Paul Klee Abstract Castle

Paul Klee was one of the great colorists in the history of painting. I developed this project that imitates his abstract “Castle and Sun” painting by having students trace cardboard shapes and fill them in with colored pencils.

1. Give each student a piece of black paper, a pencil and half a dozen or so cutout square, rectangle and triangle cardboard shapes. I made lots of shapes that were all based on 1" proportions. My sample uses 2" squares, 1" x 2" rectangles (some with triangle tops) 3" x 2" rectangles, a 3" bridge, and a 2" circle.
2. Starting at the bottom, the students are to stack and trace the cardboard shapes until they have built a castle to their liking. A sun is also added somewhere in the sky. After the drawing is done, they are to trace all the pencil lines with a white colored pencil.
3. All the shapes are filled in with colored pencil. Tip: If you think this may be a “keeper” project and you have the resources, buy some good black Artagain paper which won’t face before your very eyes like the school-regulated construction paper does. There’s nothing like good materials to make good art (sometimes!)

Keith Haring in Chalk and Glue

Keith Haring (1958 – 1990) was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s. His simple and colorful figures are a great style to imitate when studying body proportions.

1. I gave each student a 9" x 12" sheet of black paper, and a cardboard rectangle about 3" x 5", which was centered on the paper and traced. My goal was just to have the students use this as the torso of the body, and they were to add "action" arms and legs in whatever combination they saw fit. The tendency is for them to draw small, so they need to be reminded that the middle of the torso would be the waist, so any elbows in their drawing should line up accordingly. The legs also need to be long and wide, and fill the bottom of the paper. Lastly, "energy" lines were added around the head, along with a simple horizon line.
2. After the pencil drawing was done, and the box lines were erased connecting the torso and the legs and arms, the students carefully traced the drawing with white glue. Let the art dry flat for at least 24 hours.
3. Show the students examples of Haring's simple primary colored figures. They are to use chalk pastels accordingly, coloring and blending with their fingers to get coverage all around the glue lines.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Grade Four
2.2 Use the conventions of facial and figure proportions in a figure study.

Aboriginal Snake Drawing

In Australia, there are Aborigines who live today as they did thousands of years ago. Like cave painters, they use art as a way to tell stories known as "dreamings." One common feature to Aborigine artwork is that the insides are filled with lots of lines and dots and patterns.
1. Start with a dark paper and pencil and have the students make a large block-style letter "S", with the ends left open.
2. Show the students how to continue the top of the "S" that goes over the body and forms a head. They same is true for the bottom to end the tail. In both cases, the snake needs to get narrower in width.
3. Lastly, they erase the lines that wouldn't show. Ask the students to trace the snake with a light color on the outside, and a light stripe down the center of the body. To finish they can divide the snake up in sections, color patterns and then also color the outside. I used a new type of pencils called Art Stix for this picture, but you could use regular colored pencils as well. Just make sure to test them first as not all colors are opaque and thus kind of disappear on the black paper.