Starry Starry Night Pumpkin Patch

A Vincent Van Gogh  PumpkinMasterpiece 

I love Halloween & Fall! Seriously. Love it. But I do not like the creepy & bloody decor. I really get into giant piles of pumpkins, gourds, brightly colored squash - the sweeter side of Halloween, and art with kids.

This is a super fun art project for any age, we created these with 4th graders. There are a few easy steps to help keep it simple. I found an image from 

Mr. O's Art Room on Pinterest and ran with it.

You can create this in either order (background or pumpkins) and then glue pumpkins to the starry background. It helped to have different paint stations in the classroom. 

NIGHT SKY

(full sheet black)

We painted the starry starry night sky with light colors first then dark colors,  so it would show up on the black paper. 

I gave them examples so they could see the two projects before they were glued on top.

 PUMPKINS
(1/2 sheet white)

• They drew the pumpkins with pencil, then outlined with permanent black marker.                 

• Next they painted from light oranges to darker oranges for shadows to create a more 3-D effect. It's a hard concept to grasp and I think those that dared to try did awesome.

• Once the paint was dry, they cut out their pumpkins and glued it on top of their starry night.

 

I encouraged them to paint a variety of pumpkins- because there are so many shapes, sizes and colors.  

Happy Fall Y'all!

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Always Fly High {Hot Air Balloon tutorial}

When I was a kid my family went to a hot air ballon festival. Many brightly colored balloons dotted the blue sky... The sight was awesome, I will never forget it. I remember begging to ride in a hot air balloon. I didn't get to though. 

I don't think I want to ride in a hot air balloon now...

I am content to look up at them from below (I'm more chicken of heights now that I'm older).

Here's a simple charcoal tutorial on how our 4th-graders drew their balloons. Charcoal is one of my favorite mediums for all ages. It is smooth and soft, can create lines & shapes fast as lightning, and the final image is just cool looking almost always.

 Try it out if you haven't already. Dare you. You'll just get a little messy, that's all. I used the drawing steps from The Lost Sock 

{Charcoal Hot Air Balloon Tutorial}

You will Need:

• charcoal sticks (various thicknesses if desired)
• paper
• rubber eraser
• 
  

1 - Draw a quick line down the middle and draw a circle. 2 - Draw "pumpkins lines", less space between lines as you go further towards back of the balloon. Draw "pancakes."

 3 - Finish connecting lines to the "pancakes, and the opening to balloon.  4 - Add shading and details. 

From this...

To this! Makes you want to jump in one and head up into the clouds...

Each balloon has unique personality and detail even though the instructions are the same.

Always fly high. . .

It's DECEMBER and it looks like FALL

Usually we have snow here in Idaho by December and it feels like Christmas is just around the corner. But we don't have any snow outside! It's raining and it's brown outside. Luckily We made doodle leaf art in the 4th grade right at the end of November to display until the snow arrives...right?

It feels like forever (actually has been a while) since I've posted on my blog, because it has literally been just over two years! EEEK! Life has been busy with family and art, just no art posts... But here I am! I hope you enjoy my posts as much as I enjoy making art with kids and a few of my own. I plan to share a few past posts as I try to keep up with the current art projects we are working on.

Here are the 4th grade 

DOODLE LEAF ART PROJECTS:

Super Simple: Doodle leaves with black marker, color with colored pencils or crayons, and finish with chalk pastels around the leaves. 

 Using different mediums together such as markers and pastels creates a more dimensional affect. 

Happy FALL... During WINTER!

Christmas ceramic ornaments post coming soon... 

What is hiding in our Starry Night? Take a closer look...

Take a closer look! Inspired from The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Definitely not what you think... 

What do you see in the painting? How many are there? Do you feel like we're playing "I SPY?" Yeah, I totally set you up! 

I wanted to create a collaborative, but individual, art project for the 4th-graders to incorporate their own hands- designing them with various lines and shapes, just using black and white permanent markers on cards stock. Excellent art exercise for shape, line design, and hand tracing for any age. 

I've always liked The Starry Night painting since I was a youngling, so I thought this would be a good introduction for other kids to become familiar with famous artwork. 

• The kids used 3 different tip sizes of permanent markers...  

• I painted a simple version of Starry Night and then adhered each hand with Mod Podge (using plastic wrap and a book on top to help dry flat).

• I painted a light wash (water added) of acrylic paint of a similar color on top of the hands so each blended into the painting. You can see below there are some hands painted and some not yet. (Yep, the bold black hand really doesn't blend in because the wash of paint mostly shows up on white paper)...

This is one of our favorites "hands" down! 

As you can see this hand project could be made into any painting you like. 

Be creative. Paint. No boundaries. Have fun.