Great Artist Study Lesson Plans – Cycle 2
Art is NOT my forte. CC Tutors are supposed to attempt the art projects based on famous artist technique prior to community day, in order to iron out any wrinkles prior to turning your class loose on it. That means parents and students are going to see my attempted artwork. YIKES!
So I spent an afternoon doing ALL the art projects for the next 6 weeks. My husband has got quite a kick out of my less-than-lovely art attempts! 😉
I hope seeing my work makes you feel better about teaching your children art, even if you are not an artist by nature (like me!)
My two biggest suggestions are to try your plans out yourself before community day, so you can get an idea of how each project works, and to visit the library to get examples of each artist’s painting style for your class to see and enjoy.
Without further ado, here are my art lesson plans for the next six weeks! 🙂
Week 13 – Shadowy Sketches and Expressions: Rembrandt
This week there are two projects to be completed. The first involves sketching your neighbor while a light is shinning on half of their face. Rembrandt was famous for the portraits he painted. If you look at many of his paintings, you will notice the people usually have a lighter side to their faces. The other half of his portrait’s faces are shadowy. It is said that he liked to draw interest to a face by using strong lighting.
<– Shadowy picture I drew of my daughter 😉
So my students are going to draw a mom/dad volunteer. After allowing the students to look at examples of Rembrandt’s portrait paintings, I intend to sit a parent up front while using a flashlight on one side of him/her to add some lighting and shadow to her face. I allowing the children to draw her while focusing on shading the shadows on her face appropriately.
<– That’s supposed to be me 😉 Can you tell which emotion is which?
For the next project we are going to take turns making expressions in our mirrors, and drawing what we see. I will have my older children divide their papers into four quadrants, then draw four different emotions. The younger ones will draw one big picture of one facial emotion. We are probably going to stick with looking straight ahead without emotion, extremely happy, angry, and shocked/scared as our main focus, but I will allow them to draw silly faces too!
Week 14 – Botanical Illustrations: Linnaeus
This week we are recreating botanical illustrations from Carl Linnaeus, who was a botanist. I am going to bring in some fake flowers, as there are no live blooms out this time of year. (If your climate has live flowers outdoors, a nature walk to find something to draw would be fantastic!)
We are going to still focus on the different parts of the plant, and are going to use our magnifying lenses to look closely at each part. Then we are going to draw a small picture of a leaf, the stem, and a petal on the side of our artwork. At the end, we will color the whole picture in.
Week 15 – Drawn Portrait on a Painted Landscape: Gainsborough
For this project I am going to have the kids draw their families (or themselves and a couple family members if they come from big families to save time) with their markers. We are going to cut their people drawings out and glue them onto a scene they have painted with watered down acrylic paint.
<– My family at the beach. My husband thought that was a grassy hill…oops! 😉
In my example, I put my family at one of our favorite vacationing spots, the beach! The children can paint whatever background they like, and then we will glue their family on. I am anticipating some interesting family stories to come with this project. So fun! 🙂
Week 16 – Scenic Paint Dabs – Monet
Monet is one of my favorite artists to admire his painting. His style involves using a paintbrush to make dabs or smoshes instead of the typical strokes you usually see in paintings. His artwork involves replicating the emotion behind many beautiful scenic views. His bridge painting is my favorite!
<– Bridge over lily pad stream with smoshy plants in the background. 😉
For this project we are going to start by practicing our paint smoshes on a scratch sheet of paper. Once the kids have the dabbing technique down, we are going to try to paint a scenic bridge picture. I am going to bring in our iPads (one for each table) with a scenic bridge picture on them for the kids to try to paint. (I googled “beautiful bridge picture” to find one I liked prior to class).
Week 17 – Wet Chalk Cloths – Degas
Edgar Degas was a French artist who mostly painted or drew people. Many of his pieces are of ballerina dancers. Because of this, and because I am not the best drawer of people (too complex!) we are going to be making a chalk drawing of a dancing outfit or ballet shoes. (If my boys have a problem with this, they will be allowed to create something else they come up with 😉 )
Warning, this project is probably the messiest!
First, we are going to soak our clothes in milk. We will be drawing our dance-wear with chalk on the wrung out clothes, After our drawings are finished, and have been allowed to dry, I will have a mom volunteer heat them with an iron and aluminum foil to set them in place so the kids can keep them!
*When I did this myself, I used almond milk (tis all we had). I found that there was plenty of time to draw before it dried, even when the cloth was thoroughly wrung out. Also, if you don’t own an iron, a hot frying pan on top of aluminum foil works just fine to set the chalk! 😉
Week 18 – Textured Painting – Morisot
Berthe Morisot was a female painter from the late 1800’s, when female artists went against the cultural norm. Many of her paintings are of home-life, and it was said that she used many of her relatives (her daughter included) as models for her artwork. We are going to replicate her style by painting a picture of a family member or friend using textured paints. My example is a painting of my three kids.
I am going to bring in small mason jars with different colored paints already in each one. If you have extra baby food jars lying around, now is the time to use them! We are then going to take turns choosing which “texture” to add to each paint. I am bringing in glitter, flour, salt, opened tea bags, crushed egg shells (wash before crushing!), and sand for the children to choose from. Each child will get to mix a “texture” into a paint jar with a popsicle stick. They are going to think this is great fun!
After our Great Artist study is completed, I am going to store the children’s art work in their CC binders that I created to contain their artwork from the Drawing portion of fine arts (weeks 1 – 6). Find instructions on how to make one coming soon!
I hope you have enjoyed these simple art lesson plans. Please leave me a comment with how your Great Artist study went in your community! 🙂
Tiffany
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