Check out this really cool FREE downloadable guided drawing book from Fairy Dust Teaching. Click on over to her website to get the lovely book. I’m going to print this out and have it in my drawing book section for kids to use in their free time.
This is a repost from my personal blog! I’ve been having lots of fun with Traci Bautista’s online workshop at Strathmore. Strathmore has a series of FREE online workshops with videos and pdfs. If you haven’t heard about it, you should check it out! The first session was about spraying with stencils, overpainting the stenciled images and adding details with markers. Here are some of the pictures I am working on. These still need marker doodles on top, although they … Read more…
The kindergartners made two clay projects before break. They made little pinch pots and pressed shells on the sides for texture. We glazed these with Stroke and Coat glaze. We also made these fun coiled hearts. 1. Demonstrate how to roll coils with your fingers.2. Pass out a handout with a heart drawn on it (I just free hand drew a heart and photocopied it.)3. Place the coil on the outside edge of the heart and wrap it around. Then … Read more…
In my college clay class I learned this extremely valuable clay trick. One of my students called it an “ancient clay secret” so I like to call it that too. This technique may be one that is known to you, but if you have never seen it, this technique may be helpful to you in your classroom. This has saved many pots from falling over in my teaching career. Uh-oh! The walls are lopsided and falling over! What do I … Read more…
This was a project that my first graders started when I was absent from school. I printed off the handout from Art Projects for Kids and the children got their first introduction to perspective. Thanks for the great project!
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…
So…. is anyone else going to the National Art Ed. Conference?? Registration is open now. If you haven’t ever been before, it is an AMAZING conference. All day fun.. your brain will be exploding with ideas and excitement. Plus, you get to try out all the cool new art supplies and get free samples. Did you hear Chuck Close is going to be there??? Wow, how cool is that going to be??!! I am so excited I almost typed OMG. … Read more…
The fifth/sixth grade class painted watercolor clouds. I have blogged about this project before here.
Have you heard about Featuring Magazine?In the Spring of 2012, an inspiring magazine will see the light: FEATURING.FEATURING is a printed magazine that can be ordered online only.FEATURING will appear as a quarterly publication. I am pleased to tell you that I have been working on writing some articles for the magazine, and I have been accepted as a contributing editor for the magazine. Writing for magazines has always been a dream of mine. In fact, when I was a … Read more…
This project focused on how symbols and designs are used in African art. The students designed their own painted Korhogo cloth. They decorated the border with symbols and drew their main figure with Sharpie. Then, they added paint with watercolors. 1. Introduce African Korhogo cloths.2. Sketch ideas.3. Draw your design on a square of muslin withe pencil. Use a ruler to draw a border.4. Outline with Sharpie marker.5. Paint with watercolors.
It’s been a great year at Art is Basic. We’ve made tons of colorful art and expanded our skills. My blog now has over 300 followers, which is super cool and way more than I ever thought would look at this blog. I’ve gotten tons of new ideas from Pinterest this year which I highly recommend if you haven’t checked it out yet. Here is a year-end roundup of some of my most viewed blog posts. Art Teacher Blog DirectoryThis … Read more…
I love the look of stencils, but since I have a toddler I like the process to be easy and quick to clean up. I need to be ready to switch gears at a moments notice 🙂 I’ve tried using spray inks for the stencils and paints, but this way I just tried seems to be an easy and neat way to make stencil prints. Use rubber stamp ink pads. I love this Color Box set with a rainbow of … Read more…
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…
These charming pictures of hands were a lesson on warm and cool colors. The hands are colored in cool colors and the heart is colored in warm colors.
I love these masks!
