I have taught lessons on Charles Demuth three times now as part of our school’s fifth grade art program. This project was the most successful for the kids. Despite students constantly asking if they can alter this or that about each and every project I teach (and why shouldn’t they, art is supposed to allow them to explore their creativity, right?), I find that sometimes giving them strict(ish) parameters ensures good outcomes. And good outcomes build confidence often as much as exploring creativity.
This lesson is also great because the kids get to practice color mixing to create tints and shades. Mixing paints is just plain fun. So they quickly get over their disgruntlement that they “have” to paint a number 5 (as opposed to a 73 or 24) once they get mixing.
So here’s the project:
Begin with a large sheet of paper (the thicker the better and at least 9X12), egg cartons for paint mixing. Several colors of tempera paint plus plenty of black and white to make tints and shades.
Draw a number 5 that fills the page.Using a ruler, draw several intersecting lines across your paper.Erase all the lines within the number 5.Select a color of paint and use it to fill in several sections.Mix in white paint to achieve a lighter tint and use that to fill in several more sections.Add more white and mix in to attain an even lighter tint. Use this tint to fill in a few more sections.Mix your original color with a bit of black to get a darker shade. Fill in the remaining sections (minus the number 5) with this shade.Use gold paint to fill in the number 5.
Art Night has kind of been a big deal every year for the last nine in our family. I would describe my relationship with Art Night as a love/hate one.
I can remember one year-it was the year all four of my daughters attended elementary school and I taught art in each of their classes. I spent pretty much every waking hour at the school, draping the walls with black gallery wrap, mounting, labeling and then hanging every stinkin’ piece of artwork. (Can you sense the fatigue?)
I arrived home that Friday night, sick (literally) and tired. I sent my husband out the door with the kiddos so they could revel in pride over their masterpieces. Without me. I’d seen enough.
I’m sure most art teachers at our school feel similarly. We love our kids so we volunteer to teach art in their classes (which is the fun part, of course). Then Art Night rolls around and the prep is so exhausting we end up cursing the day we ever agreed to such a thing.
Except…the children. Our beloved children. Art Night is the single event at our school that highlights the work of every single student at the elementary. That’s pretty darn awesome.
So I keep going back for more. Year after year. After blasted year.
In fact, this year I enjoyed the added pleasure of being in charge of the whole thing. Lucky me!
Truly, it was a joy. And here’s why:
I had an amazing team of volunteers. I simply gave them individual assignments and they ran with them.
I maintain an attitude that if people want to complain about how I run things, they can do it next time. I don’t get paid a dime for what I do, which doesn’t mean I do a crappy job, but it does take a lot of the pressure off of everything having to be perfect, you know?
The school have us the red light on a couple of “traditions” that, in the past, characterized Art Night. (Wrapping the hallways in black paper and serving food). This was a bit of a downer for some, BUT, it freed up a lot of time to do other things to spice up Art Night.
So what went well? The Doodle Wall was a big hit, student music performances generated a lot of participation, the art auction earned a healthy chunk of cash.
We also had a photo op (using Munch’s “The Scream”), lined the walls with posters of works by the masters and quotes by other famous artists, and each member of the Art Night “committee” wore awesome aprons so everyone knew of whom they could ask questions.
We also have the most amazing art teachers a school could ask for. Our kids are getting regular art instruction from some of the very best.
What went wrong? Well, Tim ended up having to travel to Michigan for the weekend for his grandpa’s funeral. It was, of course a wonderful occasion for him to visit with family, but it definitely made an already busy/stressful weekend into a one-woman show.
Even that turned out to be a blessing because without my slave labor, all my friends kicked it up a notch and saved the day by supporting me every step of the way.
This past week I taught the third-graders about Stuart Davis, considered somewhat of a pioneer in 20th century American art. You can’t talk about Stuart Davis without mentioning the influence jazz music had on his art. So, naturally, one must play jazz music while the students create.
I started with a brief biographical sketch about Stuart Davis. We defined “urban landscape”, and discussed some of the features one might find in the city. We then talked about the characteristics of jazz music-the way it takes original melodies and tweaks the chords and rhythms just so to create a distinctive sound. I invited them to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” with me (in its original form) and then played a jazz version of it to give the kids a better idea of jazz.
Understanding jazz helped them better see how Stuart Davis depicted real-life objects/places in abstract ways.
I instructed the students to think of a familiar place: their childhood home, a grandparent’s house, a place they’ve visited. I then asked them to think of a few notable characteristics of that place and list them on a piece of paper. They then used paper to create a landscape of their chosen subject.
We used Yellowstone as an example. Those familiar with Yellowstone listed the following things they could depict in a “Yellowstone landscape”: bison, geysers, mountains, rivers, a fox, tents, cameras.
I created the following Powerpoint as a guideline for the lesson.
The fifth grade course of study in our school introduces the students to American realism, as exemplified by Edward Hopper. In this lesson, we first read through * Mike Venezia’s biography on Edward Hopper. Once the students experienced a healthy cross-section of the various subjects Hopper painted, we mimicked his style by using watercolor to create our own lighthouse painting.
The basics were as follows:
Sketch a lighthouse in pencil
Go over the pencil in black sharpie
Fill in the white spaces with watercolor pencil. Using shading to create more depth.
Use a brush and water to blend the colors for the final product.
It’s a rather simple project, though having to draw something as realistically as possible proves to be a challenge for some students. The subject of a lighthouse provides fifth-graders (or younger) a perfect opportunity to practice drawing three-dimensionally. I created the following powerpoint presentation to instruct the students on each step of the art project: Edward Hopper Lighthouse Watercolor Powerpoint
Materials used:* watercolor pencils, watercolor paper (9X12), black sharpie, pencil.
Difficulty: Easy to moderate. Suitable for 4th-6th graders.
*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click through and purchase any of the products, I will receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.
I borrowed this idea from Happy Homeschool Nest and created a powerpoint presentation for use in a sixth grade classroom of thirty students. Thanks for the great idea! I read the book on Renoir by Mike Venezia aloud to the students. They really seem to love any reference to the childhood of a world-famous artist and the development of his/her interest in art. Renoir’s drawing with his parents’ fabric chalk was of particular interest to them, though I suspect it might give them some ideas.
As part of my instruction, I made sure to emphasize the aim of the Impressionist movement, which was to capture the “impression” that natural light gives an object or landscape rather than to depict precise forms. Because Renoir tried to blend these two goals toward the end of his career, I felt a distinction needed to be made.
Since I always attempt to teach an art concept as part of my lessons, we focused on “value” as we studied The Umbrellas by Renoir. The students then painted a single umbrella, mixing white and black tempera paint with a chosen color to achieve depth and dimension. See my powerpoint: Renoir Value Umbrellas for details.
Sketch an umbrella in pencil.
Use lightest tint of chosen color to paint center of umbrella.
Add more color to paint around initial tint.
Add more of that color and paint around that again.
Start adding black to original color to create darker shades and complete outside of umbrella.
Add black to create even darker shade for the underbelly of the umbrella.
Use darkest shade for the umbrella stem.
Materials: Mixed Media Paper, Tempera paint, pencil, small fine art brushes (flat, I hesitate to give a size because it seems there is so much variation between brands but no more than 1/2 cm in width).
Difficulty: Moderate. Some students were done in ten minutes, and it wasn’t just the kids who rush through everything. Others took a full 45 minutes. The beauty of color-mixing is that it is a skill worth repeating, so have plenty of extra paper and paint on hand for students to try a second (or third) time.
We’ve been getting a lot of snow here lately. Like, a lot. So what better subject to depict than snowflakes in today’s art project? The students learned about symmetry (did you know that snowflakes in nature are not actually symmetrical?) and relief sculpting. We used copper and gold toned foil to carve a symmetrical snowflake design, added a bit of shoe polish for an antique effect and voila! Success.
Start with a 5X5 inch cardboard and 6X6 inch piece of foil
Fold the foil over the edges of the cardboard to mark your workspace
Working from the center of the colored side of foil, use a stylus to create a symmetrical snowflake design
Flip the foil over and use the flat side of the stylus to press enclosed spaces of snowflake so that it is raised on the colored side
Fold edges over to create a contrasting border
Apply black shoe polish to entire design then wipe clean with paper towel for antique look.
Materials used: Thick colored foil, wooden stylus with pointy end and flattened end, cardboard, black shoe polish
Difficulty: Easy. Sure, a few perfectionists got hung up on the whole symmetry thing, but any fourth or fifth grader could do this project in 30-60 minutes, easy.
Our school’s art program attempts to introduce students to various famous artists throughout their course of study. Each time I get to teach a particular artist, I typically give a brief background on the artist then proceed with an art project that either reflects the style of that artist, mimics a certain work he/she has done, or uses a medium for which the artist is known. This month I am teaching the sixth graders about Rene Magritte (pronounced muh-greet) and am using his painting Decalcomania (1966) to teach them a bit about the concepts of positive and negative space.
Afterward, I present my lesson using a powerpoint presentation, which saves me the time it would take to fully demonstrate the project. If there are certain steps with which I expect them to struggle, however, I will show them how to do it in person. Generally, though, the presentations give them a great step-by-step guide to completing the project. For this project, we used watercolor to mimic Magritte’s painting Decalcomania.
Make a red watercolor wash
Add a bit of black to make a darker shade of red
Use dark red to paint folds in the curtain
Use blue to paint larger paper, leaving white spaces for clouds
Make a very watered down yellow paint
Add yellow to white areas and blend edges of clouds
Cut out figure, lay on red paper and trace around it.
Materials used: Watercolor paper, watercolors, black and white photos of students, various-sized brushes.
Difficulty: Easy – takes about an hour from start to finish
