Art Outline Unit 2

This week's second grade project included several art vocabulary talking points, including warm and cool colors, unusual shapes, and how we can mix mediums to get the unique benefits from different materials.

Supplies: 

-pencil to sketch 

-watercolor paper

-watercolor paint and brush set

-black crayon 

-small cups of water/paper towels, for wetting and dabbing the brush. 

Time:

35-50 minutes (some students like to take their time and be more meticulous; others like to rush and be done. This gave a good range for both kinds). 

Plus 5-10 minutes of cleanup. 

I love seasonal studies, so I drew several examples of autumn leaf shapes on the white board. The students either copied mine (in pencil) or felt free to follow their own imagination and memory. 

Next we traced our leaves in thick markings with our black crayon. We discussed how the waxy crayons would resist watercolor paint and show boldly even after we added our colors. 

Finally the students added paint. Warm colors for inside the leaves and cool colors to surround. I explained how to use more water to diminish the tone of the background, so the saturated leaves would really stand out. Some of the students used this option and some chose to match the intensity of the leaves with their background. 

A few samples from today: