Birch tree moonscapes for middle school

This was a very successful

mat board / cardboard strip black paint smearing/flicking birch tree project 

that I elevated so that it was appropriate for 6th grade and more challenging than I've done previously.

As (hopefully) all of you know, the birch tree trick project is a no-fail project that makes every student feel like a super-duper artist. The objective this time around was to

create a full landscape that demonstrated great depth and shadows. 

Before I start- I am so close to 200 followers(!) so please pass this along to friends

or colleagues so that I can hit a new milestone.

(I think it will also motivate me to do my blog design overhaul sooner rather than later.)

The lesson: 

 This was my favorite of my photo and print examples. 

It is a woodcut called "Northern Shadows" by Lisa VanMeter

who has many beautiful woodcuts and tree-themed work on her website. 

Project breakdown:

-Drawing-

1. Sketch closest trees

2. Add in horizon line and hills. 

3. Sketch in the rest of trees ( I required a minimum of 6.)

4. Draw in moon and shadows. 

5. Add in extras: houses, animals, footsteps, etc.

-Painting-

1. Use cardboard or mat board pieces to scrap thinned black tempera for the birch.

2. Paint in sky with liquid watercolor. 

3. Paint in shadows and create a "chalky moon texture" with a very light black wash. 

4. Use watercolor pencils for tiny things like houses, pine trees, animals. 

*To expedite the process I had three sky color options pre-made

and the shadow paint pre-mixed and ready. 

For elementary teachers I have a "wicked" old version of this project and a round-up of many other winter project ideas here. 

quick winter printmaking project for artsonia

My middle school has joined Artsonia this year. It has been going really well. 

I felt I needed to post a winter themed project for my parents. 

I did a quick printmaking project with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, using 5 x 7 styrofoam.

The theme was snowpeople. 

6th grade had a choice of:

-included a border 

or 

-having a larger snowperson in the foreground and a hill or landscape background 

(see top row below)

7th grade:

I encouraged to draw one or more snowmen from a worm's perspective. For the kids that chose to follow my strong suggestion they came out really great. Some of the kids did other spins on the idea. 

(below)

8th grade: 

These guys have done styrofoam printing with me. I showed them some inspiration examples of different scenes and snowmen illustrations and they could design as they liked. 

(shown in the title image) 

Some of my parents ordered holiday cards and ornaments with the prints which was my hope! 

View the full gallery here. 

Polar Bears - drawing with charcoal, shading things that are white

A common request I get from students is to learn how to draw animals, so I decided to fulfill it. 

This lesson served a variety of purposes (i.e. exposing students to new drawing tools and shading white objects) and providing the students structured freedom. 

The great amount of the choice the students led them to take great care

and pride in their picture right up to the end.

I did this with 6th grade but I would recommend it for 4th-6th.

Some of the introductory images I provided the students can be found on my pinterest board here. 

The requirements were:

-to work from a photograph with a full polar bear

-choose white or grey paper to work on

-start with pencil

-demonstrate shading & texture

-it needs to be apparent the bear is on a ground and not flying

The options were:

-drawing pencils

-charcoal pencil

-pressed charcoal

-white colored pencil

-white chalk

Most of the students tried out the charcoal at least minimally. This lesson worked great because the more adventurous students were able to be more experimental and the more apprehensive students were able to work more cautiously. 

Some of the introductory images I provided the students can be found on my pinterest board here. 

Salt Dough Inuksuk/Innunguat

I learned some new things about inuksuks this time around!

What I (and most of the world) commonly thought is an Inuksuk is not! 

Inuksuk or Inukshuk : a landmark 

Inuksuit : plural

Innunguaq : imitation of a person

Innunguat : plural

Apparently this Olympic logo is partially to blame for the misconception. 

The project:

This lesson was a great round out to a unit on Native American art, culture, and history. 

My fifth graders made a large batch of salt dough as our clay for this. 

The recipe is:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Then it has to dry for a long time (or you can bake it on low for a long while).

It was also a great lesson in ratios for them as they measured and made them really

invested in the project making their own materials. 

After we made out dough we made pinch pots since some of my kids have

never had art until this year and we don't get to use clay a whole lot. 

The next day we discussed native peoples of the arctic region of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.

I introduced Inuksuit and Innunguat and then we watched a really good five minute you tube video.

This video is such a great introduction to the lesson depicting

the landscape as well as explaining the purpose of the sculptures/landmarks. 

We used two to three toothpicks as the armatures for the stone people.

The image above shows the plan for how the clay "rocks" are held together. 

When they dry they look and feel like rock. 

We painted them brown and grey to look like rock when they were dry. 

 

winter shade and shadow landscape

I based this lesson on these two pins but gave it a winter twist:

 

Day one we worked on tints and shade mixing with blue for the sky around the moon.

Day two we discussed shadows, added on snowmen and their appropriate shadows and a small house in the distance demonstrating depth. 

(I apologize because these are some of the worst pictures I've taken in a long while.)

Snowman portraits, exploring directions

Second grade snowman portraits

exploring three points of view.

Front facing / head-on

Profile / side

3/4 / to the corner

I used two Van Gogh paintings to introduce the concepts and had three students stand in front of the class in the different positions so we could examine the differences. 

Portrait of a Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888

Self-portrait, 1889

Day 1 (45 minutes):

introduction, drawing with pencil, tracing with sharpie

Day 2 (45 minutes):

colored in the snowman details, painted the sky a la Starry Night with tempera cakes

Getting ready for winter - round up of past projects!

(image courtesy of bomobob.etsy.com)

Since the winter season is quickly nearing and I'm sure most of you are lesson planning I thought it would be a great help to post a recap of some of my past winter-themed lessons before I delve into this years. You can also click on the "winter" label and get more details. 

Penguins!

 

Model magic over wine corks, and cut straw beaks.

Penguin portraits.

Mittens!

Snowflakes printed with cardboard scraps and white tempera.

Snowy self-portraits.

pattern mittens and hot cocoa.

Collaged mittens and hat. Great way to use up scraps of random materials

and a very tactile experience for Pre-K, K, and 1st. 

Stars - Snowflakes - Landscapes !

Tissue paper collage, model magic border, crayon/watercolor resist.

Cityscape Snowglobe

Snowman paper collage.

Snowman painting and oil pastel.

Near and far winter landscapes- white conte over gray paper.

Collaborative installation: torn paper snowman, intro to snowflake cutting,

cut out hands for the trees.

Collage winter trees and watercolor stars.

Long Night Moon book, night time landscape with chalk.

Winter birch trees and snowy owls.

Nutcrackers!

For some pins I've had my eye for inspiration this coming winter season click here!