Color Theory Leaf Paintings

I've been working on different ways for my 5th grade students to collaborate in the art room. We discuss how every child's work has value, and how all of us contributing to a larger creative effort can be a powerful thing. Since I am part time I also find that it helps to assure my presence in the school communities and to make our displays even more impressive. Gotta advocate for the arts! 

Quite a while ago I read about these fantastic color theory leaf paintings on a blog titled Art to the Moon & Back, by Linda Limbach. I thought it was a great way to make a color theory painting more interesting, to allow for choice in the painting, and to create a collaborative mural. Plan for several class periods to create these pieces.

For the first class, I took a walk around my neighborhood to see how many different kinds of leaves I could find, and brought some examples to share with my students. I also made a reference sheet to have available at each table. We talked about organic shapes, symmetry, serrated and smooth edges, and variety in color and size.

  Then each student drew a leaf shape in pencil on 12x16 paper. It could be a realistic shape like the ones we discussed, or they could create an original creation. The only rules were that it had to take up as much of the paper as possible, and that the stem of the leaf should e included, but drawn as a large shape to be able to paint inside of it. Also, if they were going to create a serrated edge, I suggested keeping it simple and stylized to be successful in cutting out their final painting at the end of the unit.

 

We then divided our leaves into 12 sections. Depending on the design, students either split the leaf down the center first, or did so without including the stem. So on the leaf above, there are six sections on the left, and five on the right, and the stem makes the twelfth. On the oak leaf below, a line was drawn down the center of the entire leaf, and six sections were made on each side. Then students reviewed the color wheel, and named each section along the outside in order, beginning at any point of the leaf they wished. The lines at this point are drawn in the biggest permanent markers you have on hand! And students can even redraw the lines thicker for the main outline, so they will have a generous area of black for the final trimming.

Inside each of the sections we then used a fine point Sharpie to create 4 more areas. There should be a variety of approaches to creating the four smaller sections. In the leaf above, I showed that the easiest way to divide up the stem is with an X. I also explained how the section with the ovals has only three, but the background area counts as a fourth section. Now that the color wheel is completely drawn, the goal is to fill each section of the leaf with the color, and a tint, shade, and tone of that color.

The area around the outside of the leaf can be messy, as you can see. This works for many reasons. First, their color wheel is labeled around the outside, so they don't forget or repeat a color. Their name, class, and table is listed at the top. This is great for pulling pieces from the drying rack and sorting them easily. I also find that many times I have the children write their names on the back of their projects, but when they are on the front I have a prompt for remembering each child's name, their artwork, and its progress. This makes it a great unit for the beginning of the year. And lastly, students can test a mixed color on the outer edge of the paper. Sometimes there is concern over whether a tint is light enough, or if a tone is different enough from the shade just painted. So testing the color on the outside is a great method for testing colors out before applying them inside the final piece.

Final touches are added by cleaning up any lines that were painted over by redrawing here and there with black Sharpie. Then at the very end, make sure students write their names on the back, and carefully cut out their painted leaf designs. Here are some of our finished pieces:

For our collaboration, I created a painted tree on bulletin board paper. It was about nine feet long! All of my students' leaves were added for a wonderful collaborative display. i have to say that displaying the paintings just as floating leaves along the hallway or bulletin board looks great too. I hope you get a chance to create some color theory leaf paintings in your art room. Enjoy.

Kinetic Drawings

I just finished a unit with my 5th graders based on the art of Heather Hansen. She is an interdisciplinary artist, who combines her work in dance, choreography and drawing to create large-scale kinetic drawings. 

 We talked about Heather Hansen's work, and I showed them a brief Youtube video to give them a bit more information as well as a glimpse into how she works. We made connections to creating snow angels, and talked about the meaning of the term kinetic. We then saw the work of other artists who utilize movement in their work, like Alexander Calder, and Bridget Riley.

Then we began work on our individual drawings. The kids worked with chalk pastels, which I divided into trays, with two pastels of two different colors. They worked with the same pastel color in each hand, concentrating on creating a drawing that was symmetrical, showed various lines and movement, and used at least four colors. As a final touch to their work, students could create "smudge lines" using their fingers. I had them repeat after me, "fingers, not hands" and showed them the difference between creating lines with our fingers, and making mud with our hands. Some chose also to include thicker and thinner lines by utilizing different sides of the pastels.

Space is always an issue since I push into several rooms, so we prepped two 18"x24" sheets of drawing paper with a masking tape seam along the back. Each day as we finished our work, our paper was carefully folded in half to store it for the next class. 

For our collaborative drawings, I assigned partners, they prepped paper, and wrote their names, each on one panel on the back. This way I could grade the finished piece, as well as their individual contributions to it. Also, we could just separate the two halves of the artwork at the end of the unit, so each student could keep his or her own work.

My students were so engaged, and discovered that creating a nonrepresentational work of art can be even more challenging and rewarding than one with a concrete or representational objective. They also reflected on the differences in working on a individual drawing as opposed to working with a partner. I couldn't have been happier with their efforts. Their drawings demonstrated a great variety of line, movement, color, and symmetry. Individual drawings conveyed their choices and personalities. And their collaborative work showed their attention, communication skills, and expression of the lesson objectives as a team. Here are some of our final pieces:

 Individual Drawings in Pastel

Partner Drawings in Oil Pastel

Collaboration: Hearts and Hands Mural

A fellow art teacher on an art teachers Facebook group was my inspiration to create this hand emoji themed mural. (FELLOW TEACHER on Facebook! If you see my post, please reach out to me, I'd love to give you credit for this project!) I enjoy creating collaboration projects as first lessons of the year in the art room. The small size of each students contribution allows for choice. Every student feels successful, I get a chance to assess their skills, and it breaks the ice in the classroom as we all get to know each other. Not to mention we have a beautiful piece of art to hang in the hallway.

One of our finished murals.

I began by searching for a stock photo that I thought would make the best final mural image. Here's the one I chose below. I then printed it out, and placed it on a light box with graph paper over it to plot out the tiled grid. I drew the hand shapes in pencil, and sectioned off the image in red, giving each panel a letter designation. 

I made each square of the graph paper equal to a 3" tile that each of my students would contribute. The paper size for each panel was 18"x18", except for the right most panels, they were 18" x 24". The final size of the mural was 8' wide by 6 'tall.

Plotting out the design.

We discussed the elements of art and my students were given guidelines for their assignment. They had to create at least three tiles to add to the mural, with minimal white space, utilizing the elements of art, and their subject matter had to be appropriate for school display. We used colored Sharpies for our designs, and I provided half sheets of copy paper so they could color all the way to the edges of their tiles without marking up the tables too much.

Creating tile drawings.

As they worked on their tile designs I prepped paper panels, each labeled with a letter of the alphabet. Then I created numbered grids, X marks for spaces that needed tiles, and a corresponding panel beneath them. 

As the children began to finish their designs, I made several stations each with a panel, glue sponge, and pencil. They were allowed to glue their tiles anywhere that a square had an X marked across it. Wherever they glued their tile, they had to also write their name and class in the corresponding tile below (this helped me with grading, as their names on the back of their tiles got glued down). So in the example, if a student glued their tile to spot #15, they then needed to sign their name and class on the #15 in the smaller panel below. Oh, and see that half-filled diagonal square in the right column? To accommodate the finished image we needed some diagonal designs too. I saved them for extra credit/early finishers. No need to cut the tile in half, just design a half tile drawing, and glue down like a full one. The colored-in areas just needed to match up.

Students add their tiles to the mural.

It was fun to watch how they chose the places to add their tiles to the murals. Some wanted to spread them out by gluing at different stations, some wanted them all together, some chose favorite numbers and so on.

 

Mural details.

To assemble the mural, I graded their work and removed the lower panels for each piece (hold onto them if you plan to let the kids cut up the mural to retrieve their tiles after it has been exhibited). Then I just assembled in alphabetical order! I taped panels together on the back with masking tape, into vertical strips, and then hung them adjacent to each other to display the mural in full. It's easier to transport and to hang than fastening the entire mural together as one piece. I saved the final reveal for the kids too, so they tried to guess what kind of image our tiles would make each time we worked. Here is the finished piece we made at my second school.
 

The fact that this collaboration culminates with a positive message to share with the school community is the perfect ending to this unit. I hope you try out a tiled collaboration with your kids. Maybe you'll choose a different kind of image to make into a mural. I'd love to see, so share if you do!

Supporting my School through Art!

This past school year has been full of wonderful experiences, and a true feeling of being part of the school community. I am still part time and travel between schools, so I am sort of the phantom ping pong ball in the system! I know many of you can relate. This year seems to have finally given me some presence. The kids and all of the staff at both schools are beginning to recognize me—HURRAY!  And some fellow teachers were kind enough to reach out to me to include me in some artistic endeavors.

The fifth grade wing of our school has had an ongoing project of decorating ceiling tiles, with themes of diversity and acceptance. I was able to contribute paints, brushes, water pots and my expertise to the cause. I was also invited to the 5th grade classrooms to be part of the fun. My students were so excited to have me visit and support their artistic efforts. They did a great job as teams to make their contributions to the beautification and strengthening of the school community. It was also wonderful to be considered by my colleagues and included in the process.

We also have a wonderful vocal music teacher who has implemented a theater program over the last couple of years. For the production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, I donated some time to painting sets and props. Brick walls for the castle were sponged and stippled to perfection! A fellow parent and friend helped me construct a deer head out of paper mache, so Gaston could use antlers in his decorating.

I also turned a teacher’s cart into Maurice's wood chopping machine at the last minute! I was so happy to be able to  help the kids put on the best production possible. They were so impressive! And so were the efforts of all of the staff and families involved. From costumes, concessions, ticket sales and more, it really takes an entire community to make these thing happen. And I am so happy to have been part of it!

 Have you had any experiences outside the art room to share?

Middle School Mural, Part Three

Our mural is complete! HURRAY! 

Here are a few suggestions/learning moments I would like to share for those of you with a yearning to mural, or to help your next mural go more smoothly.

We used Sax True Flow acrylics and they worked well. We mixed a little white into each color to give them better opacity. The lightest colors did need an additional coat— and go figure, I realized later that Sax makes a Blockout White, which probably would have been a better way to go! Live and learn. The kids used restaurant cups to carry their paint over to the mural. And I just snapped the lids on and saved them for the next week! Unless there was near nothing left in the cups, the paint stayed moist and usable throughout our five weeks of meeting to work on the mural.

 

Once we got rolling and past just filling in large areas of color, my students were so motivated that I became a little overwhelmed with many of them asking over and over and/or simultaneously "What do I do now? What's next?" I had about twelve students, for a 6 foot by six foot space. Not everyone could work at the same time, and sometimes with so many working, I could not look to see what needed to be done! So, at the end of each work day I would take a shot of the mural in progress, and before the next meeting, I would mark all of the areas that needed work with a post-it note. Voila! Students could pick an area, pull off a note, and get to work. I also had students washing brushes, filling paint cups, and mixing colors as we needed them. And lets not forget the emergency clean up crew! Damp washcloths at the ready just in case of spills, paint on clothing etc. 

 We had the printout of the image hanging nearby for reference as we worked. For circles and stripes I hung up sheets to practice on. Having a chance to try filling in these areas before heading to the mural gave the kids confidence, and helped their work to be its best. I still found that straight lines were tricky, barring masking every line with tape. So in smaller areas, we opted to make free-form lines, and dab dots. The kids could practice them on the practice sheets as well, and they still gave the look and feel of Britto's original work. They also painted the free-form scribble patterns free hand.

For the final stage of adding black outlines, I painted the outside borders for the kids to fill in, and painted some areas myself. Once you get so close to the finish, you don't want anything to go horribly wrong. And at this point, precision is key!  We managed all of the final touches with success.



This really was a great learning experience for the kids, as well as for me as a teacher, artist, and life-long learner. I also enjoyed the many students and staff who walked by and stopped to give encouragement, thank me for contributing to brightening up our hallways, and find out who I am! Being a part-time teacher who travels to two different schools, I don't always get to feel as much a part of each school's community as I would like. This was a wonderful opportunity to get to know everyone. And I'm glad my students will be able to walk by our mural and know they were part of it for their years at middle school. Great job young artists!

 To see the other stages of our Romero Britto mural, check out these previous posts...

Middle School Mural, Part One

Middle School Mural, Part Two

Middle School Mural, Part Two

Progress continues with my 5th grade Artists of the Week, as we create a new mural for our school. Here we are on Day Two, blocking in solid areas of color. 

  We are copying a masterwork of the contemporary artist Romero Britto.
He is a Brazilian-American and his work is part cubism, pop art and graffiti.
"Britto uses vibrant colors and bold patterns as a visual language of hope and happiness, reflecting his optimistic faith in the world around him." What better way to beautify
our school environment than to pay tribute to an artist with such a wonderful way
of looking at the world!

These kinds of projects are so wonderful and accomplish many goals for a school community, including beautification, school spirit, teamwork, and participating a large-scale community artwork.  

Even though students consider this a fun afternoon activity, the are learning how to cooperate, how to paint on an upright surface (not an easy task), and how to scale an image by using the grid method. They are also learning about breaking down an image into stages that help to recreate it in an order that makes sense: large broad flat areas of color, smaller patterns and details, and final outlines and accents.

Please check back for updates and pictures of the finished mural.