Dick Blick Art Materials
“Decalcomania” Glue Paint Symmetry Prints
Who knew you could paint with glue? After first adding liquid water color paints to bottles of white Elmer's glue and applying them to paper, students of all ages are then challenged to use their imagination and creativity to draw in...
Forest Foundation
The Nature of Trees
Young botanists examine the different parts of tress and then draw parallels between the functions of these parts and the function of parts of the human body.
Incredible Art
Starry Night Interpretation
Young artists are encourage to develop greater imaginative freedom and post their impressions of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night in a series of activities based around the famous painting. Class members watch a film biography of van...
Curated OER
Shaded Bottles
Learners draw, and then paint three-dimensional bottles to practice shading which shows shape and perspective. The step-by-step process for creating dimensional still life art is outlined, which makes teaching art an attainable task. Oil...
Curated OER
Pen and Ink Drawing
Learners hone their drawing techniques to create a nature-inspired piece of art. They practice hatching, cross hatching, stippling, and shading. They discuss how each method is better suited for creating specific elements in nature such...
Curated OER
Classic Still Life Drawing
Provide your young artists with an opportunity to study the masters and their techniques to become skilled at drawing still life. They discuss and view images from artists like Degas and Michelangelo, practice drawing techniques such as...
Curated OER
Pixel Drawings
Middle and high schoolers re-create a magazine photo or other picture and make it into a drawing using pixels. This fun art project should be a hit with your charges! The materials needed to implement the lesson should be easy to get,...
American Museum of Natural History
Drawing Dinos
Five steps walk budding artists through the process of drawing a dinosaur. A drawing guide showcases four dinosaurs—stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, and allosaurus.
Curated OER
Pastel Drawing like Vincent Van Gogh
Learners discuss the elements of art and design found in a series of flower paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. They explore art, shading, and color as they create mirrored representations of the master's art, using oil pastel.
Penguin Books
An Educators' Guide to Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Books can help teens understand complex global issues. A helpful educator's guide introduces readers to what it's like to be a refugee. Lesson components for the novel Shades of Gray include an anticipation guide and writing and research...
Curated OER
Chuck Close Portrait Drawing
After watching a video of photorealist Chuck Close and examining his work, individuals create their own grid-style portrait.
Dick Blick Art Materials
Ball Point Engravings
Turn simple pencil sketches into colorful engravings. After first creating hand-drawn pictures, young artists then trace over them will ball point pens, etching the images into cold press illustration boards, before rubbing crayons over...
Curated OER
Art Class, Variation 1
Student statisticians calculate ratios to determine how many shades of green were mixed by Ms. Baca's art class. They graph the number of blue parts against the number of yellow parts for each combination and discover that some produce...
Curated OER
Painting a Color Wheel
You have to love the color wheel, it's just so colorful! Your kids will love it too, as they work through an introductory exercise which allows them the opportunity to draw and paint a color wheel of their own. This wheel focuses on...
Curated OER
LOVE Poster
Students research pop or contemporary artists like Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein and examine their simple style of drawing and painting. They create a contemporary art poster using shading gradient techniques and mixed...
Curated OER
Expressive Hands with Stippling Value Shading
Students create a larger than life modified contour drawing of hands in an expressive situation. Hands have linear value, contain a object, and have a patterned background.
Curated OER
Quilting
Students use a monochromatic palate, select shades and tints for a selected hue, or select complimentary or analogous colors for a quilt design. They design quilt squares using basic geometric shapes, repetition, balance, and proportion.
Sargent Art
Picasso and Beyond!
After reviewing the life and art of Pablo Picasso, learners set out to create abstract, cubist, relief portraits. They'll draw, color, paint, and cut out portraits just like the ones Picasso created. The lesson is extremely well written...
Curated OER
The Great Barracuda
Students explore oceanography by researching the great barracuda. In this animal life lesson plan, students read several vocabulary terms dealing with ocean life and examine a drawing of a barracuda. Students examine the many...
Curated OER
American Pride
Students combine a variety of symbols to communicate ideas or information into a colored pencil drawing surrounding the theme, American Pride.
Poetry4kids
Creativity Exercise - Describe the Sky
Scholars stretch their writing muscles with an exercise that asks them to describe the sky using similes and metaphors.
Curated OER
Color in 3-D: A Nature Design Project
Students view a film about Hans Hofman and consider his use of color and layering. They experiment with the concept of 'push and pull' by using warm and cool color schemes in a tracing of leaves and shapes. Students view their work using...
Curated OER
Modern Mona
Students use contour drawings of the Mona Lisa. Students turn the drawings upside down and cover 3/4 of the drawing with a sheet of construction paper. They "erase from their minds" what the drawing is, and complete the quarter section...
Curated OER
Baked Polymer Clay 3D People Portraits
Students discuss methods of building forms with clay (ball and variations, snake, flat sheets). They draw a stick figure of what their sculpture may look like, including correct figure proportion.