Glue-Line Relief Pumpkins

     This is my fall go-to lesson that I have been using every year.  Typically I don't repeat lessons year after year because as an artist, I'm always looking for something new and fresh to use in my classroom.  However, I just LOVE how these drawings turn out and they look FABULOUS on the walls for a little fall decor.
     4th graders learned about depth perception and overlapping while creating these spooky pumpkins.  I like the effect of chalk on dark paper, so we started with a black sheet of paper.  The students drew the first pumpkin with a pencil right in the middle.  Next, they drew the two side pumpkins a little bit smaller and behind the first one to show depth and overlapping.  They traced over the pencil lines with a line of glue and waited a week for the glue to dry.  The next class, they colored inside the spaces with chalk pastels (VERY messy, btw) and cleaned up their drawing by wiping off the glue relief line, which is now a black line.  Here are a few completed works of art:

Mary Jane's Pumpkins

 

Grace's Pumpkins

Devan's Pumpkins

Metal Tooling & Window Markers

Let me be honest, I haven't done metal tooling since I was in college.  Mainly because of the expense of the metal itself and the expense of permanent markers to add color to the metal.   But guess what I discovered?  Crayola makes window markers that come in 8 fabulous colors and these not only work on windows, but they also work on metal (or any slick surface that would not normally accept water-based art supplies).  Ta-Da!!!