Sailing

We drew these pictures from photographs of local sail boats. Perhaps another time we could draw them in person but using photos meant children could focus on observational drawing skills without worrying too much about the composition of their pictures.

We started by sketching the main contour lines, adding more detail, then shading with coloured pencil.

Drawing Compasses

More on the seafaring theme! This time a lesson taken pretty much straight from artisan des arts.

This lesson was ideal because we'd been working on observational drawings and reading about navigation in Kensuke's Kingdom (also good timing as I'd just rescued some out-of-date atlases!).

The children drew their pictures in pencil from images of old, decorative compasses (in some cases elaborating or simplifying slightly). The were allowed to use a pair of compasses at the start but most of the drawing was free hand. The original lesson used metallic paints to finish the drawings but we just used coloured pencil and black pen.

The children then picked a map to rip out for the background (they were very specific in their choice of locations!) and stuck on their compass - no other mounting needed.

This was a straightforward but highly satisfying lesson with great result - I'd recommend a look at the original inspiration.

Jellyfish

After seeing some amazing deep sea creatures in our science lessons, it seemed fitting to use them as inspiration for art! I decided to use the idea of chalk/pastel translucent jellyfish which I'd seen in a couple of pictures on-line (such as the lesson in this post).

We discussed how we could create tone by blending coloured and white chalk on the black paper. I was glad I'd asked them to practise on some scrap pieces first as jellyfish shapes and blending turned out to be more challenging than I'd anticipated...but challenge is good so that was fine!

Once the children had finished their jellyfish composition using the chalk, they splattered the background with white paint (perhaps a little over-enthusiastically in some cases) to represent the bubbles and 'marine snow' in the deep sea habitat.

Underwater Tints and Shades

Following the ocean theme, we learned more about value, and mixing tints and shades.

A couple of years ago I did a project involving similar techniques based on this 'Tints and Sharks!' lesson from The Bees Knees Cousin (note: that blog seems to have a new home but I can't see that lesson on it) - that time I didn't use the ocean theme, this time it fit perfectly!

I also came across a similar sea turtle picture on Pinterest that took me here. I liked the 'star burst' effect for the background so gave the children the option of painting a 'star burst' instead of concentric circles.

We used ready mix paint, starting with white and adding blue. I knew from experience that children find it quite a challenge to mix the colours to achieve a gradual effect but they were all successful. We then added silhouettes with black paint. A couple of the children found painting small details very difficult but overall everyone was really pleased with their results.

Kensuke's Kingdom (bringing art and literacy together!)

Earlier this year a lot of our learning was linked to the Michael Morpurgo novel, Kensuke's Kingdom (his best children's novel, in my opinion). Of course that meant an ocean theme for much of our artwork!

The front cover on our edition of the book had noticeable similarities to The Great Wave, the famous print by Japanese artist Hokusai. This led to a great discussion of the art, its significance for the story, and other allusions in the novel (e.g. 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'). Sure enough, Hokusai is mentioned a number of times in the narrative and art becomes a central theme to the story.

Bringing art and literacy together definitely made for a deeper understanding of both. As you can see, the children also took it in turns to paint a large version of the novel's cover for our wall display!

Doodle Deserts

My class was asked to create desert pictures to project as a backdrop for a show we're involved in. I had a few ideas but once I'd seen this doodle desert from The Lost Sock, I decided we had to try it! The Lost Sock post has step-by-step instructions which I roughly based my lesson on.

We started by discussing the 'Desert Song' which our art would be used for and drawing at least five repeating patterns on our mini-whiteboards. Children shared their pattern ideas and a lot of them associated their patterns with certain parts of the song - sand, wind, sun...

We then drew the main elements in pencil, with contour lines and concentric circles around the sun, and went over them in pen. It surprises me every time how difficult some children find drawing hills and circles! It was then on to the patterns!

At school we don't have permanent black pens so the Lost Sock technique of using markers with water wouldn't have worked. Instead we used coloured pencils and had a discussion about the colour wheel and blending different colours to add tone. The photo doesn't really do the colours in this picture justice.

Although the finished results turned out relatively similar, they are also all really effective and lots of learning went on in the process.

Symmetrical Sculptures

This project is from the autumn. In maths the children were learning about symmetry, a lot of them had also just got really into origami so this was the perfect lesson.

My only regret is that I only have photos of a couple pictures. Some were really creative and intricate, some found the folds more of a challenge or muddled up the symmetry by changing colours, but they all turned out fantastic!

Rather than give an explanation of how we did these, I would recommend a look at Art with Mrs Gram where she gives step-by-step instructions (complete with videos) and lots of examples (with much nicer coloured paper, it has to be said).