Klimt Trees

    What does an Art Teacher do when she needs a moment of sanity?  She brings out the Metallic Markers of course!  Let's face it, it's the end of the year...kids are losing their attention to detail, they are tired of being here, and need some sparkle & shine!  And let me tell you... IT WORKED FABULOUSLY!  These 6th graders were peaceful & fully engaged in the project for the entire HOUR!  I deserve an award for this monumental idea!  In fact, I think all teachers should break out the metallic pens and pencils for the remainder 4 weeks of school and these kids will do their work, be excited about it, and will be eager to learn (hahaha).

Metallic Winter Trees

I know tree silhouettes tend to be overdone from time to time.  But...I just think they're beautiful!  I also think they are one of the most simple things to draw with the most beautiful results.  So, I gave each one of my 6th graders a 6x8" piece of paper and showed them how using line variations and overlapping the lines can be quite easy.  Next, the amazing part came.  I let them each use a SILVER MARKER!  They were very excited and tried extra hard so their drawings would turn out just beautiful.  After we colored in the trees & added falling snow, the students used watercolor right over the marker drawings.  I told them they could 1 color + black so it looked like nighttime.  Here are a few examples:

 India's Tree

 Christopher's Tree

 Alex's Tree

Gabe's Tree

Tree Silhouettes

My amazing 6th graders created these beautiful paper tree silhouettes.  I showed them how to use the Portfolio water soluble oil pastels by drawing on their paper using lines that express rhythm and movement and spreading the color around their paper with a wet paintbrush.  We talked about the color wheel and which colors will mix well together and which ones will look like 'mud' when mixed.  The students chose what time of day they wanted to depict and which colors would best represent that particular time of day.  While their paper was drying, we started to draw the trees.  This is a difficult task to draw branches using lines that overlap, show thickness/thinness, and are connected together.  Here are some of the finished projects:

Fall Landscape Reflections

For this project, I must have been hopped up on caffeine to be able to complete it in the allotted hour time-frame.  First of all, I had to set out oil pastels, watercolors, watercolor brushes, acrylic paint, acrylic brushes, and paper towels for each student...whew.  But, the results are so stunning, I felt like it was well worth the extra effort on my part.  Here were the steps:
1.  Fold the paper to create the horizon.  2. Draw the clouds with the white oil pastel, the tree trunks with the brown oil pastel, and the water waves with the blue oil pastel.  3. Use watercolor paint to paint the sky and the water.  4.  Use the acrylic paint to 'dab' the foliage on the trees.  5.  Re-fold the paper to make the reflection in the water.  6.  Use a slightly wet watercolor brush to make short horizontal brushstrokes in the reflection to make it look like water.

I worked while the students did so they could follow one step at a time and see how quickly they needed to work to move on to the next step.  Here are some finished paintings:

 Zalyn's Landscape

Tyler's Landscape

Ra'jai's Landscape

 Kayla's Landscape