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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Art Emergency- Super Art Teacher to the Rescue

A while back, I received this request...

Hello. My name is Andrea and I am the mother of a first grader in AZ.
I am not sure if you have heard of the
"Art Masterpiece" program or not but the school my daughter attends
is implementing it and it is all parent/volunteer
lessons on masterpieces of famous artists and their work. I saw your blog
and LOVE some of your ideas and the kids artwork I
have looked at.

Help! I have been asked to take over for another parent TOMORROW...
.I hope you get this in time! And need to give a lesson (the easy part)
on Fernand Leger.............
the masterpiece they chose I personally think is one of
the POOREST choices of his work....it is:
"Leisure: A Homage to David"

Les Loisirs, c.1948

Anyway....I am really into being original and don't want to give the kids a boring draw/paint project!

****ANY SUGGESTIONS YOU HAVE WOULD BE WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!******

THANKS SO MUCH!
Andrea, AZ

Andrea,
First off, it was so nice hearing from you, if not for your time concern, I would have added you to the contest I am running right now, but since this is an art emergency, I must respond to the call! (Sorry, my kids are into superheroes.)
Anyway, you might notice that I often use one small element of a painting or technique to use as a starting off point. Because of the age group you are dealing with, the simpler the better. I noticed a bicycle in the painting. That may be a great place to start for such young kids and it may help them generate a connection to the piece.

My suggestion for the project is to start with a black line outline of a bicycle. You could draw your own or print the image
I found here
bicycle.gif (GIF Image, 360x440 pixels)

Then have the kids draw shapes over the top of the drawing. Circles, squares and rectangles are good. In the ares created by these lines, have the kids color them in in colors Leger used in the painting. You could control this by picking them out beforehand and only offering those colors. Instruct the kids to color in such a cubist way with more pressure in the middle of the shape and less on the edges of the shapes. Or you could just ask them to make sure no two spaces have the same colors touching on any side.
Granted this procedure is really more about cubism than this particular painting.
Here are two resources to help you see what I mean (literally)
Lesson Plan: Round Robin Construction - Non-Objective Design
Ms. Julie's Place- Art Lessons for Kids: Picasso

The above will provide you with a relatively controlled outcome. If you are willing to let the kids go a bit and they are confident enough you could take a criteria approach. This is an open ended lesson, The kids creations are entirely their own, except for the rules they must follow to get there.

Discuss the elements of the painting. Bring to their attention the bicycle, birds, clouds, fence, and star shapes on the young man's shirt. Help them to notice that there are 6 figures- three male and three female and that one of the girls is very small and/or young. Show them the limited color palette he chose with mostly primary colors, red, blue,and yellow, accented with orange, white, pink and green. Show them how everything has a strong black outline.

Taking these things into consideration, here are the rules:

1. Draw a picture that is happening outside. There should be a blue sky, clouds and birds.

2. Draw a fence somewhere in the picture.

3. Make 6 people. 3 boys and 3 girls. Make one of the girls smaller than the others.

4. Make sure there is at least one bicycle in the picture. It does not have to have a rider, but it could.(The rider must be one or more of the six figures)

5. Make sure one of the people's clothes has a star on them.

6. Color big areas using red, yellow, blue, and small areas pink, green and orange

7. Lastly, outline all the lines with black. (if you are using markers or crayons, have them do this step before coloring, if they are painting do this step last with black oil pastel.)

These are other projects I did based on a criteria approach like this.
..Ms. Julie's Place: Marc Chagall .
Ms. Julie's Place: Gustav Klimt
Ms. Julie's Place: Vermeer

I sure hope this helps and that it reaches you in time!

Blessings,

PS If anyone has tried this out on their own, I would love to see your results!

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St. Patrick and More Shamrocks: Scratches and Rainbows

St. Patrick was actually an English citizen who was captured by slave traders and sold as a slave in Ireland. For many years he worked in the fields as a shepherd. This gave him a lot of time to think, especially about God and His plan for Patrick's life. After many years, Patrick felt God was telling him to return to England. After a harrowing journey filled with miracles, Patrick made it back home to England and to a family who had long believed him to be dead or lost forever. It was after this that Patrick became a priest rising in the ranks to become a bishop. Patrick began to hear God's call once again urging him to return to England to share the good news of the gospel with the mostly druid and pagan tribes of Ireland, the place of his long enslavement. Having been among them for so long, Patrick had an intimate knowledge of the Irish people that many others would not have had. He did return and many miracles have since been attributed to him, including driving all the snakes out of Ireland. To this day, Ireland does not have any snakes.

He also used the shamrock or "three-leaved clover" to help explain the idea of the trinity to his Irish parishioners, which is why we often use the shamrock to symbolize this special day.

Links to help you learn more...

Alphabet Soup

Enchanted Learning

Wikipedia

Shamrock Scratch(Art Project)

What you will need:

White paper(preferably cardstock)

Colored construction paper for the frame- your choice

scissors

crayons- shades of green and black

brass fasteners(also known as brads, or use a skewer or paper clip)

1. Fold paper into eighths
2. Draw half a heart on the fold
3. Cut through all layers
4. Should produce 4 symmetrical hearts

5. Color three of the hearts with shades of green. Color with a lot of pressure.
6. Color a second heavy layer of black.
7. "Scratch" designs on the black layer with a scratch tool-
(Brass fastener, skewer, or paper clip)

8. Arrange in the shape of shamrock and glue down
9. Add a stem
10. Add a background (perhaps a rainbow?)



Go to this link to make a FUN PAPER FRAME


HAVE A GREAT ST.PATRICK'S DAY!

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Just Clownin' Around

Since the fair was in town, most of my students have gotten to see a few clowns, so what a great time to clown around a bit!
This was a project I did with first and second graders. They did a really great job! The big trick in working with this age group is to get them to use the whole paper and to use color consistently.


Using a step by step method, the first thing I have the kids do is fold their papers in half lengthwise. Then I have them draw a rainbow by making dots on both sides of the fold. We add another dot up higher where the bow is going to arch through. The the rainbow is drawn from dot to dot. We close up the bottom with a straight horizontal line. I think the rest of these visual steps are pretty self explanatory.












From here the kids can color with marker or crayon or a combination of both. The clown does look a little bolder if it is outlined first. Adding a hat and backgrounds are also a nice touch as well. When coloring I encourage the kids to work in small circles as opposed to broad lines. The color tends to be more even and consistent that way, especially with marker. With older kids, you could also work on shading techniques. A shadow effect can be produced by using the same color marker or crayon in a second layer. I also added some highlight to my sample with some white oil pastel.

Here are some student examples. There are a few in here that I really love that look like clowns on stilts. Who knew first and second graders could draw with foreshortening?(I'm still working on it my own self!)

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