Wayne Thiebaud Cakes with oil pastel - grade six

Wayne Thiebaud cake lesson plans are such a good bang for your buck. Have you seen his amazing cake paintings?

They translate so well to oil pastel lessons for junior level grades. You get some fundamental drawing skills, shading, blending, and a finished product that looks kinda 3D, and the entire thing can be accomplished in under one and a half hours! Since I am still on mat leave (only for another week!! Ugh) I've been getting my fill of art by volunteering with my friend's class, so I really need lessons that can be done in one shot, rather quickly but with a great payoff. 

I always begin projects like this with a group draw (think - paint night style.) I drew each step on the board, stopping to make sure that everyone was following along and making sure the lines were parallel. I can't stress how important this is! If they aren't parellel lines, the cake will look... not like a cake. Which just isn't fun when you're doing a cake project.

Next, students need to begin coloring and shading using oil pastel. I told them they could go crazy with as many layers as they wanted, but to remember that every layer needed to be colored in, so if they were super thin, they would have trouble keeping the lines clean.

Have them start by (1) coloring in each layer with a base color. Next, they will (2) blend using white oil pastel, going toward the center. Finally, they will (3) blend using black oil paste, going toward the center. I tell my students that they don't need to use fingers or kleenex to blend oil pastel, that just coloring on top of the color with the shade will blend it quite nicely. 

Once the layers are done, they can color the exterior of the cake. Using the same technique of coloring with the base layer first, students can blend the black and white oil pastels coming from the edges and going in toward the center of the cake. 

The top can be colored with an all over color, and students can decorate it using candles, candies, and anything else they can dream up!

The final step is the add-ons - a plate, a table, some cake shadowing. 

Some kids went ahead and did wallpaper designs, which just took the project up a notch. Depending on how much time you have, there can be a lot of creativity here!

I love this lesson. It would be great  to leave with a substitute. You could even link them to this page and just have them follow the steps. Easy peasy!

Have you tried this activity? If so, please link me in the comments!

Grade six unity/collaborative candy

 This is the third collaborative art project that I have done with a class. The first time, I did collaborative crayons with my grade 5/6class. Next, I tried collaborative snakes with grades 4/5. I was so excited to try another one with my grade 6 art class. This time, however, instead I decided that we would study...candy! I made templates for lollipops and candy corn (templates are ESSENTIAL for collaborative art – the drawings must be the same size to maintain the look of unity.)

We used the same process as in the projects before. It took my students roughly two 50 minute periods to finish these. They look incredible running down the hallway!

In case you were curious about the display board - for my first project of the year, my class did the optical illusion collages I posted a couple of weeks back. They were the perfect project to start the year!

Roosters inspired by roosters inspired by Le Coq

The title isn't a mistake - these roosters aren't inspired by Picasso's Le Coq - they are inspired by a project another teacher did inspired by Picasso's Le Coq. Make sense? I saw this project here, and fell in love with the last little rooster - the simply colored one giving the thumbs up. The original poster did this project with grades 5/6, but I figured it would work well with my grade 3/4s. It was a great project because it let them draw something adorable and creative, and they had the freedom to put their own twist on it. Pastels on black paper were the perfect medium for this project. Love it!

Unity/collaborative art - snakes! Grades 4/5

One of my favorite projects so far this year was the collaborative crayon art that I did with my grade 5/6 class. They were a huge success, and I really wanted to do something similar with my grade 4/5 group. I thought about what shape would work for a long, collaborative piece and finally came up with... snakes!w

I followed the exact same procedure as I did last time, except for this project, I gave students a tracer for the head only. With the crayons, it was more important that the shapes all be consistent, but since Snakes come in many different shapes and sizes, I figured the students would be fine to create the body shapes on their own.

These projects are unfortunately impossible to photograph, but rest assured, it looks absolutely beautiful in the classroom!

I have many, many updates I am going to try and get underway this weekend.. I'm so behind, and have so much I'd like to share!

Scream! - grade 3/4

About a week ago, I found this project on Pinterest and was so inspired that I decided to do it the next day with my grade 3/4 class.

The idea for this art project was to do a quirky portrait using pastels, with a focus on shading the face using unusual colors (such as pinks, oranges, greens.) Students would make their person look frightened by blowing watercolor paint with a straw to make the hair appear as though it were standing on end.

When the class came in, I had my example up on the board. Immediate, the boys started cheering "EXPLODING BRAINS!!" and it caught on like wildfire. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I kept repeating, "It's NOT exploding brains. The person is SCARED and his HAIR is standing up!" My students would reply, "Ya, and then his BRAINS EXPLODED!!"

This worried me. I certainly don't want to send students home saying "look at the exploding brains we did with our art teacher!" Not really the impression I want to give parents. But on the other hand, I can't exactly tell students not to interpret art how they want to. They were totally excited about this project, the boys more so than I've ever seen them. But they weren't seeing the drawing how I wanted them to see it.

I wasn't prepared to just abandon the project, especially since I thought it was a great lesson in portrait drawing, and I was excited to see their finished projects. I finally decided that they could view this project however they wanted, but they must remember that my intentions were crazy hair. 

By the end of the class, we had it down:

Me: What are we working on today?

Kids: ...crazy hair...

Me: What do you THINK we're working on, in your HEAD?

Kids: EXPLODING BRAINS!!

Me: But what is it that we're working on??

Kids: Crazy hair.

In the end, I think the results are stunning, hair or brains or however you choose to see it. It's hard to relinquish that control and let students see their art how they want to, no matter how in counteracts my original plans.

If you're curious about the process, students spent the first class period drawing their portrait. They traced it in Sharpie, then colored it in in oil pastels. We talked a lot about the facial shading, about where the lines would typically be found on the face, and how to blend them into their face color. I encouraged students to pick crazy colors, not worrying about their picture looking "realistic."

During the second class, students finished up coloring with pastels, then used straws and paint to make the hair. I used acrylic pucks in single pallets, so that we could add a bunch of water. Students then scooped from the watery sides using a paintbrush, and dropped it onto their drawing.

 

The funniest thing about this picture is that this student is blatantly wearing a hat and I didn't even notice! I'm just the worst with that. My husband wears a hat all the time and I am just so used to them that they barely even register for me anymore. (I also find this boy's hat super cute!)

What do you guys think of this project? How do you interpret it - brains, or hair?

 

Catching Snowflakes - grade 3

As you may have noticed, my past few projects have been decidedly winter themed, but I can't help it - today it was close to minus 40 with the windchill! I feel like I am just completely surrounded by winter and cold and snow right now, and it's definitely affecting my choice of art projects.

I originally saw this idea as a collage on artsonia but decided to have my grade 3's do them with pastels instead, just to get them drawing and coloring. They began by drawing the face (with the little button nose on top) then drew the scarf and body. Following that, they added in more details, such as the mouth, the hair, and the sweater pattern.

It just kills me how cute these are. I love the scraggly hair, I love the patterned sweaters, and I love the little teeth. They're just adorable.