Picasso Relief Portraits

When I went to my state’s art education conference this fall, I saw a really cool project idea at the United Art booth. It was bright, colorful, and a relief sculpture! You can find it here. They gave me the lesson plan for it and I have been working on the sample for my students. I’ve taken pictures of most of my steps so that I can share with my students when they are ready to make it. Feel free to use it. 🙂 I started with painting the background piece of cardboard (8×10″).

Then I drew out my main head shape, painted it white, and cut it out.

Glue some smaller pieces of cardboard to the back and then glue it down to your background.

Create a profile view of just the head – not the nose, eyes, etc.

I painted another piece of cardboard white and then drew out the rest of my main pieces – eyes, lips, nose, forehead. I also added cheeks, eyebrows, and lids. The more pieces you add, the more interesting it can be.

I used my scraps from cutting all my other pieces to create the hair and neck. Now it’s ready to paint!

I painted with tempera and let it dry before using some black lines to add some depth and really make it pop!

I love this project and can’t wait to try it with my 6th graders!

UPDATE! We completed this assignment and the results are awesome! Check ’em out:

So proud of these!!

Silberzweig Portraits

I first learned of Sandra Silberzweig at a professional development day with my school system’s art teachers. And of course, as new things tend to do, after learning about her I started seeing her stuff everywhere. 

I love her art and all the colors and patterns in it. The kids love it too and other than how colorful it is, they love the funky, stylized aspect of her faces. 

One of my favorites is the cat eating a fish:

And of course the Dia de Los Muertos inspired calavera:

So my first and third graders have been working on their own versions and I thought I would share some of their work in progress:

I will be sure to share their finished pieces too! 

Monster Mama Screaming Portraits

I found this great project at the end of last year and have almost waited too late to do it this year. It will probably be our final project for the year and the kids are loving it. The original lesson can be found over at Art Rocks! She was inspired by the Monster Mama book by Liz Rosenburg, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. I thought I would also tie in some art history in addition to the literacy aspect by showing them Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Like I said, they are loving it.
The first day, I introduced them to the book and the painting and then we drew our screaming faces with pencil. Most classes also had time to trace all of their pencil lines with Sharpie.
The next class was spent discussing how awesome oil pastels are and how to blend them.
The final class will be spent experimenting with using a straw and paint to blow out the top of the head. They are so excited about this step and I’m looking forward to sharing the results.
Check out where we are so far…

Help Wanted: Lead Reindeer

I found this awesome art and writing activity at What the Teacher Wants! I am excited about this and so are the kids.  I took their pictures while they were working on another project and this week we will be putting it all together and filling out our applications.  I can’t wait to see what they write and share with you!

Grumpy reindeer! Haha! He’s a sweet kid.

Watermelon Self-Portraits

First graders started these cute self portraits last week and I think they will end up taking three weeks total. The first week, we drew in pencil and then traced in sharpie. This week, we used the Crayola multicultural crayons to color our skin as well as our eyes and hair. Some of the kids finished that in Ike to start painting their watermelons. Next week we will finish the watermelon and the background. I think they are turning out so well!

Saving the planet – Dr. Seuss style!

The amazing Dr. Seuss will soon have a birthday (March 2nd) so kindergarten and I will be getting a jump on the festivities by making some Lorax inspired portraits this week. If you can’t tell from lots of my other projects, I LOVE using the Apple program, Photobooth for art projects. The kids love taking their pictures and its so much fun to put yourself in so many different places.
This time I will be taking their pictures and turning them all into tiny little earth-saving Lorax’s (Loraxes?) (Loraxi?) …no matter how I spell that, spell check tells me it’s wrong. Anyway, I think it’s going to be stinkin’ CUTE!! I’ll get back to you on that when we actually get started tomorrow! 🙂

Ancient Egyptian Royal Portraits

I’ve been doing this project for years and the kids always do such a great job. They always find the history of Egypt interesting and they always have so many great questions. These are “in progress” so I’ll repost their finished pieces later.

Word Portrait Websites

I work with one of the most awesome technology facilitators in the world and she is always sending our staff super cool websites.  Some of her latest finds have been very art-friendly.  I did a project very similar to this with my 8th graders (when I had 8th graders) but it was a little more hands-on and less “sit back and let the technology do the work.”  But as they say, “Work Smarter, Not Harder.”  This would be a great way to incorporate literacy into your art lessons.  Just think about the possibilities: Verbs!, Similes!, Adjectives!, poems!, Short stories!, spelling words! – All made fun by incorporating ART.  smART, right!? 
Check these two out:
Tagxedo
You Are Your Words