Starry Night

Starry Night by Van Gogh has been a source of inspiration for many art teachers. My Grade 1 students created their own versions of this famous work of art by recreating the textured strokes using oil pastels and inks. When I started planning out this project it all seemed a bit daunting and I could never have done it without the support of Zilker Elementary and this awesome step-by-step downloadable powerpoint from Mrs.Brown - Thank you both so much! 

Materials required:
- A3 paper
- oil pastels
- inks
- pencils, erasers

Duration: 3 lessons of 80 minutes each

1. In the first lesson we identified Van Gogh as an artist and where he was from. What I loved about teaching in an international school is that you will almost always have a student who is from the same country as the artist in question which makes the kids even more excited. We looked at many of his paintings and discussed the movement of his brush strokes. Then we studied one of his most famous works of art "Starry Night." I wanted the kids to guess the name of the painting themselves so guiding questions included 'what can you see in the painting' - Of course you can't blame the kids for thinking that the cyprus tree was the Burj Khalifa! Other questions I asked were 'what name can you give it?', 'What kind of lines can you see? What shapes? Colours?" I made sure to show students close up shots of the painting so that they can clearly recognize the brush strokes and colours.
2. Before starting to draw, I showed students a finished example of the project so that they could gauge what materials they would be using, the time frame, and also that this would be a guided drawing session.

3. Using Mrs.Brown's powerpoint as a guide, my co-teacher Maggie and I created a 10 minute video tutorial for the students to follow. The video helps because we could pause and play whenever we needed to. 4.  By the end of the first lesson, the students managed to complete the drawing component and make the stars. 

5. In the second lesson it was time to focus on the sky and tree. After recapping the brush strokes and colours, the kids watched my video tutorial and began to fill in the sky using short strokes that were close to each other, following the shape of the swirls. Luckily, my oil pastels have a fairly large range of cool colours (navy, prussian, cobalt, ultramarine, turquoise and sky blue) so students were able to choose their colours freely. For the tree I limited the colours to a variety of greens, browns and black. Make sure they are pressing down hard enough with the oil pastel so that the ink can resist it.

6. The third lesson saw the kids draw and colour in the houses. I told them that they could make their houses as colourful as they wanted. This is what most of the work looked like before the ink wash. 

Photo courtesy of Mrs.Brown

7. Then they watched my video tutorial on how to apply the inks and we were done!

I LOVE the sky on this one!

I love doing this project with the kids because in spite of everyone doing a guided drawing session on the same topic, the end result for each child's artwork is so unique with their style of applying the oil pastels and colour choices for the inks.

If I had to do this project again, I would love to read a storybook about Van Gogh as a starter activity. Any recommendations?

Mixed Media Chameleons

Perhaps this is my favourite Grade 3 art project because the results are always stunning and the kids LOVE chameleons! This is a great cross-curricular project that ties science into art since the students talk about key characteristics of chameleons. The end result is an ink/oil pastel resist technique.

Materials required:
- A3 paper
- pencils, erasers
- oil pastels
- inks (can use watercolours as well but I prefer the vibrancy of ink)

Duration: 3-4 lessons of 80 minutes each

1. I show students a finished example of the project so that they get an idea of what is expected. We began by talking about chameleons, where they live, why they change colour, how their eyes move. More importantly, we discussed what basic shapes can be used to draw their body such as triangle for the head, oval for body, etc. When they start to draw, I emphasized two points: (a) draw big & (b) draw light. I asked the students why they were supposed to draw big and light and they all came up with reasons like "so we can see it clearly, we have enough space to add colours and patterns, so that we can erase it easily, etc." I love how their logical minds work!
2. For the low ability students I had a step-by-step drawing guide. As for my high abilities, they used photographs as a reference and could draw a chameleon from different angles.

Step-by-step drawing guide

3. After the chameleon drawing was complete, students had to draw patterns on the body and develop a background. I displayed an image on the board with different kinds of leaves, flowers, etc. Of course students were not limited to this and were welcome to use their own ideas as well. This was the end of the first lesson. 

4. As a starter for the second lesson, we watched a small video clip of how chameleons change colour. The kids loved it! During this lesson, we outlined the drawing in oil pastels and coloured in a few, selected areas only. I think the key aspect here is telling them to press down hard with their pastel as you will always get some students who are rushing to finish and their outlines are too lightly done to withstand the ink which will be applied on later. What do you think of the work in progress?

5. In the third lesson, we began using inks. The kids love how the resist technique works and I think it is important to question them about why oil pastel and ink resist each other as it makes them think scientifically about the materials they use.

6. In the fourth lesson, students outlined their work with a black marker. The idea here is to tell them to outline around the oil pastel instead of over it. Don't they look gorgeous?