Trends Modern Art

I did one of my first Day of the Dead art workshops of the season last week. It was so much fun! Sometimes I forget how amazing it is to teach art to children.

Some of you may be thinking, really? Are you trying to pull my leg?

No, I'm being totally serious.

There is something about creating art and working with children who have uninhibited creativity. They are very free, unafraid to take risks--they really lose themselves in their art! All that energy is contagious.

Sadly, adults aren't like that at first. It really takes a while for people to let go of themselves.

Anyhow, I was reminded of this fact this week. I taught a simple Day of the Dead art lesson to a group of awesome third graders, one of which was my son Cyan. I shared a brief history on how they celebrate this day in Mexico, we read a really cool children's book about the subject (which really made me have a thought--more on this later) and then we got to work creating our own sugar skulls with oil pastels. My son's amazing teacher even let us listen to the Lila Downs Pandora station, so we could really get the whole Dia de los Muertos vibe going.

The kids drew, colored, were very inquisitive and I got the chance to road test my Day of the Dead Activity pages that I posted about a couple weeks ago. They loved all of the cool shapes. The punk rocker was a fave, so was the large sugar skull. As a thank you, the teacher gave me some really pretty jade-ite skull earrings. So sweet.

Each one was so unique!

Love the bright blue around the eyes.

Markers on the Sugar Skull template looked like so much fun, I wanted to join in!

The punk rocker was in high demand.

Working hard at creating art.

The school girl calavera coloring sheet.

The teacher hung all of our creations on the classroom wall and it looked amazing!

Everyone used the same template yet they all came out very distinct and colorful.

Still wondering what to do with your students on Day of the Dead? Grab your Day of the Dead Activity book or come back on November 2nd when I'll have a really cool Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera calavera collage for you to share with your classroom!

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is quickly approaching on November 2nd.

Of course, as a Mexican folk artist and teacher, this is my favorite time of the year! I love everything about it--the cool night air that Fall brings, the smell of copal (incense) burning,  the sweet sound of rattling shells on the ankles of the Aztec dancers and the colorful sights of the altars, the sugar skulls, the face painting....and of course, the artwork.

I am so excited!

My kids are equally excited about this day because I usually have an art activity planned for them, in addition to the other activities of the night. There are so many interesting and exciting aspects about this day, culturally and artistically--it's so much more than "Mexican Halloween".  It's a holiday steeped in tradition and every year its influence spans wider and wider.

In response to the demand, I've decided to create an activity plan to share Day of the Dead on the interwebz. It is perfect for the classroom--whether it be a traditional public school classroom, the charter school hybrid,  private school or a group of homeschoolers. It's suitable for all ages, and it's supported by twelve quality links for you to explore.

What makes this activity plan different from others you've seen is that I've created six custom coloring pages for teachers to share with their classroom. That's right, I've infused my own Day of the Dead style of art into these coloring sheets and they can be used in a variety of ways and incorporated into several art lessons for your students.

When you order this 10-page activity plan, you'll receive:

• Summary of the origins of Day of the Dead
• Vocabulary words
• Six unique black and white calavera coloring sheets that you are free to reproduce as many times as you wish*
• You can choose from a Frida Kahlo calavera, a dancing couple, a punk rocker, skulls with roses, a school girl and a large sugar skull (which you can use as a template to create a mask).
• In addition to several other ideas for you to celebrate this holiday with your students, there are 12 interesting and educational links for you to explore.

I can't wait for you check out my activity pages! The image above is a sneak peak of the first page. My own children have been coloring them with markers for days now and they are really enjoying all of the organic designs, especially the punk rocker and the Frida Kahlo calavera.

*All images on the activity pages are meant solely for personal use and use in the classroom. Do not reproduce for sale in any form.

I've always wanted to try and create a project that had a batik effect. I love the look of batik, the way little cracks of the wax create a very unique design on the fabric. No two batik designs are the same.

I've learned the actual batik technique back in college, with the hot wax and dye baths. It was so fun and amazing. I still have them floating around my house. I think I wanted to build a career in batik but then reality set in and I figured I really couldn't do much with a degree in batik, you know? Heh.

So I wanted to try something with my students that is way less complicated than hot wax and dyes but would sort of give the same effect, using a wax resist technique.

• Finding the right kind of paper is key. You don't want to use a thick watercolor paper because when you get to the crumbling step, it will rip and tear in the sharp edges. And you don't want to use a super flimsy piece of paper because it won't stand up to all the oil pastel you will put on it. I settled on some Canson (student grade) watercolor paper. Choose whatever size you'd like. We used a 9 X 12 size sheet due to time issues, but I think a larger size would be more interesting visually.
• Most students will want to use a pencil to sketch out their design. Just encourage them to use light strokes. I found that drawing organic, natural shapes (round, large and wavy) worked best with the batik technique.
• Be sure to instruct students to allow space in between each shape. This white part of the paper will mimic the effect of the wax in the traditional technique. It's very important that they leave a space in between their shapes.
  
• When the students begin to color in their shapes, make sure they are pressing down with the oil pastel crayon. This will ensure that their colors remain vibrant and true. They should use a variety of colors, but using monochromatic color scheme will look great, too.
• Once their entire sheet of paper has been filled in and colored, have each student crumble up their paper slowly. Some students will really get into it and crumble it up and abuse the process, but make them do the crumbling softly, or else they will rip their paper.
  
• The students should straighten out their crumbled paper. Repeat the process. The goal is make cracks in the oil pastel because this is whats going to give it the wax resist look and feel.
• Flatten out the piece of paper as best you can. You might want to have your students lay their paper under a heavy book or their heavy school folder for a few minutes while you read them a story about batik.
• Now they are ready for the next step: watercolor. I used a very light gray watercolor in my example, and for some reason it didn't really show up in the scan of the image. You could use black, which makes for a very dramatic effect. Dark blue works well, too. The watercolor will seep onto the non-colored parts of your design.
  
• Lay out your batik-inspired designs to dry.
  
• As the watercolor dries, you will begin to notice how the watercolor has seeped into the fine little cracks of oil pastel, creating a really cool batik effect.

I created the design above as an example for my 3rd-6th grade students.

Hello, fellow art lovers! A few months have passed. I had a great summer doing absolutely nothing! And now, in the thick of the Fall semester, I've been slammed with schoolwork and projects to keep up with. My art classes have changed somewhat, although I still have quite a few projects I'd like to share. I'm now teaching about the Renaissance era, specifically the great masters.

Can I get a snooze button?

No seriously, after you've studied the Modern Art masters and all the fabulous, visionary, amazing art these artists created, the "Mona Lisa" seems a little plain. However, I understand the importance of learning foundational subjects. And without Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", we might not have gotten a Picasso "Weeping Woman". So there you have it, this is where I am right now.

I was inspired by this project over at Art Projects for Kids a few months ago. So the students and I delved into studying the artist Jim Dine. He was an artist that found a icon--the heart-- and then explored it for many years, in several different incarnations and mediums. We artists are funny like that. This project requires watercolors, oil pastels and rubber cement.

• Hand out a 9 X 12 sheet of watercolor paper. You are going to need something sturdier than drawing paper as you will be creating a watercolor resist painting and it needs to hold up.
  
• Encourage students to draw a pattern using hearts. They can be repetitive shapes, overlapping, formed in a grid pattern. You may even want to create several heart templates, for those students who need some help with their drawing skills. The templates will provide them with the confidence to lay their design down.
• As usual, encourage students to be neat about their sketches, making sure not to shade with the graphite.
• They should then color with their oil pastels. There is a rule in Mrs. Pearmama's art class: thou shall press down hard when using oil pastels. None of this feather light coloring in my classroom! These are oil pastels, not cheap crayons! Encourage your students to blend their oil pastels and create interesting patterns with their colors.
  
• The students then painted a light watercolor wash over their drawing. At first, they are very reluctant to paint directly over their freshly created oil pastel drawing. But then they discover that the oil pastels resist the watercolor.
• Have all students take a turn by the hair dryer to dry their watercolor washes.
  
• Once they're dry, hand out small bowls of rubber cement. I have a favorite brand, but imagine my surprise when I opened up the 16 oz. can to find that they don't provide a brush attached to the lid like the smaller cans do. That said, you will need to designate a few cheaps brushes that you don't mind throwing away after this project.
• Have your students brush on the clear rubber cement over their drawing, making sure not to leave behind any clumps. Teach them to use flowing strokes.
  
• The rubber cement dries fairly quickly and is slightly stinky. Make sure you have fans blowing and/or windows and doors to your classroom open.
• Lastly, students are to paint another watercolor wash in a contrasting color over the entire paper once again.
• There you have it, a watercolor resist painting a'la Pop artist Jim Dine.

The artwork above was created by a third grader.

The artist Vincent Van Gogh has provided us art teachers with a wealth of styles and techniques. I had many great aspirations to have the students create sunflowers with actual seeds, black beans, etc. But when I thought about it, I decided to work with oil pastels because the rich color and texture would mesh well with Van Gogh's Impressionist style. I went out and bought a big, beautiful sunflower so we would have an actual still-life to work with. And of course, what is a Van Gogh lesson without the students asking if he really cut off his ear..and was he really crazy?

So I always tell them...he only cut off the lobe...and yes, he was really crazy. How else would be have created such works of art? Surely a sane mind couldn't produce quite the same caliber of work.

We artists, we're crazy! Teehee

• This is a lesson that takes almost zero preparation, but yields a great result.
• As always, show students examples of the artists' body of work, so they have a grasp of what the artist is about. I have several large Van Gogh books that were passed down to me by my uncle, who was a modern art lover as well.
• I set up a still life with the giant sunflower in a humble little vase and handed out a 9 X12 piece of drawing paper or Bristol board.
• Instruct the students to lightly pencil sketch the still life.
• When they are ready to start coloring, encourage them to use a little bit of pressure, to release the oil pastel's rich color.
• I gave students the liberty to be creative with their vases, so they didn't come out the same.
• As a final touch, I had each student sign their vase, just like Van Gogh did.
• As always, I was impressed with each students take on the sunflower.

The artwork above was created by a third grader.

Edvard Munch's painting is one of those very recognizable works, akin to Van Gogh's A Starry Night and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Everyone knows "The Scream". So what I did was bring the image to class and we had a roundtable discussion about how Munch's work of art made us feel. Munch was an Expressionist, and his purpose was to express a certain feeling, an emotion to the viewer. So I asked the students how it made them feel. It was unanimous, no one wanted this painting hanging in their bedrooms--they said it wasn't scary, but it made them uncomfortable.

That said, I think Munch made his point. "The Scream" makes you feel something, even if you don't know exactly what that is--it's still an unpleasant feeling. So our goal for the project was to create their own "Scream". This is one of those projects where the emphasis is on the idea behind the artwork, as opposed to technique.

• Hand out 9 X 12 sheet of drawing paper or Bristol board.
• Let students lighting sketch their design. We began by creating a horizon line, then there was a short lesson on perspective before students drew their bridge. I gave the students liberty as to how their main figure should look.
• I love oil pastels because they are so versatile. Students can use them in a similar way as crayons, they can also apply some pressure and blend so gives it a painted effect.
• After the students colored in their backgrounds, I had them outline in black, to give the colors a chance to pop.

The artwork above was created by a third grader.

Joan Miró is one of my all-time favorite artists. Wait. I say every artist is my all-time fave, don't I? LOL But this abstract artist from Spain really is. I love his carefree, child-like style, his colors. They just make you feel good looking at it. I've long wanted to interpret Miró 's abstract style, and this project was alot of fun. I incorporated an assemblage technique, just to give the students something tactile to work with.

• Make sure to bring some of Miró's artwork to show to the students, so they can get a better idea of Miró and his abstract style. This is such an important step in teaching modern art. Its hard to understand and/or visualize the concepts so being able to look at each artist's work is imperative.
• Hand out 9 X 12 sheets of watercolor paper and make sure each student has a palette with 2-3 different watercolors.
• It's important that the student use a large watercolor brush, to give the background an appearance of washed color, as Miró did.
• Encourage them to blend their watercolors nicely because this is the first layer that we will be creating our assemblage on.
• Once they are finished painting, bring out the trusty hairdryer so the projects can be done within the hour. No one likes to watch paint dry!
• Once it is dry, encourage students to draw abstract shapes with oil pastels. They can also cut interesting shapes out of scrapbooking paper.
• Once students have laid out their abstract design, they can add their final touch, which really brings a graphic punch to the project.
• Black yarn! Of course, students could have used a black oil pastel or a black Sharpie, but I though using a spool of black yarn would be fun!
• Each student created designs with a bottle of elmer's glue (just supervise them carefully or they will get glue happy and create a mess!), then carefully placed their black yarn on top of it, snipping off the end with a pair of scissors.

The artwork above was created was a third grader.

Wayne Thiebaud is an American artist associated with the Pop movement and he was famous for his paintings of cafeteria-style food. He used heavy pigment and lots of repetition in his artwork. I thought it would be fun for my students to draw some whimsical ice cream cones they could create with whatever color they desired.

• Hand out 9 X12 sheets of drawing paper.


• Make sure everyone has their own pencil and oil pastels. Oil pastels are great because their color is so rich and bright and the consistency is just a giant crayon!


• Encourage the students to color in their entire drawing, making sure to press down with the oil pastel so that the color is vivid and looks finished.


• The students can use multiple colors, they can create patterns and outline their backgrounds.


• Instruct students how to blend with oil pastels.


• Everyone had fun creating their own flavors and toppings.

It is nice to finally introduce American artists to my students. Jasper Johns emerged as a contemporary artist in the 1950's. He is most known for his usage of classic iconography such as flags, targets, and maps. He liked to use everyday objects such as numbers and letters and elevate them to art.

I thought it would be good to get away from all the abstract artists we've spent time studying that was prevalent in the modern art world and focus on an artist whose work is more literal. Johns is one of those artists whose work commands millions of dollars. And as an artist with a spouse who is also a working artist, it makes me feel very good to know there were artists who went before us who were successful in their craft. A nice change from the whole starving artist story we are all so familiar with.

For this project, I brought lots of books about Jasper Johns so they could get a good look at his artwork. Many of the students were pleased to discover the had seen some of his work, specifically his American flag paintings. For this project, we focused on his painting titled, Numbers in Color.

• Hand out 9 X 12 sheets of drawing paper, rulers and oil pastels. Also, make sure students have pencils to sketch with.
• Instruct each student to measure out a grid of eight squares on their paper.
• Within each square, students should lightly sketch their numbers. Encourage them to be creative with their shapes. They do not have to be confined to traditional number shapes. They can make them as organic and/or geometric as they want.
• When students are ready to begin coloring with the oil pastels, teach them to use contrasting colors within each square, perhaps create an outline around their numbers, they can create a pattern of some sort, or they can blend two colors together.
• In other words, let their imagination go wild!

I was very pleased at the outcome of this project. Everyone created their own unique design, no two looked alike. For the younger children, it was fun to experiment with new number shapes and patterns. The students are also becoming familiar with the oil pastels, so they are trying their hand at blending two different shades.

The artwork above was created by a middle schooler.

My posting will be a little bit slow during the holiday season, since we are on vacation and we haven't done any new projects. But after the first of the year, this place should be bumpin' again. Until then, I leave you with this, an oil pastel Modigliani self-portrait that one of my junior high students created. I love when I have a student in class that shows so much promise. He really gets it.

Projects like these make it really fun to be an art teacher!

I think this has to be one of my favorite projects we did this semester. I couldn't resist showing a couple more of what I think were the best projects in class. Both of these were created by 14 year-old homeschooled students.

Oh em gee. It's been a while since I posted something. But don't be troubled...I have lots of goodies up my sleeve.

Kandinsky! A wonderful artist from Russia who created art of pure abstraction. He was inspired by things such as jazz music and nature and from that inspiration stemmed creations that held no definitive subject matter or logical reasoning. Just color, shape, line, movement and feeling...Abstraction Expressionism was born.

I decided to focus on Kandinsky's Squares with Concentric Rings. This is a fun project that doesn't entail alot of planning and supplies and the best part--it's not as messy as painting. Don't mind me, that is just a tender spot for me today....after painting in a classroom with fifteen elementary school kids and no sink nearby--no fun!

• Hand out 9 X12 sheet of drawing paper, canson paper or poster board. You will also need glue sticks, oil pastels and scrapbooking paper squares in multiple colors.
• Instruct the students to glue down six squares in a grid of three across. The squares should be the same uniform size and they should vary in color.
• Get to tearing! That's right, we tore the scrapbooking paper into rough looking circles. No scissors involved in this project. They should tear smaller circles to fit in the larger circle and then get sequentially smaller.
  
• Each square should have at least three circles on it, varying in size and color.
• Glue them all down on the paper, creating interesting patterns of color and shape.
• After circles are glued down, the students can use 2-3 different oil pastel colors and make contrasting circle shapes on top of their collages.

This was one of those projects where I could have just sat there for days, tearing scrapbooking paper and enjoying life. The students enjoyed it and it was fun to see the uniqueness of each project, given the parameters.

When I lived in East L.A., I would often hang out in South Pasadena. The beautiful Norton Simon Museum of Art is right off of Colorado Blvd. and it was a frequent destination of mine. They have an Amedeo Modigliani in their permanent collection. His elogated portraits of women with deep, soulful colors never ceased to fascinate me.

I knew that I would have to give the students clear instructions on how to lay out their portrait, to give them the look I was going for. So what I did was take a ruler and drew a few quick dotted lines to direct the little artists so they could have a few guidelines as to where they should draw their head and neck, to give it the full elongated effect. While in class, this proved to be a huge timesaver (we only have 45 minutes to complete the project) and left us with plenty of time to sketch and color.

• Pass out black 9 X 12 construction paper or black drawing paper.
• Instruct the students to draw their head in the top half of the page, which should be 3/4 down from the top. The chin should be right on the dotted line. This will insure that their portrait has that long quality.
• Once the children have sketched their head and neck, instruct them to complete all of their features. I gave them the choice of drawing themselves or another person they knew.
• Give students oil pastels (woooo--I'm really getting serious use of those oil pastels) and have them color their portraits til their heart's content.
• Encourage students to color the background as well, to give it another dimension.

The artwork above was created by a second grader.

Last week I decided to share my love (read: obsession) of Frida Kahlo and her self-portraits. On a recent trip to San Francisco to see a large collection of her work at sfmoma, I realized just why she painted so many portraits. It wasn't because she thought she was beautiful or interesting. She painted bowls of fruit or portraits of other people to make money to pay for her mounting doctor bills. She assumed people would not care to pay for her intensely personal paintings. During the times after her many surgeries and when her body was giving way, she was confined to her bed. That was where she painted self-portraits to the point where she perfected her own face.

I wanted to teach the students how powerful color could be to convey emotion. So we embarked on a self-portrait project, splitting the portrait down the middle. One side is their happy, "crazy" side with warm, bright colors. The other is calm, serene side with cool colors.

• Make sure students have a 9 X 12 piece of white paper and a pencil.
• Pass out circle templates and instruct them to draw their own heads. I've found that making them use templates keeps them away from drawing little pinheads.
• Once they have drawn their features, have them draw a line down the center.
• Some of the kids got confused as to what was a cool color and what was a warm color but I think they understood the overall principle.
• We fun with this project. I know I did because I got to talk about Frida Kahlo!

The artwork above was created by a 5th grader.

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November first and second. I really hate when I hear people call it a "Mexican Halloween". That couldn't be farther from the truth. It is a tradition that can be traced as far back as the Aztecs. To put it simply, it is a time to remember your loved ones that have gone on before you. Some people honor their deceased with altars and ofrendas, or offerings. This is where people get really creative. They decorate it with cempasúchitl, or marigolds...favorite things like toys (for little children) or their favorite drinks, food, pictures, artwork, music. Even pillows and blankets are laid out for their loved ones to be comfortable on their long journey.

Jose Guadalupe Posada was a well-known Mexican engraver and illustrator. His work has long been associated with Dia de los Muertos and it is what inspired me to begin this project. It's something I did at home with my children since the co-op we belong too doesn't observe any non-Christian holidays. And that is fine with me. We had alot of fun doing this at home.

• You will need a 9 X 12 sheet of black paper. Construction paper or poster board will do. I preferred the construction paper because it had a little bit of texture to it.
• Allow kids to sketch lightly with a pencil. I worked on my own sugar skull alongside them so they were able to get an idea of how to draw it.
• Pass out oil pastels and encourage kids to create unique shapes and designs in the background.
• When they are finished coloring it in, instruct kids to outline in black oil pastel. This makes the colors pop.
• Color pencils could be used on top of the oil pastels to create even more depth of line and shapes.
  

The artwork above was created by a fifth grader.

Henri Rousseau was an artist who painted in the late early 1900's. He was famous for his dream-like depictions of jungles and wildlife. Ironically, he did not paint these scenes from nature or from experience. Everything he painted, he studied from illustrations in books. In I am Legend with Will Smith, he had a collection of Modern Art paintings from the deserted Museum of Modern Art, and Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy was hanging in his home during one of the scenes. That kinda stuff makes me happy.

Rousseau's painting, Surprised! Tropical Storm with a Tiger inspired this simple project of a tiger coming out from the foliage of the jungle. They students were really excited about learning how to draw wildlife. What was really cool was how we went through the drawing in steps, yet they all came out with their own unique style.

• Prepare a circle template for the tiger's head made out of cardboard (make several if you have lots of students).
• Hand out 9 X 12 drawing paper, Bristol board or poster board.
• With pencil, have students trace the circle template for the tiger's head.
• Next, they are to draw the body and details of the tiger's face.
• Lastly, they should draw a few scattered leaves around the tiger. One of my students drew a large leaf that covered one of the tiger's eyes. It was genius!
• When the students have finished drawing their details, pass out oil pastels in several shades of orange and yellow, white, black, green and blue.
• Be sure to instruct the students to color with a firm hand, to make oil pastel colors pop.
• Trace edges with a black oil pastel. Don't forget your tiger's whiskers!
  

The artwork above was created by a 4th grader.

Gustav Klimt is one of my favorite artists of all time. I love his decorative, Art Nouveau style. His lush pattern and use of gold leaf made his artwork seem ornamental in nature. But Klimt was a master and what he created took a huge amount of artistic skill.

Drawing inspiration from Klimt's "Golden Phase", which is marked by his use of gold leaf, we attempted our own Adele Bloch-Bauer using an array of mixed mediums. I will admit I got really carried away while I worked on the sample (on the left). It was so much fun using the gold and creating patterns.

This project takes some preparation. I had to scour fashion magazines (finally, a use for all those InStyle mags I have laying around) and cut out images of women's bodies. Then so the children wouldn't giggle uncontrollably (some of the images were very provocative) and spend the entire hour cutting out the shapes, I did a basic cut and ended up with a pile of bodies cut from the waist up. Then I had my helpers give everyone a magazine cut-out as they sat down in their seat. This way there wasn't the chaos of everyone clawing at the one they wanted. I did, however, let them trade with others at their table.

• Hand out 9 X12 Bristol board, illustration board or poster board.
• Pass out scissors so the students can trim the arms from their magazine cut-out. They should have three pieces, two arms and one head. Then they can glue their collage down on paper.
• Once it's been glued, let students do a quick sketch for the placement of their gown and a few pattern shapes.
• Students should be given a variety of mediums such as, oil pastels, prismacolor pencils, and gold tissue paper. All areas of the paper should be filled in.
• Encourage students to create pattern and organic shapes with the color pencils on top of the oil pastels. You can create some really cool designs that way.
• The gold prismacolor pencils were in high demand, so make sure you buy enough to go around.
• The effect of the magazine cut-out and the bright colors and patterns came out really cool!