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Where Creativity happens!

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Tempera painted flowers

Painting Cherry Blossoms

cherrybloom

This is a project for 6-8 years old. However, you can simplify it for 5 year olds if you skip using two color petals for one color(make white petals without pink).

Materials: blue paper (ready colored or painted by kids), black or brown oil pastel, thick and thin round(that’s important!) brushes, acrylic paints (green, white, pink or purple, yellow)

Project takes about 45-60 minutes (the paper was painted in advance)

  • place the paper horizontally
  • draw outlines:
      • draw a thick bent branch with a black or brown oil pastel (or crayon)
      • add small branches

    cherry1

  • make green leaves by “stamping” medium or large brush

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  • for flower petals load medium-size brush with pink paint  and then dip a half of the brush in white paint. Make sure you use acrylic paint (not cheap gallon paint). Use only white paint if the kids are 5-6 year old (no pink paint). “Stamp” the brush about 5 times in a shape of a flower. You may need to do 2 paint loads for one flower.

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brush

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  • repeat the process of loading a brush with 2 colors and “stamping” to make as many flowers as desired

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  • add yellow dot in the middle of each flower

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  • make some splatters of white paint for the pollen (load a small brush with white paint and tap it to make splatters)

Here is how my 8 year old did it all by herself:

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And this work was created by 5 year old:

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1st – 2nd Grade Art Lessons

Painting Portraits

kids_paint_portraits

This is a project for 1st or 2nd Grade (6-8 years olds). However, you can simplify it for 5 year olds if you use a template of the head.

The project was inspired by DeepSpaceSparkle tempera portraits.

Materials: large paper, oil pastel (or crayons), thick brushes, acrylic, tempera 0r gouache paints (make sure you have skin tone color)

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Project takes about 60 minutes (I advice to make two 30-minutes sessions)

First, explain kids that a portrait is a picture of a person. Let kids look at each other. Ask kids what shape is our head? Is the left side of the face same as right side? Explain what is symmetry. Point that our eyes are same size and are located symmetrically with an imaginary middle line. Eyebrows are same symmetrical about the middle. The same applies to ears. Nose and lips are on an imaginary middle line.

Let kids decide whom they are going to draw (themselves, mom, dad, best friend). Tell them that they will draw a shoulder-length portrait so there is no need to draw hands, body and legs.

    • place the paper vertically
    • begin with a head shape. Draw a big egg-like oval. Younger kids (5 year olds) can trace a template.
    • make a neck and shoulders

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    • draw guiding lines. Separate the face into two equal parts with a vertical line. Then draw a horizontal line right in the middle of the head. Tell kids to press on a pencil very lightly because thick lines will be hard to erase. Explain that the horizontal line will help to position eyes. The vertical line will help to position nose and mouth. Help younger kids to draw guiding lines (older can do it by themselves)

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    • name the parts of an eye. Tell kids that an eye has a shape of a fish or a leaf. The top part of an eye is like a wide rainbow and the bottom part is like a smile.

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    • draw the first eye in the middle of the left half of the horizontal guiding line. Don’t draw eyelashes, it will be done in oil pastels at the very end.

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    • draw the second eye on the right side positioning it in the middle of the right part of the horizontal guiding line.

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    • draw a mouth and a nose (like a hook or a letter “J”) positioning it along the vertical guiding line.
    • add eyebrows

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    • draw hair. If a person has bangs – draw it right over the eyebrows. Otherwise, just draw a rainbow-like line for the line where hair start to grow.
    • add ears (if they are seen). Ears should be placed along the horizontal guiding line.

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    • erase the guiding lines
    • begin painting with skin color. Tell kids to paint all of the face, the neck and ears covering lips, eyebrows and the nose BUT leave white paper for eyes

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    • paint hair and a shirt

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This is where you can finish the first session.

Second session includes facial parts in oil pastel and painting background:

    • color the eyes’ irises and lips
    • outline everything with an oil pastel (or a crayon) using the color closest to the hair. Draw eyelashes and pupils.
    • add cheeks: paint the cheeks with pink oil pastel and smudge it with a finger.
    • add patterns to the shirt. You can make buttons, necklaces, earrings or hair pieces.
    • paint the background. We used solid color, but it might look very nice with multicolored background as well.

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Here are my students working hard:

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And here are the beautiful portraits:

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Spring Project

Painting tulips

tulips

This project is good for kids age 5-8. Younger kids can do only 0ne tulip.

Materials: paper, thick and thin brushes, acrylic paints,  watercolor paints (green and blue)

Project takes about 45-60 minutes

  • give kids a choice of a still-life composition (vertical) or a landscape composition (horizontal)
  • draw outlines:
      • draw a horizon/table edge line
      • draw tulips starting with a shape of a letter U and adding petals from its bottom, add the middle petal looking as a triangle
      • tulips may overlap each other, some tulips may be smaller and some bigger

    howtodrawtulip

  • paint tulips with acrylic paints starting with the lightest colors (yellow and pink) and then painting with darker colors (orange, red and purple)
  • paint stems and leaves
  • using a large brush paint the sky with blue watercolor and the grass with light green watercolor (or use brown for the table)
  • add some shadows:
    • add some brushstrokes with a thin brush using darker color (for example, use orange for a yellow tulip or red for a pink tulip)
    • add green brushstrokes for stems and leaves

Here how it turned:

tulips2tulips3paintingtulips

 

Working with rectangles

How to draw a Castle

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Materials: paper, pencil, black crayon or black permanent marker, brushes, watercolor or acrylic paints

Project takes about 45-60 minutes

The purpose of this lesson is to teach kids how to make a complex drawing out of simple shapes such as rectangles, squares and circles. This lesson is great for younger kids of 4-6 years old.

    • place the paper vertically (portrait orientation) and draw a horizon line close to the bottom edge of the sheet

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    • draw a base of the castle – a big horizontal rectangle looking as a large brick

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  • draw the main tower – a vertical (standing) rectangle on top of the base rectangle

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    • add smaller towers – smaller vertical rectangles to the left and to the right of the main tower

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    • draw triangle-shaped roofs

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  • do windows (square or circle shapes) and doors (like an arch)

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  • make details: flags, stairs, balconies, a road, trees, a dragon or a face of a princess in the window

drweing of a castle

  • older kids can “play” with the architecture of the castle and make asymmetrical towers, cool roofs, balconies etc

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  • outline everything with a black crayon if you use watercolors (don’t do it if you paint with acrylic paints)
  • paint the castle starting with the lightest colors (yellow, sky-blue) and the largest areas (the castle’s walls and sky) with a thick brush
  • then paint the darker and/or smaller areas (roof, windows, grass) with a thin or medium-size brush
  • always do the black parts the last
  • paint the details with a thin brush (flags, small windows)

Here is how my 4 year olds made it:

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