Pattern Owls

 

I love collage work.  For this project I gathered some of my old scrapbook papers for the children to make their pattern owls.  I made tracers out of old file folders as well.  Here's how I made the tracers:

1 large oval tracer for the body  (I had pre-cut construction paper rectangles for tracing the body)
1 small circle tracer for eyes (cut 2)
1 small triangle tracer for ears (cut 2)
1 triangle tracer for beak

I let the children design their own feet for the owls.
We tore pieces of brown construction paper for the tree branches where the owl might be sitting.

Artist Study: Willem de Kooning

"Light in August"  1947  

In a recent museum class I taught - we explored the world of the gray scale and the work of Willem de Kooning.   We looked at several examples of de Kooning's work and identified the values lightest to darkest (the gray scale).

STEP ONE:  Make your own gray scale tool!

 You will need a paint stick, gray paint chips and glue.

I like the paint chips with the little window.  It is just like a real

gray scale artist's tool!

Glue the paint chips on to the stick going from light to dark.

Ta da!  You have a gray scale tool.

STEP TWO:  Paint a gray scale painting. 

I gave the children black sharpies to draw a picture.

We used gray watercolor (watered down black).

STEP THREE:  Play "Musical Values."

Play upbeat music!

Using construction paper in the different gray scale values - the children

shuffled the paper to create a large swirl of values.

When I stopped the music - they had to stand on a value and name it.

Lightest, lighter, light, dark, darker, or darkest.

STEP FOUR:  Create your own de Kooning style painting.

I cut an old phone book and black construction paper into random shapes.

The children picked what they wanted and glued them down on white paper.

(watered down glue and a foam brush work well)

Next, they painted black abstract lines and shapes.

Here is a peek at some of the work of the class:

Painted Paper Flowers

In my previous post, I shared how I love painted (monoprint) papers.  Here is one of the projects my class is creating with the papers.  This is a simple project that my students managed without assistance. 

 "A Vase of Spring Flowers"

How I do it:

1. I make tracers on old file folders.  VASE: I fold the file in half and trace half the vase so when I cut out the tracer it is balanced.   FLOWERS:  I cut out random flowers.
2. I pre-cut the stems.
3. I provide small squares of green paper for leaves, if desired.
4. The entire piece is created on a large construction paper sheet.

Stems are attached to back of vase and then glued to paper.  

Flower shape is traced on painted paper.

Glue is applied to back of flower.

Flower is pressed down on top of stem.

Leaves are added and ta da!  Done!  So easy!