Leo's Helio's

One of the numerous innovations we can give credit to Leonardo da Vinci for is some of the first concept designs for helicopters. Drawing helicopters is far easier than you might think, and my first grade class pulled it off pretty nicely.
This was a guided drawing lesson, (Monart style) so as I drew a line on the white board, the students would draw a line as well. Even though you might think this would create kind of uniformity in the drawing results, it really doesn't. The way each student interprets and reproduces the lines are totally unique. The  only caveat is making the kids aware that there is no right or wrong way to interpret and to get them through to the end of the drawing. Kids can be very critical of their process if they don't think it looks "right". This is probably the reason we lose so many people to the idea that they are "not artists" because they can't "draw right." We started in pencil, which can be a tricky thing to do. A lot of art teachers don't give pencils because the temptation to erase can be so overwhelming that it just brings the process to a big screaming halt. My pencils are well loved though and most no longer have erasers. I will give a child a big eraser if they really think they need it, but I try to hold them off if possible.
After the helicopter was drawn we added in background details, This is a great project to introduce the concept of the horizon line, as well as foreground and middle ground and background. Once the kids are satisified with their pencil lines I gave them either a brown marker or brown watercolor pencil to trace their lines. After this step was done, I had the kids use a wet q-tip to trace over those lines which cause the brown to bleed a bit, resulting in the appearance of an old sepia ink wash, just like in da Vinci's journals. If you have them you could use watercolor crayons too. I just bought some for myself personally. I am told they are more vibrant than their pencil counterpart. I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but they may be on my order list of classroom supplies for next year. Anyone out there have anything to say about them? Or water soluble oil pastels?

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Parrot Paradise

Yo y Mis Pericos

I am taking a quick break on American Art History to look at our neighbors to the south. Frida tends to be one of those artists that you really like or really don't like. Personally I go back and forth depending on the piece, but my respect for her talent and triumph over adversity never wavers. In her honor, I present this lesson based on one of the subjects she often added to her paintings.
Next up we will take a look at Frida's husband- Diego Rivera.

I start by giving student a large paper- 18"X 24" and having them fold it in half lengthwise(like a hot dog) and then width wise creating 4 "boxes".

The body of the bird will rest in the upper two boxes and the very long tail feathers will be in the two lower boxes.

Make the eye just to the right of the center fold. After the drawing is complete, outline in black permanent marker.

The sample above was created with watercolor pencil and a q-tip dipped in water.

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Delaware Days

This week we have been learning about Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.You can learn more about the artist and the painting at Artist of the Week.
Here is the project. If you don't feel like doing the project, just feel free to print out the black line as a coloring page.

You can click on any of these to make them larger. Below are PDF files. The first is step by step directions and the second is a completed black line drawing that you may feel free to use as a coloring page.
How to draw George Washington

Coloring Page

Here are some more examples from my students. I think they all did an amazing job!

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Night Rider

Our third week of American Art History brought us to the birth of our nation. Now we know that this painting was actually done in the 20th century and the poem on which it was based was written in the 19th century, but the event itself occurred in the 18th century. For my historical purposes, I focused on the event itself. Based on the event and the painting itself, I created a criteria based lesson.

I particularly enjoy creating criteria based lessons for two reasons.

1.) The finished pieces tend to be more creative as I encourage artists to take the elements and mix them up and juxtapose them.
2.) Kids learn to really look at the details of a piece of art or artist's style, internalize it, and hence don't easily forget it.

First we discussed the artist(Grant Wood)and what is intentions really were behind this piece as well as discussing some of his more famous pieces(American Gothic) and influences.(You can learn more about him here and here)

Then we looked at the painting itself and tried to draw out every element and detail we could. For younger students, keep the elements really basic, but encourage them to really look too. Young eyes often catch very small details we adults miss.

After we did this we came up with this list of criteria that our artwork should have.
Once the minimum criteria was achieved they could add as many or as few details as they wished. They were to begin in pencil and then outline in black sharpie and color in oil pastel.

The picture must show...

1. An outdoor scene at night.
2. One very tall building with a steeple.
3. 11 more houses of varying size some of which must be arranged in a circle or oval.
4. At least 17 lighted windows.
5. A horse with a rider(this could be a rocking horse too)
6. Nine other people in the picture.
7. Trees of varying sizes and at least 4 different shapes.
8. A winding hilly road with a bridge...
9. That crosses a winding hilly river or stream.
10.The light source coming from the right and casting shadows to the left of the picture.

The kids spent a great deal of time on the drawing of their pictures and weren't able to get to the coloring, but even so these pieces are pretty impressive.

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Welcome to Horse Month!

May is Horse Month at Miss Julie's Art School
and to kick things off, we started off with
a horse sketch done in the style of Leonardo daVinci.

What you will need:

Paper
pencil
brown washable marker
q-tip
water

1. We started out using a large oval, a small oval and a medium circle to begin.
We drew in pencil first.

2.I did not use a circle and tube method for the legs as most drawing lesson books would have
just because the original sketch seemed very loose and gesture like, it it also not completely finished as the hoof comes off the page and we don't really see the 4th leg.

3.We did add a mane and tail.

4. Once you are satisfied with your drawing, go over all the lines you are keeping with the brown marker. Then you can erase all the guidelines that won't be part of the finished drawing.

5. Lastly go over all the marker lines with a wet q-tip.
The water based marker will smear and create a "sepia" effect.
There will be enough "paint" to create shadowing
effects as well or even color the entire horse.
Take note of the areas on the horse that are more rounded
or very muscular as those shaped create shadows.

Stay tuned all month as we explore many ways many different artists have portrayed horses!

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