The Rainbow Fish - Watercolor Painting

The Rainbow Fish - 

Watercolor Painting

Lesson Summary
This lesson was taught by Leah Vilhauer and Kelsey Sandmeier. The lesson began with the teachers explaining different watercolor techniques. The class took a 8 1/2" by 11" piece of watercolor paper and divided it into 6 equal parts which were each used for a technique. The first one we did was called flat wash where you try to make the color on the page even. The second one we did was called graduated wash where you go from a light value to a dark value of the the same color by changing the amount of water in your brush. The third one we did was called wet-in-wet. When using this technique you start by using the paintbrush to apply clear, clean water to the paper. After you have applied the water you use different colors and drop them onto the paper by squeezing the end of the paintbrush. The fourth technique used was resists. This is created by drawing with a wax crayon on the paper and then painting with the watercolor over the crayon. The crayon resists the paint and therefore they are both visible. The fifth technique was the use of watercolor crayons. To use these you draw on the paper with them and the apply clean water over the color(s) with the paintbrush. You can then decide how dark or light you want the color. The final box was used to show how texture can be created with watercolors. In this box I took a permanent marker and used it to draw fish scales which were then painted using the watercolors. After we did this we then had to make a background of the sea to go with the book The Rainbow Fish using either warm or cool colors. After the background was made we then painted the fish using either warm or cool colors (whichever was not used on the background). Also part of making our project was to use at least 2 of the 4 (color, texture, line, value) elements and principles that were talked about in the lesson. 


Extension Activity
An extension activity for this lesson would be to create a large mural of a underground sea life to tell the story of the Rainbow Fish using watercolor paintings. The students would make the scenes from the book by using the watercolor techniques mentioned above. The students would each get to make the Rainbow Fish at the different times in his amount of shiny scales he had. The students would create the background to match what life would be like under the sea, like in the book. 

Textured Printmaking with Paint using Household Objects

Textured Printmaking with Paint using 

Household Objects

Lesson Summary (This was the lesson I taught with my partner)

The objective of this lesson was to use household items to create a piece of art work using the objects' textures. The motivation to this lesson involved 8 different household objects in brown paper bags (tinsel, carpet, pine cones, corn, bubble wrap, sandpaper, paintbrushes, and sponges). The students had notecards numbered 1 to 8. As they walked from bag to bag they reached their hands into the bags and without looking they had to guess what the item was. They wrote their guesses on the note cards and they were discussed after everyone had looked in every bag. The students were then given a little bit of background on two printmaking artists, Mary Cassatt and Henri Matisse. The lesson then moved into a vocabulary review on primary, secondary, and intermediate colors and the introduction of new vocabulary of texture, actual texture, and implied texture. As the teacher I went through step-by-step what the students needed to do. I then gave them the 4 options they could choose from for a final project. They could either create a painting using shapes (like the heart one above), a painting using their name (like the Miss Kringen one above), a painting using a repeated patterned (like the diagonal lined one above), or an abstract painting of their own originality as long as it follows the requirements. The students requirements were to use a minimum of 3 different textures, at least four colors (2 primary, 1 secondary, and 1 intermediate), and to make use of the whole paper while maintaining balance. The secondary and intermediate colors the students used had to be mixed from the 3 primary colors they were given. When the students finished they had to answer the following questions on the back of their rubrics: Is there anything you would do differently? What types of elements or principles did you include in your project? What secondary color did you choose and why? What intermediate color did you choose and why?

Extension Activity

This lesson could be carried over into a social studies classroom. Students could learn the history of the printing press and why its development and creation is so important to life. They could state how things would be different if it had not been invented. The teacher could do an activity with the students to represent what they first printing press was like. The students could use this activity to create small books about themselves. In this activity you would use more of a printmaking technique than was taught in the art lesson. You would also use actual ink in place of the paint. This would allow the students to have a hands on approach to their social studies curriculum. 

Oil Pastels - Foreground, Middle ground, Background

Oil Pastels - Foreground, Middle ground,  Background

Lesson Summary

The objective of this lesson was to experiment with oil pastels and learn about foreground, middle ground, and background. In this lesson actual snow globes were present to allow for motivation of the students for their own snow globes. South Dakota artist Terry Redlin was discussed because his art work is a good example of foreground, middle ground, and background. Foreground is the are of the work that appears closest to the viewer, the background is the area that appears farthest away from the viewer, and the middle ground is the area between the background and middle ground. The class was shown examples of his art work as well as examples of the teachers' art work examples of the snow globes. The teachers also talked about techniques used with oil pastels. They informed us that you could blend colors together to create a different color, you could also blend a color with black or white to create shades and tints of the starting color. We were also taught that the harder you press with the oil pastels the dark the color will become and the easier it will be to blend. The requirements for our project were to include at least 2 elements or principles, to have foreground, middle ground, and background in the scene, and to include an object that is personal to you. For my personal object I chose to add the Christmas tree because it reminds me of the times my family has cut their own Christmas tree. I also added the snowman because I remember making them as a child and I still enjoying making snowmen when there is enough snow and it is wet enough. 

Extension Activity

An extension activity for this lesson would be based on the different seasons of the year. Students would create four separate globes, one for each season; summer, fall, winter, spring. Students would pick a scene of their choice as long is it is one that has notable changes each season to use for their globe. Examples of scenes could be a lake, the family home, or a park. After students picked their scene they would create their four globes depicting that scene in each of the four seasons.