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Category Archives: drawing

Cross Hatched Animals– Third/Fourth Grade

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A crayon drawing of a black panther walking on a surface with green grass in the background, showcasing cross-hatched animals typical of third-grade artwork.

Cross-hatching is fun, but a difficult art technique (at least in my opinion).   The third/fourth grade class picked out some animals from Zoobooks magazines and drew them in pencil.  Then, we looked at Brian Selznick’s books for inspiration. Wonderstruck  His novels are full of beautiful cross-hatched drawings, alternating with the chapters.  Plus, the two books I have read by him are charming and wonderful stories.  Read them!  You’ll love them too, I guarantee it.  They are listed below.  I think … Read more… →

First Grade Bird Paintings– Audubon

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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… →

Castles with Pen and Watercolor– 5th/6th grade

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A pen and watercolor painting of a castle with multiple towers, surrounded by trees on a grassy landscape under a blue sky.

  5th/6th grade Castle Drawings The 5th and 6th graders have been studying the Medieval time period in their Social Studies class.  For this project, the 5th and 6th graders looked at pictures of castles and drew their own castle using pencil and pens.  Then, they added watercolor washes to the picture.  Some of the students discovered that it looks really nice when the castle is left white.

Keith Haring Inspired Figures– 4th grade

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Inspired Figures in a colorful abstract image of humanoid shapes, one with a question mark over its head, surrounded by arrows. Keith Haring's influence is evident in the lively and playful design.

These are drawings by 4th/5th graders.  Who was Keith Haring?  What is gesture drawing?  The 4/5s learned about the artwork of Keith Haring and practiced figural drawing.  In pairs, the students posed for each other and practiced gesture drawing and longer posed drawings.  Then they drew stylized people, kind of in a cartoon-like way.  We read pages from this book about Keith Haring and analyzed the meanings of his artwork.  The kids were encouraged to add their own symbols to … Read more… →

Miro Squiggle Drawings– 1st Grade

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A child’s colorful drawing of smiling, abstract figures and a yellow duck.

Juan Miro is one of my favorite artists.   I used artwork by Miro to help the kids learn the difference between abstract and realistic art.  The kids analyzed his artwork and we categorized prints.  Then, they drew a squiggly line with their eyes closed.  Then they turned their paper around to view it from many angles.  The kids tried to find different things in their picture.. faces, hands, animals, etc.  They could add details to their drawing.  Some added … Read more… →

Frogs on a Lilypad with Monet– 1st grade

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Child’s watercolor painting of a vibrant green frog on a blue background with red spots, saying "smak" in a speech bubble. It could be leaping off a lilypad in the whimsical style of Monet.

        In Art class, the 1st graders looked at Claude Monet’s artwork, especially his paintings of ponds.  Using a variety of painting techniques the 1st graders painted a pond with watercolors.  Frogs were drawn with crayons and markers. Lilypads were added with construction paper and tissue paper.  The children were studying frogs and toads in their Science class and read about them in LA/SS/D.  

Textured Teddy Bears– Kindergarten

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Kindergarten child's drawing of two textured teddy bears, one large with a smaller bear in its belly and a smaller bear next to it; colorful border.

The focus on this project was learning about texture.  The children used texture plates to create texture rubbings on the fur.  On the inside of the teddy bear’s stomach, they drew a creative design.  Then, they learned about patterns and read the book Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes.   The border was decorated with patterns.  Yeah, they look like Care Bears, don’t they?   Sooooooo cute!

Old School Lesson Plans

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Colorful geometric drawing of a cat sitting with a serious expression against an abstract background.

During the summer, I’m going to dig back to some of my old lesson plans that I had posted on artsonia.com to show to you.  Maybe I will revisit these again during the upcoming school year.  This was favorite of mine and I don’t know why I stopped teaching it. The pictures all turned out gorgeous. CUBIST CATS  for Second GradeThe kids learned about Picasso and his dynamic, fragmented Cubist artwork. 1.  First we did a step-by-step drawing of a … Read more… →

Portrait Drawing Exercise from postcard images

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Sketched postcard images of a man in various styles and patterns, with slight differences in facial hair and clothing details.

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4th/5th Grade Secret Cities– Drawing in 3-d, shading

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Pencil sketch of abstract stacked shapes, including a heart and a "Hotel Delfino" sign with a small dolphin graphic.

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 a book about drawing by Mark Kistler. This artist had a series of television shows that taught kids how to draw 3-d pictures step-by-step.  Here is a video of a “secret city” mural.

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