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Category Archives: watercolor

Watercolor Animals with 5th and 6th Grade

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Colorful watercolor painting of a green parrot with blue wings and an orange tail, set against a bright blue sky.

With all the fancy projects an art teacher can find on Pinterest, sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics.  Simple drawing and painting of familiar subjects.  This week my students drew art manekins.  You could see much more concentration in the students than while doing other projects.  I was looking through the folders on my computer and found these animal watercolor paintings my students had made last year. For more watercolor lessons, check out these old posts: How … Read more… →

Art with Letters and Words: Painting over Adhesive Letters

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Colorful illustration of the word "DREAM" surrounded by letters, stars, hearts, triangles, and other shapes in vibrant hues.

Age Level:  Kindergarten/First Grade Learning Objectives:  Learn how artists can use letters and numbers in art Use overlap Identify and use shapes Develop fine motor skills by tracing and painting Materials Board Mate Repositional Paper Letters/Numbers Board Mate Jumbo Reuseable Stencils Other assorted stencils of your choice Painter’s Squeeze ‘n Brush paints (or other tempera paint of your choice) Watercolor paints, brush, water or brush markers White cardstock or thick paper Process:  1.  View and discuss artworks that have words … Read more… →

3 Art Projects Using Leaves

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Three colorful leaf-themed watercolor paintings overlapping each other on a white background, showcasing creative art projects with vibrant leaves.

Summer is the perfect time to create art with your child.  Nature provides endless inspiration for art.  Here are three fun art activities using leaves that you can do with kids or just on your own! This post was created as part of the Elmer’s Crafty Bloggers team. Learning Activity Topic:  Using nature to inspire art Educational Foundation: 1.  Identifying and sorting items from nature 2.  Using shapes and variety to create a composition 3.  Learning about negative and positive … Read more… →

Masking with Watercolor

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Dream-themed watercolor painting featuring stars, hearts, and whimsical swirls against a vibrant blue and purple background inspired by cosmic visions.

  Hi friends! First of all, have you entered my BIG FUN ART TEACHER giveaway?  If not, go to this blog post or the Facebook page to enter. Today’s blogpost is a cross-post.  This week I was a guest blogger on Marit’s Paper World for her Quirky Dutch Summer series.  In case you missed it, I thought I would share it here as well.  This is a fun and easy technique you could try with your students. Masking with Watercolor … Read more… →

Inspired by Artist Justin Vining: Abstract Whimsical Landscapes

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A whimsical landscape with swirling roads, trees, houses, a sun, and various colorful patterns.

This may have been my favorite unit we studied all year!  We looked at the whimsical landscapes of contemporary artist Justin Vining.  Here is one of his paintings: We watched videos of him talking about his influences, watched time lapses of his paintings and emailed him some questions about himself.  He responded to our questions in this interview I posted previously.  This was a perfect artist to study for us because Justin lives in Indiana in a rural area and … Read more… →

Painting on Cloth | 3rd Grade

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A bird with a colorful, patterned body pecks at the ground near a small tree with a decorative red border, resembling a vibrant painting on cloth.

Painting on cloth gives such nice, soft colors and is a challenging change from painting on paper.  We tied our lesson into African Korhogo cloth painting and you can read about this project in previous posts here. We used unbleached muslin cloth and regular watercolor paints (Crayola or Prang.)  The kids drew their design on paper first, then put the paper under the muslin.  You can see the lines through the cloth.  Then, they traced the design onto the muslin … Read more… →

Fruit and Flowers, Mice and Me!

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Bright, abstract painting featuring large flowers, fruits, and leaves against a pink and purple background. This lively piece encapsulates the essence of "Fruit and Flowers.

Fruit and Flowers: I colored in the sketch that I showed you here.  I mostly used colored pencils, watercolor pencils and watercolor paints. A Mouse: My 5th/6th graders are painting animals and my go-to demo is always a mouse or hamster.  I love cute rodents.  The kids are always astounded when I show them how to make furry texture with a fan brush!  So fun.  Do you have go-to images you use when demonstrating techniques? Me: Here I am at … Read more… →

Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

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Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

The week after winter break was up in the air.  Due to construction, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to use our art room and we didn’t know if we would have easy access to supplies.  I planned for most of my classes to complete observational drawings during that week period, since they all could use the same supplies and learning to observe the edges and shapes of objects is great training for the eye. It … Read more… →

Abstract Art inspired by Joan Miro

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Abstract Art inspired by Joan Miro

1st graders drew imaginary creatures, people and abstract imagery after looking at the art of Joan Miro.  Miro has always been one of my favorite artists! We talked about the difference between abstract and realistic artwork where artists get their ideas oil pastel and watercolor resists As the students drew their creatures and designs, they looked at the Roll-A-Miro sheets for additional lines and shape inspiration. Here are two other really nice Miro art project ideas: The Elementary Art Room … Read more… →

Line Windsocks for Kindergarten

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Line Windsocks for Kindergarten

Last week, I posted about line drawings that my kindergarten students made with oil pastels and watercolor paints. To finish these off, my students glued paper strip lines (folded to make zig zags, curled and pleated) to the bottom of the page.  The students reinforced their learning of types of lines and were introduced to paper manipulation techniques. Then, we rolled and stapled them at the top and bottom to create a hanging windsock.  A little bit of double stick … Read more… →

Watercolor Bird Paintings by First Graders

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Watercolor Bird Paintings by First Graders

I love these charming birds by the 1st graders!  So colorful and a beautiful experience with watercolors. We read the lovely book The Boy Who Drew Birds, which is about the naturalist/artist John James Audubon.  It is a great book that tells the story of how he loved to study birds and spent his free time as a child drawing and observing nature.  Audubon banded birds to see if the same birds returned each year.  It is a great book … Read more… →

American Landscape Paintings with 3rd and 4th Grade

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A watercolor painting of a hilly landscape with brown and green tones, depicting trees in the background, showcases elements of American landscape paintings.

  Just a few quick pictures of American landscape paintings that the third and fourth graders created.  A few summers ago I took a watercolor painting class which was very useful.  I used some of the techniques I learned in that class to teach them about how to use the fan brush and sponges to create texture.  The kids looked at photographs of landscapes from America and they learned about the Hudson River school of painters.       

Chinese Landscape Scroll Paintings for 3rd Grade

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A child's painting of two mountains, a river, trees, and a small hut, displayed on green-bordered cloth, evokes the charm of 3rd grade artistry and Chinese landscape scroll paintings.

This 3rd grade lesson was related to the Chinese scroll paintings.  I have taught this lovely project for several years and I know I saw a version of it online when I first started teaching it.  I did some internet digging and this awesome scroll project from Oodles of Art looks like it might have been where I saw it. The students studied Asia in their classroom and we learned a little about Chinese art through a video:  Oriental Art- … Read more… →

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