Mission Drawings

Each spring in California, 4th graders are assigned a California Mission research project. I've found this to be the perfect time to work in an architectural drawing lesson.

1. I made my own graph paper on 11" x 17" sheets of beige paper, printing a 1/4" grid over all. Make these lines as light as possible so they are easy to cover up.
2. I illustrated for students simple line drawings of common mission features. The doors tend to be round, the windows often have blocks at the base, and the rooftops sometimes have beautiful domes with bells inside. I encouraged the students to start in pencil with a ground line and then a main building in the center. Halls or wings to the left and right could then be added. Remind them that the grid lines are there to follow so they should work slowly to trace right over them. When the building is complete, they may add foliage. When complete, the pencil lines are traced with a thin black marker.
3. Students use colored pencils to fill in all the areas. Encourage students to press hard with their pencils as it will make the boldest artwork.

Outdoor Mural Update

The colors still look great, but there was a fair amount of wrinkling going on due to the wet canvas shrinking in the middle and not on the dry white border. My next test is to see if wetting the outside edge with the 50/50 glue mixture will fix this, or if I just need to trim the mural out and get rid of the border. I can live with either as I’m so happy with the vivid, bright colors. Rough price for 50" x 60" piece of unstretched primed canvas? $15. Possibilities for outdoor art? Many! Final mural will be posted Monday.

An experiment – Dry Wax Paper panels glued to unstretched primed canvas. When complete, I’ll add grommets to the corners and hang outdoors to see how weatherproof it is. Note: This was created with Sharpies and my Kandinsky Circles Mural template.

Koi Fish Painting

 It’s fun to change your point of view sometimes, like looking down on fish instead of across at them. 

1. Students started with drawing the fish body on the right, then the one on the left.

2. Tails and eyes were added.

3. Fins were added on the sides, along with some curvy weeds.

4. All pencil lines were traced with crayon. Any spots on the fish were colored in, as well as the inside of the leaves. Lines for bubbles were drawn with a white crayon.

5. Students painted the fish with Orange liquid watercolor paint, and the background with Turquoise blue. I love the Dick Blick brand, but there’s probably lots of good ones out there.

Russian Buildings

Architecture drawing is a really fun area to explore with children. I've seen many students that have little or no interest in drawing people make the most amazing drawings of buildings.

1. I printed 1/4" graph lines on large format 11" x 17" paper, but you could go to Free Online Graph Paper and print your own. Show the students examples of Russian architecture. Demonstrate how to draw lots of rectangles with "ice cream top" buildings to imitate their look.
2. Distribute watercolor paints and have the students paint their shapes with bright colors.
3. When the paint is dry, give each student a gold paint marker and have them trace all the pencil lines for an extra fancy look.

Panoramic Landscape

I was inspired by a stock art drawing, and made just three rules for this lesson: the horizon line had to be curved, close shapes were to be large, and those beyond small. The result was a kind of fisheye lens panorama.

1. As noted above, students started by drawing the curved horizon line. They could choose close items to draw, they just had to be extra large. Any shapes on the horizon were drawn rather small.

2. When the drawing was done, all the shapes were traced with a black permanent marker.

3. The drawing was colored in with oil pastels. This drawing was completed with the Portfolio® brand.

Drawing by Neariah, who is a second grader this year. Love it!

Van Gogh Ceramic Landscape

Van Gogh was known for his thickly painted landscapes, so you can replicate the look with clay and kiln and glazes.

1. Give each student about a baseball-size piece of clay, and have them form a smooth ball. Show them how to press the ball into a thick pancake, using a roller if possible.
2. Give each student a stick or stylus, and have them etch a drawing into the clay. It's good to start with a horizon line, and then add a road, grass and sky.
3. Fire the clay plates, glaze paint, and fire again. Vibrant Van Gogh-ish colors are essential!

Colored Pencil Apple Drawing

Did you know that good colored pencils can actually blend together like oil pastels do? I didn’t until I purchased some new supplies.
1. Demonstrate a simple line drawing of an apple sitting on a table and ask your students to draw their own, in pencil.
2. Show students how to "glaze" a drawing by coloring the different layers needed for this apple. Fill the apple shape first with white colored pencil, then a layer of yellow (leave a highlight spot) then orange, and finally red.
3. Add detail such as the stem and background.
This apple was drawn by a second grader.

Butterfly Collage

Just about any Eric Carle book can make a good visual aid to this project.
1. It is important to begin with quality watercolor paper, one that has texture on one side. Give each student two 9" x 9" sheets – one is for painting and one is to save for the background.
2. Distribute a wide (1" or more) flat brush, acrylic paints, a paper plate and scrap paper to each student. Demonstrate how the students can dispense a little paint on the paper plate, spread it on the scrap paper until streaks start to show, and then apply it to the watercolor paper, textured side up. Each student should fill their paint sheet mostly with the main butterfly color, and then smaller sections for the antenna, rectangle body, and details.
3. Once the paint is dry, the butterfly wings need to be cut out. Older students can cut one wing out, flop it and trace for the opposite side. Younger students may need a template they can trace.
4. After all the butterfly wings, body, antenna and details are cut out, arrange them on the remaining sheet of paper. Once the cutting is complete, everything can be glued down with white glue.

One-Point Perspective Drawing

I’ve tried the perspective city street lesson before, but the students seemed to spend more time measuring lines than anything else. This lesson still teaches about one-point perspective, but is much less fussy.

1. Each student needs a 9" square paper, ruler, pencil and 2" square cardboard template. They are to trace 4 or 5 squares somewhat in a ring around the outside edge of the paper. Corners may go off the paper, but the center needs to be left open.
2. The students make a vanishing point dot somewhere in the middle of the paper. They draw straight lines (lightly) connecting it to every square corner that they can reach. If a connecting line would go into the square, it means it would be behind and wouldn’t show.
3. To create the cubes, lines need to be drawn as shown in the diagram, always parallel to the square.
4. All the lines that are not part of any cube need to be erased.
5. An organic shape is added to their picture in the shape of a rope. They are to draw holes in their cubes, and make one rope look like it is going in and out of each cube in a continuous fashion. When the drawing is complete, the lines are traced with a thin black marker. The cubes are colored in with colored pencils, using varying pressure to get different shades of color. Lastly the background is colored. White circle could be left to look like stars, if desired.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Five
2.1 Use one-point perspective to create the illusion of space.

Paper Collage House

Kinders spend class time talking about their homes and neighborhoods. This collage project gives them a chance to visualize what their home looks like.

1. Give the students a choice of 4" x 5" pieces of colored paper to use as their main home color. They are to glue them down in the center of a background 9" x 12" sheet.
2. Offer a variety of colored paper that they can cut into details of their house. These may be windows, then window panes, doors and knobs, landscaping and clouds. The more detail, the better!