Teaching contrast in art

Looking for a fun art project for Martin Luther King? Try this positive/negative project! It's perfect for grades 2, all the up to middle school! You will find directions and a freebie project outline on my blog, Teaching With Style. Happy Creating!

Now that I've made it through my first semester as a PreK-12th grade art teacher, I wanted to write some posts reflecting on what worked well and what didn't. I've been exploring Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) for a few years now but this was my first time to try it out with 7th-12th grade. 5 hours of my day are spent with high school students- 1 hour is advanced art, 1 hour is computer graphics, and 3 hours are "graphic design". My advanced class assignments have been theme based. I…

For the 2nd graders' second project in their shape unit, we focused on identifying and using natural shapes in a drawing. We also took some time to talk about and identify positive and negative shapes in our work, too. This project was pretty easy to execute and the results are pretty terrific. I found the project on pinterest. No info except for four student examples in a photo. The drawing took us about 40 minutes to do, which left 10 minutes for our exit slips and 10 minutes for choice…

This is a fun project that is perfect for classes in the fall. If you won’t be celebrating Halloween, you can still do this project and make it pumpkins in the fall instead of jack-o-lanterns. Other than cutting the paper, there is no prep involved.

Learn about the art concept of contrast when you create this fun twist on the traditional apple prints kids craft: Black and White Apple Prints.

Isn’t always fascinating to see what is behind the top layer of a painting? Every time I look at an artist’s artwork I wonder what was the first mark on the surface? How many passes were made? Did the artist already have something in mind? Was it completely spontaneous and intuitive and built directly in the moment? Did the artist do preparatory sketches?

This was a really fun, fast and furious one day art project I did last week with my mixed Grade 4-6 art class. I saw the project HERE on a fellow Canadian teacher's website: https://www.mmemarissa.com/art-projects. She is a French Immersion elementary teacher from British Columbia who posts many art lessons. She posts all the steps to the mummy eyes project and also includes a free eyes template. I ordered these new neon oil pastels (from Amazon) for the project. Usually the Mont Marte brand…

Shading layers. Pencil drawing. Illusion of depth. Art lesson.