Warhol Style Christmas Tree Mural

 Andy Warhol (1923-1987) was one of the 20th century’s most creative artists who defined a decade with his groundbreaking Pop Art. His commercial art background must have influenced him when he created this Christmas Tree print in 1958.
Note: I love a new coloring product that I discovered and used on my sample, Crayola Twistable Slick Stix. I like the set of twelve which include a pretty gold and silver, and are super smooth to color with. They are much cleaner to work with than regular oil pastels and seem to leave little to no residue on the paper.

My mural has 24 pages measures 37" by 50" when complete. You can purchase my pdf file with instructions for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button below to make your payment and receive download instructions.

Nutcracker Painting

One way to have students draw LARGE is to instruct them that their art must touch the top and the bottom of a piece of paper.
1. This project requires 10" x 18" paper, tempera paints, black sharpie marker and a gold opaque metallic marker. Have the students fold the 10" x 18" paper in half, crease, and open.
2. Show them how to draw in pencil a nutcracker that has a hat that touches the top edge, a belt that is on the fold, and shoes that are sitting on the bottom edge. Fill in the nutcracker with details such as boots, shirt button detail and face. The shoulders should nearly touch the sides of the paper.
3. Paint the nutcracker with tempera paints. Lots of red and black make for festive holiday colors.
4. Once the paint is dry, trace over the pencil lines with a black sharpie marker.
5. Use a gold opaque poster marker to fill in detail such as the buttons and cuffs.

Crayon Resist Snowflakes

If you go to the holiday decoration section at Michael’s, you can find these amazing laser-cut wood snowflake decorations that are cheap (about three for $1) and perfect for making crayon rubbings. These are the same snowflakes I used for the Plaster Paperweight project.

1. I made this picture with a white crayon, but younger students could use bright colors they could see more easily. I placed the snowflake under my paper, and rubbed over it with the side of a large crayon, going back and forth in many directions.
2. Liquid watercolor was painted over all the picture, and dabbed with a paper towel to soak up the paint on the crayon.