4th Grade Picasso Animals

 This is a GREAT end of the year project when you need something fun. I like to use this project to teach abstract art, cubism, and about the artist Pablo Picasso.

 Some students LOVE this project, some students HATE it! But we all giggle and have FUN! Those that do not like the results are typically the students who think it's "weird" and do not like abstract art, or being pushed out of their comfort zone. Talk to your students before you begin and explain that this will be something they have probably never done before! Tell them that some will like the adventure and some may not feel it is their cup of tea, but to just go with the flow because the process is really fun and unique! The best part? If you make a mistake, NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO TELL! hee hee!

 Can you guess what each animal is? (HINT: the one below this is a kangaroo! the one above is a bird!)

I tell students to imagine an animal they would like to create. (They still have no idea what we are doing or where we are headed! However, we have looked at Picasso's work prior to the project via PowerPoint.)

I tell them to close their eyes and imagine their animal. "What does it's snout look like? What does it's feet look like? How about its tail? What does it's ears look like? Does it have fur or scales?" Etc.

We begin with a 12x12" square paper. 

I demo each step first then have students follow. 

Using a pencil we begin the process as follows:

Step 1: Draw an eye anywhere on your paper

Step 2: Turn your paper once to the right. Now draw a second eye, several times LARGER than the first!

Step 3: Turn your paper once more to the right. Now draw the snout of your animal.

Step 4: Turn your paper again to the right. Now draw ONE foot (and leg)

Step 5: Turn again to the right. Here I have students draw one ear.

Step 6: Turn paper again to the right. Draw another foot!

Step 6: Turn paper again to the right. Draw the other ear!

Step 7: Turn paper one more time. Draw the tail.

Step 8: Turn paper one last time to the right. It should now be back to the beginning. At this step, students have to figure out how to connect all the pieces to create a body! 

We then outline with sharpie. Everyone is giggling at this point!

The last stage is to add color. We use crayons to color the animals. And I have students create a pattern in the background using crayon as well. When done, students choose one color (liquid watercolor) to paint the background. This is also teaching wax resist and the wet-on-wet watercolor technique! We also added salt to the watercolor background for another fun twist :)
VIOLA! Always a class favorite!

4th Grade Blue Dogs

BLUE DOG!!!!!!!

The FAVORITE every year! This is the only project I always repeat. We begin by looking at at powerpoint over the artist George Rodrigue. (Comment with your email and I will send you my powerpoint.)
Then we read the book, "Why is Blue Dog Blue?" written by George Rodrigue

I demo how to draw Blue Dog then ask students to create a theme!
At the bottom of these pictures you can see that I have attached a piece of paper, these are the sentences the students wrote on the back of their paintings.
"When I think of _______ I paint Blue Dog ________."
Ex: When I think of going to the movies I paint Blue Dog like a super hero!
Ex: When I think of Pizza, I paint Blue Dog Pizza Sauce Red."

4th Grade Proporitons of a Face/ Egyptian Portraits

4th Grade Egyptian Style Portraits

This project was done after a long lesson over the proportions of a face. I wish I could post that lesson because the results from before and after are AMAZING! But its just too long. Maybe I'll post a video of me teaching it one day?? Hmmm...

So these were created after learning how to draw facial features in the frontal view as well as correct facial proportions. They outlined the drawing with sharpie then colored with crayons. They finished by painting a tint in the background. This was the first project we got any paint out for, so this was a good stepping stone for learning things like, how to create a tint, how to use good craftsmanship with paint, and how to clean up the pallets and brushes. (I teach 4-6 grade art, so this is their first year learning my clean up rules.) 

4th Grade Tints and Shades, Value Scale

"Cool Skies and Fireflies"

This project is always a hit. Students love to create this beautiful background using tints and shades. We also discuss VALUE SCALE with this project! 

I have done many different things over the top such as an owl on a tree branch with construction paper, the sillohette of a tree etc. This year we used Georgia O'Keeffe's painting titled, "The Lawrence Tree" as our inspiration. This also allowed us to discuss Point of View. We began by discussing Warm and Cool colors, then lead into the rest. 

I decided to have students focus on cool colors so the title "Cool Skies and Fireflies" popped in my head, and so it was BORN! 

This project hits: 

Tints/Shades

Value Scale

Point of View

Warm/cool colors 

An artist

AND we had a discussion over O'Keeffe's painting so we also rolled art critique into this project! 

On 12X12" paper--

Day 1:

First we started by painting a white circle for the moon. 

Then students slowly added the color to the white to create a very light tint, each ring adding a little more. I asked them to create 4 tints. I said, "FOUR IS A MUST, FIVE IS A PLUS!" They took this as a challange and many created 5! 

Students then added a ring of plain color to seperate the tints from the shades.

From there they slowly added black to create shades and I asked them to try to create 3. 

Day 2:

Discussed O'Keeffe and The Lawence Tree via powerpoint 

Demoed how to create whimsical branches over the background

Created yellow "fireflies" using the back of the paint brush dipped in paint

Students finished independently 

Comment with your email if you would like me to send you the powerpoint I made for this project. :) Its short and sweet and ends with a critique.