Arts Camp 2014!

It's been such a busy summer! I am just now getting around to posting the fantastic pictures from the annual Arts Camp sponsored by our local Stanly County Arts Council.  My part was just a tiny piece of everything the kids had an opportunity to do this week.  They had theatre, dance, and music each day along with art.  I had four groups, divided roughly by age, and each group created a 16" by 20" canvas painting.  I love how they turned out!  I love even more that two canvases got to come home with me!

Zebra eyes!

I originally found the idea for this project over on Elementary Art Fun. I do these with 5th grade each year and it's a great lesson for teaching the color wheel, watercolor technique, as well as focusing (no pun intended!) on the parts of the eye and how to draw them properly. These are always a favorite! 

Abstract sunsets 2014

I posted these last year from my 4th graders and this year I thought they turned out even better!  We started with drawing the sunset and waves, then traced in permanent marker.  Painting with watercolor, we used cool colors for the water and warm colors for the sunset.  After the paint dried, we used colored pencils to add patterns and thicken our black lines to give the appearance of stained glass.

Tea cups in progress...

I am loving these tea cups! This was the first group I started with and I had cut their paper down to 6" by 18" so they look a little different, but still so cute!  I also discovered later to use the rectangle as in my previous post so we could avoid the shrinking tea cups!  Although it's a neat effect as well!  I will post more as the other classes using 12" by 18" paper are finishing up!

Zebras!

This is the project that never ends!  Seems like we've been working on these zebras in kindergarten forever!  I think the end result is worth it though!  Have a look!

Each set of stripes was one lesson so you can imagine how long these took! :)

Stacked teacups

A recent visit to Disney World and the famous spinning teacups were the inspiration for this project!  I'll post the steps we took first and the finished examples later!  

We used rectangles with a 6" edge to determine how wide to make the top of each cup.

Continue stacking until you get to the top of the page and then finish the ellipse for the top cup.

Decorate with whimsical patterns!  These are turning out so well, I can't wait to share them!

I scream, you scream!

4th grade just finished up these yummy little treats just in time for spring break!  This year I decide to cut them down after we finished painting with watercolor.  This project is another great lesson for color and drawing.  We used cans to trace overlapping circles, then added a "ruffled" bottom to each scoop and added a cone!

A home for a bird!

My first graders are finishing up a springy little project this week!  We learned how to use a ruler makings these charming little houses!  I have so many great ones I'll probably make another post of them as more are finished up.

Peacocks

I just can't get enough of these Crayola color sticks!  Fifth grade got to use them this time in their colorful peacock "stained glass" project.  The original inspiration came from an artist on Pinterest who actually created the painting on glass and used colored glue for the "lead."  I had planned to do glue lines on black paper, but once they had worked so hard on all their feathers, I was afraid the glue lines would fill in too many of the details.  So, we used color sticks to color, then went over all of the original lines with black colored pencil to give the appearance of stained glass.  They turned out beautiful!