Owl Mixed Media Art Lesson

   

I've been wanting to do an Owl Art Lesson for a while and Fall seemed like the perfect time.

 I'm going to use watercolor paper and black card stock,  watercolors, white acrylic and white chalk pastel.

To get the sizing right I'm going to give them a template with the outline of the owl to trace onto the watercolor paper.  This is 8 1/2 X 11" paper.  So if you print your own from the photo you have the size.

Once they have their "owltline" done they do the lines on the ear feathers.

Now from the bottom of the ear draw a line from each side meeting in a V in the middle.

Using a penny trace each eye with a little bit of the penny over the V.  It won't be a complete circle.

Begin the beak, but don't complete it yet.

Draw a curved line below the beak, then draw the curved lines from the V to meet with that curve under the beak.

Finish the beak.

Now create the large pupils in the Owl's Eyes.

Add the curved lines on the eyes next to the beak.

Now you can decorate however you want to create texture and feathers.

I began with a scalloped line under the face for the neck and added a wing.

Added another scalloped line to the top of the wing.

Added longer feathers under the line on the wing.  Now go over the pencil lines with Sharpie.

Now we are going to start adding color.  I use liquid watercolor which is very vibrant.

I want my students to begin with a warm fall color, orange,yellow or red.  Then use that color selectively on at least 3 parts of the owl.  

We will also look at my examples and talk about complimentary colors.

After doing the top of the head I mixed red and green to make a brown, trying to work fast to get a little wet into wet blending where the two colors meet.

Now add the other two areas with the warm color chosen.

For the front of the Owl we are going to do a wet into wet wash with the warm colors.

Since I have Yellow as my selected color I began my wash with orange.  If Orange was my selected color I would have chosen yellow or red to get a contrast.

The Eyes are the focus with the owl, I chose to do Orange and Yellow together. More brown for the beak.

Now we are going to choose the complimentary color for Yellow which is Purple to finish our base layer of watercolor.  Had we used Orange it would have been blue like my other example.  Red would have been green.

Using brown I added some feathers at the top of the head.  Using a dark blue more lines in the face to show the texture of feathers.

I added some more feathers with w shapes repeated in red on the front and brown and blue on the wings.

Before I teach this I'm going to show my students several ways to do feathers and they can choose how they want to do it.

Now add some highlights with white acrylic paint watered down.  On the face, top of the head, ears, beak and spots on the chest.  You can also add some brown spots.  I just used the tip of my brush to make the spots.

Finally, cut out your owl and put a moon on your black card stock with a chalk pastel, and smooth is around with your finger to create a glow around the edges.  Glue your owl to the black paper.  You can add stars or a tree etc...  But it is more dramatic with just the bright owl and moon.

Happy Fall!

1st-6th grade Owls

 Gyataku Art Lesson for all Ages and Abilities

Fish Prints using Japanese Calligraphy Ink, Banner Paper and Rubber Fish Molds

Gya means Fish and Taku means press or print.  This art form originated in Japan around 1870 as a way for sports fishermen to record the exact size and species of fish they had caught before the invention of photography.  Today, sports fishermen in Japan often display gyotaku as wall decorations in their homes, or they keep them as a sort of journal to document their success in the sport. Many Japanese fishing magazines hold contests each year for the largest fish caught for each species. The winners of these competitions are chosen from the gyotaku that were submitted.

In 1955, the Association of Gyotaku was formed, and the first exhibition was held at the Matsuya Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo. The first gyotaku exhibition held outside of Japan took place in 1956 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Supplies Needed:

Fish Mold

Black Ink

Lightweight paper such as Banner Paper or Rice paper

Colored Pencils

Background paper 

Glue and Scissors

After looking at examples of Gyataku printed with colorful ink I decided to try just using black ink, which dries very fast on the thin paper, then colored pencil over the ink.

Which ends up looking like it is under the ink.

First I put the fish molds on aluminum foil, then each artist covers the fish with ink using a brush.

I asked them to work quickly before the ink dries to get the best prints.

Also not to use too much ink, which will make the paper weak because it's too wet.

They need to carefully remove the paper because it sticks to the fish a little bit.

If the paper rips it's fine because they are glueing it onto a background paper.

Once they finish printing their fish and the ink is dry use the colored pencils to add bright colors, including layering colors.

Some artists cut an outline around their fish.  Others wanted just the white paper.

Others added an underwater scene for the fish to have an aquatic habitat.

I taught this to children, adults and Artists with Disabilities and they all did wonderful Gyataku!

What I liked was the simplicity of the one color of ink, but the colorful drawing over the top.  Easy to teach and easy to clean up!  Have Fun!

Grandma Moses Snowscape Art Lesson

 

I have always enjoyed the happy paintings done by Grandma Moses and it seemed like the perfect January art lesson.

I did add our bigger mountains and lake to make it more personal to where we live.

Grandma Moses' Art is a great way to introduce or reinforce Perspective and showing depth in art.

I used this video and also several images of her snowscapes to inspire my students.  We discussed what Folk Art is and also how amazing it is that she didn't start painting until later in life and became such a success.

We discussed the quote above and started with the sky, then the mountains, hills, houses etc...

I talked to them about how to make things looks closer or farther away, perspective.

They each had two pieces of paper, one for their final drawing and one to practice on.

There were a few key items I asked them to include:

Mountains or hills

Buildings

Fences

People

Trees 

They started drawing their background, mountains the then hills etc.. on their final paper.

We practiced drawing houses, small, medium and large, and where to put them in the snowscape.

The background, middle ground or foreground.

We tried different window shapes, different door shapes etc... on the practice paper.

Then they added buildings to their final drawing.

Then we did the same with trees, trees with leaves or evergreens and changing their size based on where they are in the snowscape.

We did a little practicing of drawing people and animals so they aren't stick figures on the practice paper.

Talked about what they wanted to put in their drawings - skaters, snowmen, skiers, farmers, horses, etc...

Then they added those to their final drawing.

At this point they were on their own to finish their snowscapes however they wanted.

We also discussed how to depict snow with soft lines and blue colored pencil on the white paper. 

I made sure to mention not to color the roofs of their buildings as they would be covered with snow.

Then I gave them the colored pencils to finish their drawings.

They came up with such charming and lively snowscapes!

I love them!

Fall Aspen Tree Art Lesson for Children, Step by Step

 Impressionist Aspen Trees In The Fall Elementary Art Lesson

I love how colorful these are - I took my inspiration from Artist Melissa McKinnon

The way she does the leaves and the rich colors are so appealing!

I showed my students her website and also talked about Impressionist Painting and Painters.

There are many ways to teach this on Pinterest etc..., but here is how I did it.

Materials Needed

2 sheets of watercolor paper

Watercolor paint in blue, yellow, orange and red

Acrylic paint in black, grey, brown, green, red, yellow and orange

Paintbrushes and sponge daubers

Scissors

Glue

Stiff mat board or cardboard rectangles

Begin by doing the trees so they can dry while you paint the background.

One really great thing about this lesson is there is no drawing involved.

Begin by making random small blobs of black and grey paint in a vertical line spaced apart however you choose.

Next take the mat board or cardboard and drag it along each line of paint blobs downward vertically to create the side of the tree trunk.

Work quickly so the paint doesn't dry and next drag the mat board or cardboard horizontally across each individual tree from top to bottom.  Not all the way across the paper but one tree at a time.  If the edge of the mat board becomes too covered with paint turn it and use another edge.  You don't want to have black trees, but white trees with black splotches.

Now set this aside to dry and get another piece of watercolor paper.

Next we are going to do a watercolor background.

I use liquid watercolor and demonstrate for the students.

Begin with loading your brush with blue paint and go all the way across your paper with the brush, when your brush starts to dry out add just water to the brush and go back over the blue some more leaving a wet edge.

Rinse the brush and add yellow, first with pigment only, and then with water and again leave a wet edge.

The beauty of watercolor is it will blend on the page, transitioning from blue to green to yellow.

Working quickly rinse and add orange and red in the same way.

Tilt your paper up and let the colors run together to get those lovely variations and blending of color.

Next dry this watercolor with a blow dryer or if you have time take a break and let it dry.

I explained to my students that the blue is the sky, yellow in the middle is leaves in the distance on the trees, and the orange and red are the leaves that have fallen to the ground.

Now cut your trees apart on the page of trees, you should be able to cut right down the middle of the black line on the edge to keep that black line on both trees.

I had the students arrange their trees to their satisfaction and then glue them to the background.

You can print some branches with the black paint and mat board if you have time.

Next are the leaves - this is a busy project!

I began by asking my students to start with brown or reddish brown first and do 10 dots on the lower part of the painting, balanced evenly. Mentioning these are the leaves that have fallen off the trees.

I was afraid if I turned them loose they would put the dots everywhere and not have room for the other colors, this worked out well.

Next we did red, then orange in the same manner.  I mentioned to be sure and put some orange near the top because blue and orange are complimentary colors.

Finally we did yellow and I told them they could do as many yellow as they wanted.

We added just a few green leaves at the end.

Here are my young artists Fall Masterpieces!

     Have fun Creating this joyful celebration of Fall!