarten

By Marcia Beckett | October 25, 2012 - 12:51 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, kindergarten

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Colorful crayon drawing featuring abstract shapes and patterns, divided into sections with words written on dividers. The artwork, inspired by Mondrian's style, prominently uses primary colors giving it a vibrant and lively feel suitable for a kindergarten classroom.

This is a great beginning of the year project for kindergartners. During the first 40 min. class period: 1. Identify the primary colors: RED, BLUE and YELLOW. Show the color wheel and discuss. (During the next project, we experiment with color mixing.) 2. Teach about the artist Piet Mondrian. I use a Powerpoint slideshow to show the artworks and explain about his style. Discuss the straight lines, shapes and colors. 3. The children glue pre-cut black strips to the paper. … Read more… →

3rd Grade Radial Designs

By Marcia Beckett | October 12, 2012 - 12:41 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, third grade

Alphabet Art: First Grade

By Marcia Beckett | September 26, 2012 - 1:55 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, first grade

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Abstract crayon drawing with overlapping letters and various colorful geometric shapes filling the entire canvas, resembling vibrant Alphabet Art created by a 1st Grade classroom.

This is a lesson I love to teach at the beginning of the year. The first graders create a picture using letters. I show them how draw the letters and stack them, twisting and turning the page, making sure to connect the letters. Below is an example of the shapes formed from the letters. I really loved this one, because even though the boy used letters (a lot of “O’s) to make the design, it is very abstract and not … Read more… →

Kindergarten Line Drawings

By Marcia Beckett | September 22, 2012 - 1:37 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, kindergarten

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Colorful drawing with patterns of swirls, zigzags, and waves in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and black; a delightful line drawing that's great for kindergarten creativity projects.

This is one of my favorite kindergarten projects and it is perfect to teach at the beginning of the year. Lines are introduced and we talk about the many types of lines… straight, zigzag, loopy, wavy, etc. Then I show them how they can make dotted and dashed lines, lines that start out wavy and then become spiky and even lines that are made by placing shapes in a row. The kindergartners start with a black marker and draw the … Read more… →

Pop Art pictures: 2nd grade

By Marcia Beckett | September 18, 2012 - 12:56 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, second grade, self portrait

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Six colorful Campbell's Tomato Soup cans, each showcasing different Pop Art designs, celebrate 50 years of Andy Warhol's iconic artwork.

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Andy Warhol The 2nd graders learned about Andy Warhol. We read Getting to Know Andy Warhol, by Mike Venezia and we viewed a short video about the artist. The students drew themselves while looking in a mirror. Then, I photocopied each drawing so the students had multiple … Read more… →

Introducing: The Weekly Doodle– Printable Drawing Prompts

By Marcia Beckett | September 8, 2012 - 12:38 am |July 5, 2024 drawing

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The Weekly Doodle: Printable Drawing Prompts features a colorful illustration on lined paper clipped with a red paperclip.

Only for 11 prompts. Purchase the Weekly Doodle here. These printable drawing prompts are now also available at my NEW TPT store. The Weekly Doodle is a PDF file of 11 drawing prompts written for kids in grades K-6. Ready to print and distribute to the class! Printable drawing prompts are perfect for: art centers enrichment activities homeschool lessons substitute plans Here is a sample that you will receive in the packet: If you buy this packet, please allow 24 … Read more… →

Starry Nights– kindergarten

By Marcia Beckett | July 9, 2012 - 6:13 pm |July 5, 2024 art history, drawing, kindergarten

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A child’s drawing with swirls, stars, a crescent moon, and a house with yellow windows against a white background, evocative of Starry Nights.

This was one of my FAVORITE lessons this year. I just loved how each and every one of them turned out. They are so expressive and colorful. This is a new spin on a Starry Night lesson. I started by introducing Vincent Van Gogh’s art by showing prints of his art and by showing a movie: Then, the students drew swirls, dashed and dots to create MOVEMENT using markers. I told that this would be their night sky, so they … Read more… →

Tessellations– 3rd Grade

By Marcia Beckett | June 18, 2012 - 2:56 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, third grade

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Colorful abstract drawing with intersecting leaf-like shapes in green, blue, and purple, outlined in blue; resembles patterns often found in tessellations.

We are out of school now for the summer, but I have some projects that I have not blogged about yet to share with you. I will update the blog throughout the summer with artsy thoughts, my summer activities, a couple art workshop updates and book reviews. The third graders made tessellations in art class! How fun. This is a great project to tie in with geometry and other math concepts. I knew there had to be some easy-to-follow tessellation … Read more… →

Secret Cities– 4th/5th grade

By Marcia Beckett | May 23, 2012 - 1:45 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, fifth grade, fourth grade

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A 5th-grade child's pencil drawing of tall buildings with flags, a small UFO, and a smaller structure in the background.

Secret Cities The 4/5s learned how to draw 3-d forms and include shading and shadows. They stacked these shapes to make a “secret city”. I got this idea from way back when I was “interning/volunteering” at a middle school when I was in college. The teacher there taught this lesson to her students. She was a great teacher and I had so much fun learning from her. The “internship” was something I set up with my adviser where I went into … Read more… →

Parody of American Gothic– 3rd/4th grade

By Marcia Beckett | April 14, 2012 - 6:28 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, fourth grade, third grade

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A child's drawing of a yellow square character and a pink starfish character, parodying American Gothic, with a house in the background.

For this lesson, we learned about the artist Grant Wood and his painting “American Gothic.” The kids read a magazine article about this painting (It was from the 90’s and I think from the New Yorker). The students discussed what a parody is and saw many examples of parodies of this iconic painting. Then, the students drew their own version of the “American Gothic”. I highly recommend this series of books!

Cross Hatched Animals– Third/Fourth Grade

By Marcia Beckett | April 9, 2012 - 10:14 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, fourth grade, third grade

First Grade Bird Paintings– Audubon

By Marcia Beckett | April 9, 2012 - 6:27 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, first grade, painting, science

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Child's drawing of an owl and a small bird on a tree branch with a colorful sky background and green leaves.

These beautiful bird paintings were drawn and painted by first graders. The students learned about the artist John James Audubon and we read a book about his life. I love this book about Audubon, because it has beautiful pictures and ties science and art together nicely. The students looked at pictures of birds and drew them with crayons. Then we painted the background with tempera cakes. This is a lovely picture.. too bad we didn’t use thicker paper, it wrinkled … Read more… →