Order and chaos!

Two projects here:  Mondrian-inspired paintings and Pollock-inspired splatter art.  Be mindful that these projects will set the mood/energy/focus level for your group!  Choose them wisely :)

 We used electrical tape to help keep the black lines straight and defined.

Outdoors- obviously.  We used thinned tempera paint and flung it (in turns) with big paintbrushes.

We cut the final product into chunks so everyone could take home a piece.

We mixed glitter into these paints.  It was a smashing success!

IMPORTANT:  Remember to either take off shoes or have parents send in ones that are ok getting splattered!  I forgot this step.  Live and learn!

Art inspired by different cultures

This is another round-up of art projects from when I used to teach!  The theme for this set was "Art from Around the World."  Most of these are self-explanatory, so I'll be brief.  Here we go!

Salt dough animal totems

Build them on cardboard for easiest take-home-ability!

Mosaics made from cut up paper and contact paper

more mosaics

Aboriginal mud paintings made with tempera paint on crumpled brown paper

For paint brushes we collected our own sticks

I love the way these turned out!

Mexican paper flags

Chinese paper dragons made of paper cone cups, strips of tissue paper, and dowels.  These are so fun to "fly" and watch the streamers blow!  I have action shots but they all have faces.  You'll just have to trust me.

These are Adinkra prints are inspired by designs from Ghana.  My mom carved the stamps and graciously lent them to us!  Each of us printed one design and then shared them with everyone else, so we all made colorful, diverse banners.

More projects with more in-depth instruction coming soon!

Self Portraits

There are lots of cool ways to make self portraits with kids.  Often detaching the goal of realism helps kids feel more comfortable experimenting with shapes, colors, techniques, etc.  Here are a few different ideas to try:  (A lot of these are mine instead of the kids', for privacy)

Scratch art portraits

See how to make your own scratch art paper here!

Masks using fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, beads, and paper cone cups

It is VERY important to bring in good fabric scissors or else this will be a very frustrating project for the kids- most kids art room scissors are much too dull to cut effectively.  MAKE SURE TO PUT AWAY PIPE CLEANERS BEFORE YOU BRING OUT THE GOOD SCISSORS.  One snip can ruin a good pair!

These were so fun I'm putting in a bunch.  These are simpy tempera paint on black construction paper.

I think they look so cool!!

We tried to leave black space between paint sections to keep the colors looking vibrant.  

As I've mentioned before, adding in some element of an unusual or unfamiliar art supply can really inspire kids.  Here, I had them choose one word from a magnetic poetry set that they felt described them.  Then they drew the feelings that word game them and glued on the piece.

Last but not least, one of my favorites- Andy Warhol-inspired portraits!

Oh my. 

The kids LOVED these.  Take a picture of each child making a silly face.  Then print out 4 side-by-side copies of it in black and white on plain printer paper.  Then color over them with colored pencils!

The frame here is made out of scraps of discarded art.  We did this a lot, and it helped us remember to get as many uses out of a single sheet of paper as we could!  (We also read The Lorax at the beginning of each week to help us remember to conserve and recycle resources!)