When I found out that Jesse Reno was going to be at the National Art Education Conference this year, I was stoked. I’ve been following his artwork and blog for several years and I love how layered and complex his paintings are. You have to watch his process of transforming one thing into another while painting. He has several videos on his blog where you can watch him paint. I was excited to hear him talk, but it would have … Read more…
Vassily Kandinsky was one of the first pioneers of abstract art. Abstract art is art that does not attempt to show things realistically, but uses lines, shapes, colors and textures to show emotions and meaning. Kandinsky was from Russia and initially went to law school. He was always fascinated by color and in his thirties, he decided to go to art school. Kandinsky thought showing the inner beauty was most important. He believed that color could express … Read more…
Paul Klee was an important painter in the history of modern art. I have always been drawn to his colorful, abstract pictures. Children can relate to the simple geometric shapes and bold colors. His art has been related to Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. Swiss artist Paul Klee painted the Castle and Sun with simplified shapes, but viewers can easily see the way the shapes form a castle or city-like scene. For this lesson, we are going to paint colorful swatches … Read more…
First, there is a huge sale today at TPT.. 20% of all of my art teacher resources, plus use coupon code SMILE for an additional 10% off your entire order: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Art-Is-Basic Today I am going to show you an easy doodling technique for Artist Trading Cards. This is a great one-day art project for kids and possibly for a substitute lesson plan. Create doodles on the Artist Trading Cards and fill in with paint pens, Sharpies, or gel pens. My … Read more…
I had the opportunity to try out Dab and Dot Dauber Markers and write a blog post for their website DoodleHog. These are similar to other paint dotters, but one difference I noticed is that the colors seem richer and better than other brands I have tried. The colors mix together very well. Piet Mondrian Dab and Dot Art Project Piet Mondrian was one of the most important and well known abstract painters. But did you know his early work … Read more…
I did it! I made my first sand painting. After reviewing the book Ice Cream Work by Naoshi, I decided to try out the SUNAE sand painting technique. You can read my whole review at this previous blog post. The book is very Japanese in style and reminds me of other Japanese cartoons and illustrations. Her artwork is very colorful, fun and cute! I really like her style. You can see the book on Amazon (affiliate link) Ice Cream Work, … Read more…
One of the best parts about lesson planning and blogging is the ability to get all sorts of new ideas quickly on the Internet. This was a fun lesson I saw first on The Busy Librarian. We read the book The Dot and the students received papers with their first initial drawn in pencil. The students then used crayons to draw dots and circles on their initial. Using watercolor paints, they painted dots and circles and made marks in the … Read more…
