Glue Multi-Media Paintings

This is a very fun way to produce a process based painting.

I love the texture and dimension it produces!

 I begin with a canvas that the children have previously painted.  These canvases were painted with red, yellow, and orange paints.

What you need:

• glue
• liquid watercolors or food coloring (these will keep the glue transparent as it dries)
• plastic "stir pots"
• popsicle stick to stir the mixture
• assorted materials to stir into the pot (beads, yarn, little tiles, buttons, pieces of paper, etc.)
• plastic table cloth to protect your table (I buy them on sale)

The best part of this project is that the children mix up a brew of paint, glue and stuff.  I let the children squeeze their glue into the pot, I let them squeeze the paint, and add whatever they want from the buffet of materials.  Ooo so fun!! 

 The children LOVE making their own concoctions.  Pure bliss.

When the pot is ready - it is dumped onto the canvas.

 The mixtures are drizzled, dumped, swirled and applied in all sorts of ways.  It was so interesting to see one of my students discover how she could create swirls of orange on top of the yellow.  Another student added a bit of water to his mixture to see how it changed his mixture.

Let the painting dry flat.  It will take up to three days.

 Display!

It adds a lovely bit of color to the corner.

Polar Bears in Snow

This was such a fun painting project.  I ordered the largest size construction paper (24 x 36) in pale blue.   This gave it the "wow" factor.  I love large paintings!  We drew the bears on the paper before painting.  I gave the children crayons.

Step One:  I had the children draw a half moon shape for the head of the bear. I told them to make it a big half circle.  We practiced with our finger "pencil" first on the paper.

Step Two: Next, we drew the ears of the bear - half circles or ovals.

Step Three:  Finally, we drew two dot eyes, an upside down triangle nose with a J shape coming down from the nose.  Then a backwards J to make the other side.

Paint the bear white first.  Let dry.

Paint the eyes and nose.  Let dry. 

 Paint the storm with a q-tip.  Done! 

TIP:  I taught the children to "dip, tap, paint."  Dip the brush into the paint, tap it against the side of the paint pot, and paint.  Otherwise - you will have drips all over your paintings! 

I created a little song that I will share later this week!

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:

Fish Windsocks - Super Cheap!

This is another great project for a weather unit.  AND it is super economical.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• paper fish windsocks (Click here to order) Under $8 for 24!
• Blotters or watercolors
• Yarn
• Glue sticks

 The windsocks come pre-cut.  All you need to do is decorate them and glue together.

 Color blotters are perfect for this project as well as watercolor paint.

 The children love decorated their fish.

They look so beautiful fluttering in the wind!

Sweet Little Paintings

This is such a sweet little project and super easy.   I purchased 24 - 4" by 4" little canvases for $6 using a 40% off coupon at Michaels.  The best deal available is at http://www.dickblick.com/.  You can purchase 24 for under $5.  I purchased the cheapest brand of liquid craft acrylic paints with these main colors - a happy lime green, a magenta, turquoise and gold metallic paint.

It is done in four simple steps:

 STEP ONE:  Have the children paint the entire canvas.  I provided two colors per table (a light and dark color such as light blue and dark blue.)

STEP TWO: (sorry no photos)After the paint dried, I had the children draw their picture on the canvas with a crayon.  I showed them how to draw a heart (make a v and put a m on top), a butterfly and a flower.  I let them choose which one to draw.

STEP THREE:  Gave the children a small selection of colors to choose from to paint their drawn image.  I guided their choices by asking - "What color would you like to make your heart" or "What color will the body of the butterfly be?"  This helps the children to refrain from just swirling colors into mud!    I also demonstrated how to make dots and marks with paint. 

 STEP FOUR:  Trace the main image with a sharpie to bring it out. 

 I taped a ribbon on the back for hanging.

This was the children's gift to their parents for Valentine's Day.  It would also be a lovely Mother's Day Gift.  So simple but oh so cute!!

A Child's Painting of a Sailboat

Here is a super easy painting for children.  This was a project I did with kindergarten aged children. I used economical acrylic liquid paint.

 STEP ONE:  Provide two shades of white for the sky and two shades (light and dark) of blue paint for the water.  Let your child swirl them together.   Use red for the boat which is a half moon shape.

 STEP TWO:  Paint a straight line with white paint.

 STEP THREE:  Paint two triangles for the sails with white paint.

 STEP FOUR:  Outline the entire boat and sails in a dark brown paint.

 STEP FIVE:  Optional - using oil pastels, add details.  For waves in water use white oil pastel and make swirls.  For wood on boat use orange oil pastel.  Add sun with yellow oil pastel.