Greek Vases

Scratch projects really have limitless possibilities. Vases are a huge part of the ancient history of Greece. They served not only an aesthetic purpose, but a functional one as well.
Different shapes had different names and
were used for different purposes.
You can learn more about those different names and purposes at this link. It also explores the different periods of Greek Pottery and how it changed from age to age.
Greek Vases Part I- Through the Ages
Greek Vases II-Shape Names and Purposes

Here is another project that is perfect for this technique. You can also play around a bit with the mediums. Oil pastel and crayon are generally what you use for these, but you can color with marker or watercolor then "seal" the color with a heavy coat of white crayon or oil pastel. Just be careful to avoid using dark colors like brown or gray as they don't show through the black very well.

1. In order to achieve a vase with symmetrical sides, start by folding a piece of cardstock down the middle vertically. Draw only half of the vase on one side. I did it in pencil first and then retraced in a heavy layer of black oil pastel.

2. Fold the paper over with the black lines on top of the blank side and then use a lidded marker to rub over the lines you just traced.

3. When you open the paper back up the vase half should
transfer to the other side in a perfect mirror image
creating a perfectly symmetrical vase.
You can then color with crayon, oil pastel, marker, or other paint. If you use paint, make sure you wait for it to completely dry before adding the layer of white to seal the color.
Once the color is done and sealed add a layer of black crayon or oil pastel.
If you use crayon you will need to use heavier pressure
than with oil pastel.
Once the black is on in an even layer, use a wooden skewer or unbent paper clip to "scratch" off the black in different line patterns to reveal the colors underneath.

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King Tut's All Broken Up- Make an Egyptian Mosaic Paper Collage

Last week in art class we did a lesson on King Tut's Mask. You can find a great step by step lesson on how to draw the mask at
Art Projects for Kids.
Unfortunately quite a few of my students did not make it to class last week. So instead of letting all those kids miss that project or making the kids who came redo the project, I decided to combine it with my lesson on Roman mosaics. I ended up with some pretty terrific results and the kids all really enjoyed the project.

What you will need

8 1/2" X 11" white cardstock with 5 x 5 grid
(kids can either measure and draw out the grid or you can preprint one on
the cardstock like this one)

Pencils
Markers(regular and metallic)

Black Sharpie Markers (fine and extra fine point)
Crayons

Scissors
Glue
12" x 12" colored piece of cardstock (I like scrapbook cardstock)

Procedure

1. Start by having kids pick two colors. Use these two colors to color the outside 14 squares of the grid in an alternating pattern. There should be nine left in the center.

2. Draw King Tut in pencil in the remaining nine squares. Make Tut's face exactly in the center square and then follow the rest of the steps at Art Projects for Kids.

3. Once Tut is all drawn in kids can color him in as well as the background behind him. If they are using metallic markers have them use Sharpie to outline Tut.
Metallic markers are opaque and will cover up their pencil lines completely. They go over sharpie too so be careful.
The sharpie should make the line thicker though
so it will be easier not to cover their lines completely.
They can also add design to the border tiles
(Egyptian hieroglyphics of their names perhaps?)

4. Once everything is colored in, have them cut out the
squares along the grid lines.
If they have lost the lines because of coloring, re-pencil
in the lines using a pencil and ruler.

5. Once all the squares are cut out, arrange them
on the 12 x 12 cardstock leaving a uniform space
between each of the paper tiles.
These will be the "grout lines".

6. After the tiles are arranged to their satisfaction,
begin gluing the tiles down.

7. Once the glue is dry, using Sharpie to outline the edges of each tile can give a more dramatic look to the finished piece as can mounting the piece on another piece of larger contrasting paper as I did in my sample.

You can do quite a bit with this as an educational project. Put whatever you are studying in the center and then add design elements of what you've learned about that subject in the border tiles. If you were studying deserts you could put a cactus in the middle and then put desert animal designs on the border tiles. You are limited only by your imagination. This can be a good introduction to symbolism as well as color theory by suggesting kids use complimentary colors
or alternating warm and cool colors.

These are examples completed by two of my students.

This one was done by a 13 year old student.

This one was done by an 11 year old student.

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Oh My Gosh it's a Bosch! Part Two the Art Lesson

By Kendall- Age 9

The Art Lesson-
Bosch was a Dutch Surrealist Painter in the 15th and 16th century. This is 400 years before most people think surrealism really began. Artists like Salvador Dali took the art form to it's highest peak in the early 20th century. The art form incorporates realism in fantastic and often nightmarish situations.
Bosch explored the both the good and bad extremes that people can sometimes be. In this we will do the same through depicting beauty and monsters together.

Materials

9" x 12" piece of drawing paper
pencil
black sharpie
markers
oil pastels

1. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. On one side draw the side of a vase in pencil. Start at the top corner and make curves all the way down to the bottom of the paper.


2. Now draw the same curves on the other side in a mirror image.


3 Some of you will recognize this as a drawing exercise called "vase faces" or "gargoyles". If you look carefully you will see the profile of two rather grotesque figures in the curves you have just made. Now it's time to play them up and make them as bad as you can.


4. Once you are happy with how horrifying your profiles are, make as pretty a face as you can in the middle space left by the profiles.(see the Botticelli Face of Venus lesson for a face drawing tutorial)


5. If you have any white space left fill it up with pictures of things you like and don't like. (For instance kitty cats and broccoli)

6. Use a black sharpie to go over all the pencil lines, and then color in with a combination of marker and oil pastel.


7. Bosch used his paintings to tell stories, so as an extension of this activity you can write a story about what it happening in your picture.

More pieces from the kids gallery

By Tatum Age 8

By Zee Zee Age 9


This lesson has just been used by Tech4Learning in their Spring 2009 issue of Creative Educator to support the integration of technology,
art, and language in the classroom using their Pixie2 software
(which my kids love by the way, though it was not used to create this lesson
and is not necessarily needed to complete it)

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Hoppin Down the Bunny Trail...

What in the world do the Easter Bunny and Cubism have in common?
Really not much at all except that I chose Fernand Leger to be my Artist of the Week in art class and it is also two days until Easter, so I chose to do a bunny in a cubist style.

What you will need
Paper
pencil
oil pastels or crayons
oval template

1. Start with a simple bunny drawing. You can follow these steps or create your own. I gave students an oval shape to create the head in the first step. It really had two purposes, one was to keep everyone in the same type of proportions and the second is that it will be used in the the second part of the project.

2.At this point, you will want to outline the pencil lines in a blue or purple marker. Black will be too harsh and just leaving the pencil may be confusing in the next step.

3. Take the egg and trace it over and over again all over the paper. Make sure to make lots of overlaps and intersections, but try not to make too many very small spaces.
Try to let some of the oval shapes run off the page as well

You will now be coloring the areas created by the intersecting egg shapes. You have a choice of using a very limited color palette or using as many colors as you can think of! How you color is key though. Use heavier pressure near the edges of one or two sides of the shapes- not all around. Let the other side get lighter and keep the sides fairly consistent with the pressure- if you start with heavy pressure on the left side and bottom of a shape, continue to do with most of the shapes. You can change here and there, but the consistency is what will really give you the effect we want.

Another Variation...

Add a layer of black oil pastel and then scratch off areas to make lighter and darker values as well as creating texture.


Student Examples

By Taylor- Age 10


By Ryan -Age 7

Have a Great Easter!

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An Easter Rainbow Book

Materials
7 sheets of paper, red, orange, green, blue, purple, white
paper plate
pencil
paper trimmer and or scissors
stapler
clip(optional)

1.Start with 7 sheets of paper stacked in this color order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white. Use a paper trimmer or scissors to cut the papers in half lengthwise.

2.Use a large circle to draw a curve at the short edge one of the papers. Cut this curve and use it as a template to trace the same curve on the remaining papers. Turn over and trace on the other side of the papers. You want a mirrored curve here so that later when the pages are folded in the curves will match up.

3. On the white paper, after the curve is traced, add a wavy line on both sides.

4. Cut all the curves.

5. Stagger the papers so that each shows evenly. Fold the bottom up to meet the white and create two rows of cloud. Crease the fold. Clip to hold in place.

6. Reopen and staple on the crease. It is best to staple from the outside in so that staple points aren't sticking out to poke little fingers.

7. Close book up and place under heavier books to get to lay flat.

In honor of National Poetry Month, this is my Easter rainbow poem. You could write this out in the rainbow book you just made! I am planning on making these with my Sunday school class of kindergartners and four year olds this Easter. I will print out each verse on labels or sticker paper and have them stick on the appropriate verse for each color.
If anyone would like the corresponding bible verses, let me know and I will post them.

A Rainbow for Jesus
By Julie Moses

Red is for the blood
Jesus shed on the cross
Orange is the color of spices
Used to prepare his death cloths
Yellow is the color of the hem
Of an angel's robe,
who From the tomb,
Rolled away the stone.
Green is the color of
the brand new life
We find in Jesus Christ
Blue is the color
of the comfort and peace He gives,
even in the midst of strife.
Purple is the color
Used to dress a king.
Remember the rainbow and
How Christ gave us everything.


This book can become many things. You can write your own rainbow poem or story in it, cut out same colored items from magazines and make a rainbow collage,
or think of items that are that color and draw them in yourself.
Turn it into your own favorite bedtime story so that you too can have rainbow dreams!
For older kids who want to get in on the fun have them check out some rainbow history.

This is a video of the same process.

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"The Scream" by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch
has always been a favorite of mine. I have seen reproductions ranging from extremely vivid colors to black and white graphics. It is a strong piece of emotional art work springing up from the
abstract expressionist movement.
It has inspired countless parody as one can find by simply Googling images for the title. It is at once simple and extremely complex, silent and deafening. I learned for the first time today of it's connection in concept to the eruption of the volcano of Krakatoa, a natural event with global ramifications. In the painting you can hear the explosion in the reverberating waves of color that are at battle with the sounds of the death-like figure's screams. Pretty heavy for kids you might think, but when you see Macaulay Culkin putting on aftershave in Home Alone you are really looking at the same image. Kids scream. People scream. Screaming occurs for multitudes of reasons, from
fear, anger, frustration, excitement, or sheer joy.
It is all the about the emotion, not the specific emotion, and
that is what abstract expressionism really is.
Today I bring you my version of an art project and unit study ideas to help you learn more about this painting, artist, and correlating connections.
(Can you tell how much I love alliteration?)

What you will need:

white cardstock
masking tape
cardboard or other drawing board
pencils
black sharpie
oil pastels

1. Start out by having students draw a single figure in the center of the paper. It does not need to be the whole figure. It can be cropped to show only a face and upper torso or a full length figure.
(for a figure tutorial- check out Paul Bunyan or Dancing Divas)
2. Make sure to draw the features of the face with a strong emotion and expression!
3. Outline the shape of the figure and then "echo" these outlines all the way to the edges of the paper. Try to make these outlines as wavy as possible, as if they are vibrating.
4. Use black sharpie to outline all the pencil.
5. Color the inside figure with either all cool(greens, blues, purples, greys) colors or all warm(red, yellow, orange, pink, brown) colors.
6.Color the reverberation lines with the opposite type of colors. If your figure is warm, use cool colors, or vice versa.(tip: work from the inside out to avoid smudging color all over you paper)
7. Lastly re outline all the black lines with black oil pastel.(You could also rub a bit of paper towel over the whole image to smudge the black a bit and add some texture- but be careful- a little goes a long way!)

Here you will see versions done both ways...

To extend this into a unit study...

Science: Study sound waves, geology, or vulcanology

History: Learn more about Krakatoa's eruption and how the weather affected history.

Geography: Learn about Norway

Math: How many sound waves are in you picture? How many miles is it from Krakatoa to Norway?

Language Arts and Music: Write a song or poem about
the things that make you want to
SCREAM!


Links and Resources

Edvard Munch at Kinderart

Art Smarts for Kids

National Gallery of Art

Enchanted Learning

Volcano Videos at How Stuff Works

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Shady Little Shamrocks- A St. Patrick's Day Art Lesson

Shade: A color mixed with varying degrees of black.

Tint: A color mixed with varying degrees of white.


What you will need:

Paint- I used tempera for this.(Green, White, and Black)
Brushes
Cardstock or watercolor paper

Start by making a heart template. Cut a small piece of cardstock in half and then cut out half of heart shape. Open to reveal a perfectly symmetrical heart. Use the heart template to create a three leaved shamrock. (You could create a four leaved- clover, but St. Patrick actually used the three leaves to help explain the idea of the Trinity to his Irish parishioners.)
Add a stem. Be sure to make the stem very thick.
Draw three gradually smaller hearts and stems inside each of the larger shapes.
In the center shapes paint with your base color of green straight from the bottle. In two of the shapes add white to the green and paint the next ring. Add white again and paint the outer ring.
In the other two shapes, add a drop of black(a drop is really all you need-it is very powerful!) and paint the next ring, another drop of black for the outer ring. Add some grass and maybe a rainbow or a leprechaun! You could also wait for the paint to dry, cut it out and glue it to another background.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more shamrock art and a little more about St. Patrick.



Also a little sneak peak at some projects I've been working on...

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Tall Tales- the unit study

A little overdue, but as promised, here is the rest of the Tall Tales Unit Study. The art lesson was in this post. Today I will cover Geography,History, Science, Math, and Language Arts.

Geography- Learn about all the places Paul and Babe went. Maine, Minnesota, Oregon. Or the places he made according to the legend: the Rocky Mountains, Appalachians and the Mississippi River. (For an add-on to spelling, learn how to spell all these places and learn the Mi-double-s-i-double-s-i-double-p-i spelling trick.)

History- Part of why Paul did what he did as a logger was to make way for the Westward Expansion of the United States. Settlers headed west to become pioneers. Some real life stories to learn about, that center on this topic are Louis and Clark and the Oregon Trail.

Science- As I mentioned, Paul Bunyan was a logger. What a great way to tie in to the study of environmental preservation and the global effects of deforestation.

For math- I challenge you to incorporate the art lesson. Use ratios to make a life size version of your art project in a driveway or park with chalk. Start by making a square grid of you first project with one inch squares. Go outside and measure the same grid but this time use one foot squares. Copy the lines from each box on the small project into the larger one. This is the same method muralists use to make large scale art projects on the sides of buildings.
When you are done answer these questions:
1. How tall was Paul Bunyan on paper?
2. How tall was he outside?
3. How about Babe?

Finally, for language arts, there are lots of tall tales told by many different authors and illustrators. I have some listed below in my recommended books.
After reading a few, write your own tall tale to explain some part of historical or scientific occurrence. Be sure to include larger than life characters in unbelievable circumstances. When you are done, be sure to write your tall tale on very tall paper!


Additional Links to Explore
Paul Bunyan, The Giant Lumberjack Online Story | Ox Craft | Coloring Pages | Preschool Lesson Plan Printable Activities

24718-sample.pdf (application/pdf Object)

CurrClick - Rainbow Horizons Publishing Inc. - Readers Theater III - Tall Tales

Free Johnny Appleseed Apple Lapbook

Johnny Appleseed and Westward Expansion



Stay tuned later this week for:
Art Emergency- Super Art Teacher to the rescue (Two art lessons on Ferdinand Leger)
Shady Little Shamrocks- A St. Patrick's Day Art Lesson
Greek Speaking Scratch- Use Greek Vases to tell stories in pictures and symbols.

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