I hope the beginning of your school year is going well. Mine is going fine. We are getting back into the swing of things around here. Here is a fun and meditative art project good for kids and adults of all ages. You can tie this in to labrynths, mazes and mandalas. I use all different kinds of watercolor paints. I have a whole collection! One of my favorites is the Prima Marketing Confections sets. There are a number of … Read more…
I realize I had never shared these amazing Notre Dame watercolor and ink drawings my 4th and 5th grade students made at the end of last year. We learned about the architecture of the building and the kids used watercolor and Sharpie pen to create these beautiful pictures. This technique can be used with any architectural lesson or perhaps a lesson on Medieval gargoyles.
I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been focusing on other things– I’m in charge of the cookies for our Girl Scout cookie sales and that is like a part-time job! Also, I’ve been getting ready for my presentation at NAEA. If you are going to the NAEA conference, let me know.. I would love to meet up with new people! I have a lot of fun art journaling exercises prepared, including this one- using watercolor circles as a launching … Read more…
My third, fourth and fifth grade students just finished up these gorgeous fall still life paintings. Over the years I have built up a collection of fall decorations, artificial leaves, pumpkins and gourds. I also brought in some real pumpkins and gourds as well. If you want to do some seasonal art and still have solid art standards covered, observational drawing is always a good go-to lesson. For this project, we talked a little about arrangement and composition, which usually … Read more…
Today I’m going to share with a fun technique for older kids or your own personal art journaling/painting. I picked up the Christine Adolph watercolor resist pen from Paper Source, but you can find it on Amazon here (affiliate link.) I thought it would be fun to try out. Watercolor resist works by covering the paper and protecting the area underneath. You can paint right on top of the gummy resist lines. When it is all dry, you can peel … Read more…
Recently, I reviewed the book How to Survive as a Firefly and showed you a firefly art project to go along with the book. I also received a free copy of How to Survive as a Shark from Innovation Press. This book is illustrated in a similar style and is very cute and engaging. There is a lot of great scientific information about sharks in this book. From the publisher’s description:  How to Survive as a Shark provides a unique take on fish … Read more…
I am always trying to come up with new ideas for my youngest students to experience painting in a successful way, learn about important art concepts and still be able to use their creativity. In this lesson, the goals were the following: Students will… Practice using a paintbrush properly. Learn about the qualities of watercolors through instruction and exploration. Experiment with watercolor resist. Be able to identify common shapes such as circle, diamond, triangle, trapezoid, star, square, oval, rectangle, heart and … Read more…
I feel like I have stumbled upon my newest art series for my own art.  Earlier I wrote a blog post about how to make watercolor doodled flowers. Using a similar technique, I made watercolor mandalas. I have a new painting to show you with watercolor and doodled stars.   These were all made by starting with watercolor paints and then doodling on top with thin markers. Products I Use (Amazon Affiliate links are used) Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: Tropicals Prima Marketing … Read more…
Earlier this summer I wrote a blog post about how to make watercolor doodled flowers. These mandalas I created were made with a very similar technique. Both these mandalas and the flowers were made by starting with watercolor paints and then doodling on top with thin markers. Products I Use (Amazon Affiliate links are used) Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: Tropicals Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: The Classics Sakura Koi Brush Pen Set Sharpie Permanent Marker, Fine Point Sakura Micron Ink Pen … Read more…
I hope you are having a good summer. I have spent some time doodling with watercolors, my favorite artsy thing to do. Today I am going to show you how I transform puddles of watercolor to flower doodles. Here is an example of a finished watercolor flower doodle. This step-by-step is fun, summery art project for you or your kids to try. I like to share what is fun and exciting for me, because maybe you will take something from … Read more…
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…
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…
I came across this beautiful technique at the Happy Hooligans blog. She practiced letter writing with glue, salt and paint.  I thought this technique would be a fun experiment for my third graders and make beautiful fall leaf paintings. Here’s how this works.  First, we used real fall leaves for inspiration while drawing. We drew leaves with pencil on watercolor paper. Then, we used regular Elmer’s white glue to outline the leaves. While the glue was still wet, we poured … Read more…
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…
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…
