Hidden Animal Safari Project #5

Description:

     This art project was inspired by French painter Henri Rousseau. In his paintings, he liked to hide animals/objects in his artwork. For this project, we chose an animal and "hid" it in our artwork. This is a 1st-grade art lesson. We started this project by practicing drawing objects upside down. Drawing objects upside down tricks our brain and one can draw better when drawing upside down. After that short activity, we chose an animal to hide. Once we chose an animal we then got a 3x8in piece of construction paper, stencil, and a red film. Out of these three objects, we made special glasses that would help us see our hidden animal once our art project was complete. Now that we made our special glasses, we then drew our animal in sky blue colored pencil. Once finished drawing our animal we used yellow, orange, and red crayons using different patterns to "hide" our animal. Now that we hid our animal the only way to see our animal again is by using our special glasses to see the animal. The special glasses that have the red film block out the warm colors so the cool color (blue) stands out and we are able to see the animal. I had a lot of fun with this art project and think elementary-aged children would too.

Extension Activity:

     An extension activity I would do using this project would be to integrate it into a science lesson. The project would be the same, except I would connect it to science by explaining that some nocturnal animals have night vision. Humans cannot see very well at night, but some animals have excellent vision at night. When we put the glasses on we are able to see the hidden object as animals see hidden objects in the dark with their night vision. 

Vincent Van Gogh Inspired Art Collages Project #4

 Description:

     Before starting our Vincent Van Gogh art project, we were shown a slideshow of different facts about Van Gogh and some of his most famous paintings. While looking at some of Van Gogh's paintings I noticed that most of his artwork had a similar theme that they followed, which was swirling lines. The following art project was inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night" painting. We used Van Gogh's theme of swirls to make our own "Starry Night" portrait. 

     Day 1 of creating Van Gogh Inspired Art Collage. To create this project we used the following materials; tissue paper, construction paper, and acrylic gel medium. We also got to choose between sharpies, oil pastels, crayons, etc. to create movement and the use of swirls for our art project. The first thing we did was choose a dark-colored construction paper (black works best). Next, we thought of a background we wanted to make. I chose a sunset background. The background doesn't have to be anything specific, it could just be a bunch of random colors. Once we thought of a background we grabbed different colored tissue paper. We ripped the tissue paper into any size and shape and used a gel medium to glue down the tissue paper. The gel medium glues down the tissue paper but dries clear. We let the gel medium dry until the next class period. 

     Day 2 of creating Van Gogh Inspired Art Collage. Once the gel medium was dry, we made a silhouette of anything that we wanted to. I chose to do an island with a single palm tree. Once with cut out the silhouette, we glued it onto the background. The final step of the project was to use some kind of drawing utensil (oil pastel, sharpie, crayon, etc.) to create movement on your art project. Overall I had a lot of fun with this art project and thought it turned out really good! 

Extension Activity:

     An extension activity that I would do using this art project is having students pick their favorite food, sports team, sport, etc. and their silhouette would represent whatever their favorite thing is. The background would be the team colors or colors that corresponded with their favorite thing. I would do this activity at the beginning of the year to get to know my students. Once they are done with their art project, I would display them in the hallway for other students and staff to look at and get to know my students better.