art project Archives - The Crafty Classroom

India Elephant Art Project

Within Indian culture elephants are highly treasured. Painted elephants are common at celebrations and festivals and make their appearace across many Indian art forms. You can complete this art project with any symbol of India, but the elephant makes for a stunning result.

Materials:

Elephant Template
Black Construction Paper
White Sand or Fine Glitter
Sequins, Glue, Paintbrush

Suggested Resources for a Unit Study:

Art Project Tutorial:

Step 1

Print your elephant template and cut out the center to make a stencil

View Resource

Step 2

Trace your stencil onto a piece of black construction paper

Step 3

Outline your shape with glue

Step 4

Using your paintbrush, pull the glue towards the center of the elephant

Step 5

You'll need to work quickly as the glue will start to dry as it is thinned out

Step 6

Pour sand or white glitter over your glue

Step 7

Pour off the excess and save for later. You are left with a really wonderful elephant on your paper!

Step 8

Use glue to add a rectangular shape for a blanket over your elephant

Step 9

Glue sequins onto the blanket

Step 10

You can stratigically place your sequins with a stripe at the bottom, then fading into more white and clear sequins toward the top.

All Done!

Your elephant will look amazing when dry

Optional

If you have enough sequins, you might let children decorate their entire elephant for a stunning piece of art.

Tiger Eyes Oil Pastel

The tiger is India’s national animal. It’s strikenly beautiful with the contrasting markings of black, white and orange. This oil pastel project is just right for your studies on India. Children will be amazed with the work they can do when given small amounts of instruction.The peacock is the National bird of India. It’s certainly one of God’s most beautiful creatures, and even young children can make these wonderful pictures. We provide you with step by step drawing tutorials, as well as instruction on using oil pastels to bring your peacock to color.

This tutorial is split into two parts:

Materials:

Cardstock or Pastel Paper
Oil Pastels
Pencil and Eraser
Black Line Marker
(Sharpie is fine)

Suggested Resources for a Unit Study:

Art Project Tutorial:

Step 1

For this art project you'll need to cut your paper in half lengthwise. NOTE: I'm using a sharpie so you can see my drawing, but you should use a pencil and eraser. You will go over your pencil with your marker at the end.

Step 2

Starting about one inch down on the left side make this backwards J shape.

Step 3

Add a curved line, stopping before you meet the bottom of your J.

Step 4

Continue the J into the top part of a circle, (which will be the eye) then bring the curvy line down to the bottom of the page.

Step 5

Create the bottom half of the eye as shown. Repeat this process on the other side of your paper in a mirror image. Don't worry if they are not exactly the same, mine aren't, just try to get the eyes level....use a ruler across as a guide if needed.

Step 6

Add curvy triangles under each of the eyes. Remember you are doing a mirror image on the other side.

Step 7

A sideways flying bird.

Step 8

Two upside down mountain peaks. Note the curvy lines being used, not straight mountains. Turn your paper over if it helps.

Step 9

Vertical elongagted diamond shape

Step 10

Make the eye shape by drawing a flattened circle shape. See how it is slightly flattened at the top

Step 11

Repeat all your markings for the other side of your paper. Remember it's a mirror image, but doesn't have to be exact.

Step 12

Your tiger nose is framed by black markings. Draw three diamond shapes as seen above. Your diamonds are curving diagonally..see next photo:

Step 13

See how your diamonds have a curve to them. They aren't exactly the same either, but you do want to try to get a similar amount of curve to them...... this is good!

Step 14

We're going to draw mountains up the middle of the nose....start small, with each one getting just a tad larger.

Step 15

As you draw the larger mountains, leave aren't perfect mountains!

Step 16

The top mountain is quite a bit thicker and more squiggly. We will come fill it in later, but try to get some squiggles in there for now.

Step 17

Use your Black Sharpie to go back and color in all your markings. Leave some blank white space around the eye area as shown.

Step 18

When you get to your mountains, color them in with a shaky hand :) You don't want them looking like perfect mountains. Thicken them up a bit, add some blob to your top mountain, and draw random blobs on the sides.

Step 19

Add some details to your other markings. You can draw in some extra blobs, and connect your bird/mountain to the top of your paper.

Step 20

Here is how my tiger looks all filled in and with it's extra markings.

Part 2: Coloring with Oil Pastel

Now that you've drawn your tiger eyes, come see how to color them with oil pastels in the second part of our tutorial.

View Resource

Fall Leaf Art Project

October 16, 2014 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

There are so many amazing Fall Leaf Art Projects online that it’s hard to go wrong!

We’ve done quite a few over the years with great success, but this year I think we’ve hit gold!

This art project technique is inspired by these DIY Crystal GemsÂ I found at Small for Big.

(They are beautiful aren’t they? Â I think we’ll be making them soon too!)

Fall Leaf Art Project:

Materials: Â You’ll need a Fall leaf, Watercolors, Watercolor Paper, and Watercolor Pencils.

(Watercolor Pencils are optional, I explain why below)

Step 1: Trace a leaf shape onto your paper. Â If you have little ones you might do this part for them while they hold down the leaf.

Step 2: Draw a dot in the middle of your leaf. Â Use a ruler to draw straight lines from the dot to the pointy end of each part of your leaf. Â If you’re leaf doesn’t have many distinctive points, try to just spread out five or six diagonal lines.

Step 3: Draw connecting lines for each of your diagonal lines. Â If your leaf has many points you can use them as guide lines for where to draw another shape. Â We’re trying to make sharp shapes like triangles, rhombus, etc.

Step 4: This is how your leaf will look when done drawing. Â It’s sorta like a snowflake!

Step 5: Using your watercolors, begin filling in each shape with a different color. Â Try to make parts of the shape with BOLD and DARK color, and other parts with white or watered down color. Â You can use a napkin to blot out color and make white areas. This is great for making texture as well.

Step 6: Continue to fill in your shapes by alternating colors. Â We’re sticking mainly to Warm colors like reds, oranges, yellows, but don’t be afraid to add in some browns, purples, and greens too. Â These are all colors you’ll find in a fall leaf.

Step 7: Using a black watercolor pencil outline your leaf shape. Â You can use a sharpie marker as well, but I like the way a watercolor pencil “bleeds” into the painting a bit.

All Done! Â Frame your picture on black for a stunning display!

I love this project because the materials and the mess are minimal and children of all ages can participate. Â My 5 year old son did this Fall leaf and it turned out amazing!!

Here is a quick photo you can Pin for Later

Find Fall Leaf Templates, Coloring Pages, Worksheets, Sciene Resources and more here.

Van Gogh Art Project for Kids

September 17, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

We’re diving into our Artist studies this year, starting with Van Gogh. A couple of years ago we did this Starry Night Art Project, and this year we’re starting off with The Potato Eaters.

This is a fantastic painting to study for children of all ages, and I highly recommend looking into this book series by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each artists most famous paintings are discussed in great detail and these books would make a fantastic addition to your homeschool library.

We used our Oil Pastels for this project, which worked really well for blending, and overlapping color. We even used our fingernails in some parts to scratch away color.

All of our Master Artist projects come with a printable artist card you can use for displaying children’s artwork.

Click Here for the Full Art Project Tutorial.

Fall Leaf Art Printables

September 5, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

I just added a set of printable art cards to our member’s only area!

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This set includes five different leaves
each with different shapes, colors and textures for your little artists to explore.
These are super simple to print out and lay on the table for some quick art projects this Fall!

They would make quick Co-op projects if you have those coming up soon too!

Lots more freebies coming out this year,
be sure you’re subscribed for updates!