Stella inspired sculptural reliefs

All you need for this project is:

Poster board (1 sheet per student)
9 x 12ish piece of cardboard off a box or something
French curves (I printed some out and cut them out with an exacto and had kids trace that rather that buying some)
Cheap acrylic paint
Glue gun and glue
Scraps of card board or foam core


This project was super simple and the kids (8th grade) absolutely loved it. I introduced the lesson by showing them the works of frank Stella and how his art evolved over the years. I couldn't find a youtube video that wasn't really boring so I just showed them a slide show of his work. We started by tracing the French curves onto poster board. I told them to trace 6 large, 5 medium, and 4 smalls. The smaller ones Are really hard to cut out so kids that had a hard time with it did less smalls and more larges. Once the French curves were cut, the kiddos painted them a solid color, let them dry, then splatter painted each curve. Oh how they love to splatter paint. Once all curves were painted, they painted the cardboard backing. I told them to paint stripes or some other geometric pattern on the cardboard. Anything will work because you don't see much of the background. Next, they arranged the French curves on the backing and cut up little pieces of foam core to attach with hot glue to the back of each curve in a variety of heights to give the work some dimension. Some kids got crazy with it. The crazier the better.

Sorry for the bad picture quality! iPads don't take very good pictures!

O'Keeffe inspired desert landscapes with cow skulls

I'd you have never drawn bones with middle schoolers, you must do it quick! The shape is so unfamiliar it forces them to really concentrate and study the bones. Effectively, they get on the right side of the brain. On a side note, if you have not read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, it is now your homework. It explains that whole right side of the brain thing. Also, if you search her on YouTube you will find the book in video form.

I found a really good skull on google one day and printed a bunch off for the students. I wish I had a real cow skull...le sigh. Drawing from observation is always best, but when you are a young art teacher that doesn't have a massive collection of "stuff", you have to make do.

After students drew out the cow skull I got out the Sketch-and-Wash. It is a wonderful water soluble pencil. You need to explain to students to shade a little lighter than normal with the sketch-and-wash. Students can then activate the graphite with a wet brush to get a watercolor feel. Students love it.

The backgrounds were painted with Kimberly watercolor pencil. I had a bunch of different desert landscapes to choose from but they all picked the same one.

Supplies: watercolor paper, sketch and wash pencils, pencil, Kimberly watercolor pencils, pictures of skulls and different landscapes

Picasso playing cards, 7th grade

I found this on Pinterest and thought it was the perfect way to introduce cubism to 7th grade. I printed out a boat load of playing cards like the ones below. Each student picked 3 cards (they could be the same or different) and cut and rearranged the face in a cubist fashion. We discussed cubist techniques including showing multiple view points in one work. Once students had their compositions arranged, they were given a 22x28 inch piece of paper to draw on. I didn't give too much instruction on this. I told them to enlarge their small playing card design large. It did not matter if students didn't copy it exactly because, well, cubism is not perfect!

After students made the additional outline they went over the pencil with sharpie. We colored these in with crayon. We discussed ways to blend, gradate, and layer the crayon to create interest within the piece. I stressed that we were not going to simply color these in like a coloring book.

Supplies: playing card print outs (3 per student), 22 x28 paper (or smaller if you wish), glue (to glue the cubist face together), black sharpie, crayons

Contour line portraits with op art back ground 7th grade

I love the look of OP art but....on it's own, sometimes it can be too plain. We spent about a week on the background alone. Students used sharpies to fill in the checkerboard. We created the circles on a separate piece of paper with a protractor and cut and pasted the sphere on the background. We used a charcoal pencil to add the shadow to give it some depth. The contour line portraits were also done on a separate sheet and pasted. A lot of paper, I know. But, I think it was worth it ;)

Supplies: paper, pencil, rulers, protractor, sharpie and crayola markers, charcoal pencil, scissors

Spring flowers 7th and 8th

The first two paintings are from 7th graders that learned how to create an original composition using individual pictures of flowers. I wanted students to create a beautiful garden. The last picture is from an 8th grader that chose to paint one flower. All examples were painted with Kimberly watercolor pencils. They are my favorite thing! You can make your own personal pallet with the watercolor pencils. This is how:

Refer to the last image for reference. Thanks to natureartjournal.blogspot.com for the image.

1: make a swatch of all the colors you want to use

2: activate the colors you need with a wet paintbrush

3: "recharge" the swatches periodically if they start to run dry

And paint!

Some student chose to add watercolor pencil directly to their paper, which is fine, but I think that the pencil is conserved better by making the palette. It makes the pencils last longer.

Supplies: watercolor paper, pencil, Kimberly watercolor pencils, water, pictures of various flowers

Flowers in pencil

Aren't these pretty? I provided some print outs of some flowers and these two just went at it!

Jazz music collages

This project was fun for the students. We studied Picasso although this is not a cubist project by any means.

1: print off a crap ton of sheet music

2: have students rip paper to irregular pieces of paper around 2x2 inches

3: glue down sheet music pieces, make sure to overlap and keep the direction of the notes random

4: draw a guitar (or anther instrument) in the center of the page using bare lines

5: using watercolors to paint the background cool colors (let them mix up a little)

6: paint guitar with warm colors

7: outline with sharpie when completely dry

Supplies: paper, sheet music, glue, sharpie, watercolors