May 2, 2013

Freestyle Giraffes - Kid's Art Class

Some days I feel like I have the best job ever, and yesterday was one of them.  We did the most fabulous giraffe paintings in my class.

Here is my video lesson on YouTube:


We used 8" x 24" wood boards as our "canvas".  I had the kids squirt 3 or 4 colors of paint straight onto their boards and blend it with a sponge brush.  Then we practiced drawing our giraffe faces. Drawing them with the ears coming straight out from the eyes made it really easy for the kids to grasp and they were able to sketch them with no problem.  I had them use chalk to draw out their giraffes on the boards (so they could wipe mistakes off easily) and then let them loose with colored pencils, paint and oil pastels to create their own unique giraffe.

We haven't done a whole lot of totally freestyle projects in class. Most of the time I do step by step processes with them to teach techniques and such.  So this was a little frightening for some of the kids at first.  I showed them how to do sgraffito (where they lay on paint and then use a pencil to scratch off a design), and encouraged them to do lots of layering.  I had bubble wrap and other textured surfaces for them to use for printing.  But mostly I just encouraged them to be creative, and before long they were totally engrossed in it.  It was awesome! And the results were truly amazing...








3 comments:

  1. Fantastic! Love these! Where did you get the 8x24 boards? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found them pre-cut at Lowes hardware. They had lots of sizes. And they were nice and smooth too. No prep needed. Cost was around $3 each.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fabulous!!! I just love it!😀

    ReplyDelete