Spring Sheep Painting on Canvas

I have seen similar images on instagram, but no directions so thought I would post this lesson for anyone who wants to try it.

I really like the contrast of the warm colored background with the cool colors of the rest of the painting.  

It gives the art a nice energy and earthy feel with the orange under the green looking like the ground under the grass.  This is a great color mixing lesson, foreground to background,  and also highlights and shadows.

You will need:

8X10 Canvas or Watercolor Paper

Acrylic Paint:  Orange, green, blue, yellow, black and white

Brushes

Sponge dauber

Patterns if you want to use them

Here are the patterns for the sheep if you are teaching a group that would feel more confident using them.

If you want to teach it without the patterns a sheep is super simple to draw, an oval for the body, triangle for the head with long pointy sideways triangle ears.  The legs are a curved v.

I'm going to pre paint my students' canvases orange to save drying time.

Then they can sketch or trace their sheep and landscape layers.

 I'm going to have them paint their landscape first then add the sheep.

I used a flat rectangle brush and went up to the line I drew.  Then around the sheep.

For the next color I left a little orange between my next color and went up to the line again.

Then repeated this method.

The Bottom is just green from the bottle.

The Second layer adds yellow, not a whole lot but enough to look lighter.

The 3rd layer adds white to the green/yellow you mixed.

The top is a turquoise blue with a bit of cobalt blue and white.

I wanted the turquoise because it adds a little green.

After I get the layer of light blue on top (while it's still wet) I added some streaks of darker blues and also some white clouds.

After the background is dry (I used a blow dryer)

The sheep's wool is made with a sponge dauber.

Just use plain white and if you twist the sponge as you daub it make a woolly pattern.

I like to leave the edges fuzzy but the middle solid.

Next add a little blue to the white and add some blue shadows under the head and on the lower body with the round sponge.

These are the colors I mixed to get the lighter grey for the Sheep's black areas.

A little black goes a long way. I used a smaller pointy brush for the head and legs.

Now add some more white to the grey for highlights on the head and legs.

And finally just a little bit of plain white with a small brush to the lighter gray highlights.

This all adds depth to your composition.

Finally you can just draw the eyes, nose and mouth with a fine tip sharpie.

I did add two tiny white highlights to the eyes using a toothpick dipped in white paint.

A little about these very cute sheep, they are Scottish Blackface Sheep.  I left off the horns so mine is a youngster : )

Happy Spring!

Winter Snow Scene with Houses Using Acrylic White Paint Art Lesson

 

Supplies you will need:

White acrylic paint

Toothbrushes and paintbrushes

Blue paper

House shapes out of cardstock

Round sponge dauber

White colored pencil

Using shapes cut out of cardstock stick them where you choose with masking tape.  

You can just use squares and rectangles and paint the chimneys later.

Create the snow by pulling your finger across the bristles of the toothbrush with white paint on it.

Hold the brush close to the paper and put more splatters of snow where the houses are.

Create the moon in the sky with a sponge dauber.

Using a brush add the snow to the foreground and add the smoke to the chimneys.

Remove the taped down houses and add snow to the rooftops and chimney.  Add any other details you want like trees etc...

Now add the windows and doors to all the houses using the white pencils.

Great lesson that is pretty much foolproof for any age!

Here are a few examples of my students' work:

 Gingerbread Party - A Mixed Media Holiday Art Project

This is a fun project with lots of bright happy colors and festive decorated Gingerbread Cookies.

I'm going to have some gingerbread cookies on hand as a treat while we wait for them to dry!

You will need:

Watercolor paper

Watercolors (I use liquid watercolors)

Oil Pastels

White Acrylic paint

Glue sticks

First paint your cookies brown with watercolor paint.

I cut my cookies out of watercolor paper using a Cricut, but you can have cookie cutters on hand for them to trace and cut out also.

While those are drying we'll work on the background and come back to them later.

Next add your cookie sprinkles to the background using oil pastels.  Ask your students to do them nice and dark so they will resist the watercolor paint.

I thought it would be fun to have a festive background for the cookies, like a messy countertop with sprinkles.

Next the students will paint their background.  

I'm going to give them the choice of yellow, red/pink, green or blue.

They'll do a watercolor wash over the sprinkles.

Now these can be set aside to dry while we "Ice" the cookies.

I used white acrylic paint and a small brush.  For the dots I used a bamboo skewer dipped in paint and dotted onto the cookie.  Both sides are great, one for bigger dots and one for smaller dots.

When they have all their cookies decorated and dry they can glue them on the background.

Next we'll add the shadow around to cookie to give their art a little depth.  Help them choose a darker color oil pastel that compliments their colors but is also darker than the background.  They just trace around one side.  Whichever side they pick they need to do all the cookies the same.

For the yellow I used purple, complimentary colors, 

for the pink/red I used green, 

but for the blue I used dark blue instead of orange because I wanted a darker color than orange.

You could add other colors of icing to the gingerbread but I really like the contrast of the brown and white against the bright background, it really makes the POP!

After I teach this I'll post some photos of young artist creations!

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