Paper Mache Fish

It's summertime art camp fun!

Directions:

1.  Apply paper mache around a blown up balloon.

2.  Once dry, pop the balloon and cut around where the balloon was tied to make the fish mouth.  

3.  Use paint, tissue paper, glitter, whatever else you have on hand to make some really cool and exotic tropical fish!  

Mona Lisa's Summer Vacation

I love this project so much!  The results are always so fun and whimsical!
I have done it a few times.  You can find another version of the same idea here with a lesson on the Dada Movement in art - http://cinnamonraisintoast.blogspot.com/2010/01/dada-project-with-mona-lisa.html

Here are the results of our latest efforts...

Basically you just need to download a picture of Mona Lisa and then let your imagination run wild!

I asked the kids what they were going to do on the summer break.  Then I told them to pretend you were taking Mona Lisa with you.  Imagine her in that environment.  Mona Lisa visiting the Taj Mahal, Mona Lisa selling ice cream, Mona Lisa at the botanical gardens, on a boat, picking flowers....you get the idea!

Little Blue Horse inspired by Franz Marc

Franz Marc was a German Expressionist painter who was also influenced by futurism and cubism.
He liked bold colors and often painted animals.  I was inspired by this painting "Little Blue Horse" and decided to have my students replicate the bold colors and they were so excited to learn how to draw a horse! (tutorial coming soon)

Materials needed:
- Circle templates for horse drawing (optional)
- Pencils
- Erasers
- Black Sharpie
- Watercolor paint
- Watercolor paper - one piece for the horse, one piece for the background
- Brushes
- Scissors
- Glue

Directions:
1.  I started with a simple tutorial on how to draw a horse, starting with only 4 circles.  (tutorial pics coming soon!)  We sketched the horse, outlined the outside edges with Sharpie and erased all the pencils lines.
2.  Once the horse is outlined, paint it blue, demonstrate how to get darker and/or lighter blue.  Encourage experimentation with getting different shades of blue.
3.  Once dry, cut out the horse
4.  Using Marc's Little Blue Horse as an example, paint the background landscape using bright watercolors to mimic the colors in the horizon, foreground, etc.
5.  Once background is dry, glue horse down.

 Take a look at what we made!  WOW!  They did a great job!