Birch Tree Lesson ish

So last week at one of my schools we did the standard birch tree watercolor lesson from:
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/01/birch-trees-watercolor-lesson/
We tore masking tape and laid it down as a mask for the trees. I had a couple assistants helping me, but I think we could have done more with helping them tear the tape and lay it down to look more like trees (like thinner towards the end of branches etc.) Even still they turned out great. :)  The kids had fun with painting sunsets and those looked awesome in watercolor.  We didn't all do birch trees, but I had them all make a shadow side on their trees and showed them how that made the tree look round. I have a lot of new students so I'm having to teach them blending and shading like I did for the class last semester. Also, we switched it up and used colored pencils for our trees.

These are a few of the projects from one of the classes :) The one on the bottom right is not finished yet ;)
This project is good for students beginning in art. It is simple enough, but it teaches about masking an area to keep it clean and how that looks afterward, how to use watercolors, horizon line, and shading with colored pencils.

Clipper Ships

This project was inspired by Deep Space Sparkle's lesson
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/05/watercolor-clipper-ships-art-lesson/

I found a painting of a Clipper ship online, and then drew step by step on the white board with my students. They did great! lots of sails and some complex shapes. I haven't done this with my second school yet, but will post pictures here when I get to it.
After the drawing, everyone painted the sails and I showed them how to do the shading along the left side and bottom to make the sails look full of air. I also showed them how to do a very light wash over the whole sail and then darken with more pigment in the shadow area and blend out. I had to show most of the students on their own painting what I meant, but eventually they all figured it out. Lots to learn!
I tried to show them how to paint the waves light on the peaks and darker down below, but I don't think that ended up coming across very well and I just ended up letting them have more fun with that part since the first part was more intense.
I also showed my students how to draw a dolphin and whale jumping out of the water, and I required each to draw one. Some of the students in my second class chose to do some outlining in sharpie pen. 

Lots of pictures this time! Grades 1-5.

Chinese Brush Painting

This is a project I created on my own, based off of Chinese Paint Brush painting. For the first week I taught the class a little about traditional Chinese painting, and then we did two small paintings on watercolor paper with the Chinese brushes. Sadly I didn't get pictures of these.... We did two of the four gentlemen, which are the plum blossom, the orchid, the chrysanthemum and the bamboo. They turned out pretty good, although it was a little difficult for the students to use the Chinese brushes and the watercolors at times. They're good kids, and put up with a lot. If I do this project with my other school I may just use regular paint brushes.
The second week we did a painting based off of a simple painting in the Chinese Brush Painting book I was using. It is of an orchid dipping into the water and two fish. This one we did on rice paper which was even more difficult because it soaks up water like craaaazy and the brushes hold water like craaazy. They all practiced first and did quite well :)  I would say this would be best for upper elementary and up, but my first and second graders are incredible so who knows... haha
Maybe using regular watercolor paper and regular round brushes would make these projects, even if they are less authentic. Chinese painting is so simple and beautiful.

This was the one that my fifth grade brother did. He and my sister (one year younger) are in one of my classes, and if I forget to get pictures of the whole class's projects I just use theirs. My sister's is below.

Oh! we also painted ornaments! Most of the students painted a bird that was in the book, it was so cute :)

Bug drawings

Main purpose of the bug drawing project
1. Learn and develop drawing skills
2. Continue working on blending and shading
3. Draw items that the students enjoyed
4. Sources MUST be used for this project or they will not be learning how to draw a tarantula that looks like a tarantula etc.

This project was slightly adapted from an idea I found on an art teacher's blog that I cannot find again so I cannot give credit unfortunately.
Every student drew three insects/spiders/bugs and then cut them out. I helped with the cutting some with my xacto knife. I printed lots of pictures that I will be able to use for other classes down the road, and some of the students brought pictures of their favorite bugs. I taught them about observing what they were drawing and drawing accurately. I did not allow ants to be drawn as three circles with lines coming out of them.... anyone can do that, but we are learning to draw. We also worked with shading and blending with the colored pencils.
The other teacher had them draw a bug jar with some sticks and leaves on a large piece of paper and then paste their bugs on to that piece. I decided to just have them draw a "habitat" for their bugs instead of a bug jar. I provided pictures of leaves and sticks and flowers for this part of the project. The bugs can either be pasted on flat or with the wings etc. popped out  3-D.
We spent at least 3 to 4 hours on this project and by the end I was definitely seeing an improvement in the students drawing ability. Everyone enjoyed this and there was a good balance between me as the instructor telling the students what to draw and the students choosing themselves what butterflies/insects/spiders were their favorites.

They turned out beautifully, but I only have pictures of two because I never remember to bring my camera to class....  Next year I will be better about that.

This was done by one of my stellar 5th graders. I took this picture before he was finished with the background. Some students do try to stop with blank space between the grass and the sky, but I always remind them to think about where their horizon is and make sure that there is no empty space on their page.

This was done by another 5th grader that "draws a movie" every week :) Here the tarantulas and scorpions are having a battle on a basketball court. He could be a comic book artist and writer.

Oil Pastel: Underwater Fish Drawing

I don't remember which blog I was on, but I saw a project using oil pastels on black paper, and this is the project that I morphed that idea into. Oil pastel colors are very bright, and the black paper makes them seem even more vibrant. While this combo is fun/creative/different, I wanted to start doing some projects with more real drawing in them. I found pictures of beautiful tropical fish and had each student draw with pencil the fish that they chose.
Drawing:
I am not getting into sighting/measuring with these young students, but I am helping them draw more and more accurately to the sources that we are using. I point out the angles of the lines, where parts meet up together, the shapes of curves, sizes of different parts in relation to one another etc., and their drawing is improving.  Every student gets a pencil and a big MOO eraser (they are the best!) and I require them to do lots of erasing! When I as the teacher point out parts that look different on their  drawing from what the object really looks like, they usually can see it and fix it and are more happy with the revised outcome.
I made an example drawing for my classes and also did a demo in class. This was very helpful to their success and made them slow down and notice all of the colors in the fish and how they were blended together. I went over blending and shading with the oil pastels and I was so pleased with how well they did on their own drawings!  I mentioned to them that when they were in Kindergarten they took a green crayon and drew a tree, but now they are too old for that. Trees and grass are not just one color of green!  After they finished the fish they added an underwater background.
I forgot to bring my camera to the first school :( There were some incredible pieces! But I got shots of some more amazing pieces at the second school :)
This is the best project I have done so far and the kids were VERY HAPPY with their drawings.

This fish was at a hard angle to draw, but we did it!

All of these drawings were done by first second and third graders :D

Art Teaching Blogging

I have decided to dedicate part of my blog to teaching art. Once I can get the teaching posts on a separate page/tab it will be very easy to separate them from my other fine art posts.... or maybe eventually I'll have to start a second blog site :)

This is my first year teaching art. I've only taught for seven or eight weeks actually. One day a week I teach one high school and two elementary classes, and another day I teach two more elementary classes. These classes are at home school "schools" or "co-ops," so classes meet just once a week. Maybe one day I'll get into teaching at a private school, but I am really liking teaching for home schoolers, and the pay is pretty good :). Also could have something to do with the fact that I was homeschooled all the way through so I understand the system and like it and know where the kids are coming from and know that they need a good art teacher as much as any other student. I like the low stress and my teaching schedule as well.

All that to say...  A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really discouraged and like I was failing and like I really really didn't know what I was doing. I was running out of projects that I had prepared for and I was having trouble preparing enough in time for class. Thankfully, I had a couple of days off of my other job and the house quiet and to myself, so I started scouring teaching art blogs. A lot of the projects I would not use because they are too "crafty" BUT I did find some great projects and I also found many projects and concepts that I got creative with and mixed up and made more art heavy than craft heavy. I do not have a degree in art education, I have a degree in fine art, so I go more heavy on the art than the crafts (this is also what the students and parents want).
I have also come up with many projects on my own and will post them also.
So now it's my turn to start a teaching art blog and hopefully lots of teachers will find it and will find helpful ideas and projects.
Lessons learned so far:
Don't be lazy- it's gonna take a lot of work, especially the first year when you don't have a repertoire of projects and you don't have a clue what you're doing.

Find somewhere quiet where you can think totally on art and get super creative with the projects
Think through everything and how you will teach everything. Be totally prepared well ahead of time.

Know that you will have to set a chunk of time aside once or twice a week to make sure you are prepared.

Don't be too nice to the students, You are in charge!

Try the projects out yourself before hand and bring examples.