February Art projects

We have been studying ocean life in science, and when I found instructions for these under-the-sea paintings, I was really excited about trying them. Most of our Friday artwork is done in one day, but these took some more time and planning. The first week, the kids each painted two sheets white tissue (art grade, not gift bag filler) paper. On one sheet they painted different shades and mixes of blues, and on the other, they painted sea life. The following week, they used black Sharpie to outline the fish. While the marker dried, they tore or cut the blues into chunks, strips, and blobs. I helped them use a clear varnish to attach the blues to paper canvas. They also used some pieces of turquoise tissue paper to fill in some of the holes. Since some of the blue paint they used was transparent and some was shimmery, the collage overlapped beautifully, with some colors peeking out from behind, but making the water seem that much prettier. The fish were cut out and decoupaged to the water, and a final layer of varnish sealed the "painting". The kids LOVED assembling them and they are SO proud of how their art turned out -- they are so pretty that I'm trying to figure out where I can permanently display them!

by Ben

by Jon

by Maddie

After the bar was set so high, it was tough to come up with art for the end of the month. I asked the kids what they wanted to do, and they all chose something different. The only common theme was paint, so I helped them choose something they could paint with oil pastels and watercolor. Jon and Ben each chose a landscape picture from a National Geographic magazine that they wanted to paint, and Maddie wanted to paint a bowl of fruit. The each pencil sketched parts of their designs, then used oil pastels to draw and color parts of their pictures. The boys chose really tough things to draw, but doing the snow with the oil made the resist-technique more effective. Each of them learned something a bit different. I dared Ben to make the night sky without using black paint, I showed him how to paint water horizontally instead of following the edges, and I worked with him to paint and draw the hills and mountains downhill. Jon learned to make all his browns with complementary colors rather than using the brown paint, he painted the shadows with cool colors since the mountains were mostly "warm", and he learned a lot about depth perception. Jon was especially amazed at all the different brown colors he could create. Maddie learned a lot about layering the objects and realizing that although part of the fruit might be like a circle, it looks different when something is in front of it. She learned to see other colors that she hadn't noticed before -- for example, the apple was mostly red, but had oranges, yellows, and even greens in parts of it. The kids were all really happy with their one-day art project, and they still continue to impress me with how they see things when they are being creative.

Ben's art with the NatGeo page that inspired his picture

by Ben

Jon's art and the NatGeo mountains photo

by Jon

by Maddie

We will be taking a break from Friday art at home for a couple weeks because of Spring Break and a Home Depot kids class that is coming up after that.