Inspiration: Arthur Rackham

One of my all-time favourite illustrators is Arthur Rackham, illustrating fairy tales, fantasy stories and classics- and he was amazing at drawing trees. He was part of the Golden Age of British book illustration. He created his work using pen and ink with watercolour.

Here are a few examples of his work, for some mid-week inspiration:

Turtle island tree mural project- Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

After learning about Indigenous history and some Ojibwe creation stories, my Grade 4 and 5 class created this mural in the school library. Each student designed a circle to add to the mural with symbols and colours that represent their identity.

I sketched the tree on the wall and another teacher drew the turtle. Students painted the tree and the turtle and added patterns on top of the bark.

It still seems miraculous that we managed to complete this project in 2 weeks! Everyone had a lot of fun and the students will leave a lasting legacy.

We used house paint and paint markers (for finer details).

* see my previous mural projects at schools here: 2016 , 2014 and 2013 and a how-to post here.

- Patrick

Symbolic Self-portrait class project

A fun and rewarding studio art project is the Symbolic Self-portrait. To do this you will need a projector and some large coloured paper.

Step 1: tape a piece of large coloured paper to the projector screen

Step 2: have each student come up one at a time and sit on a chair in profile in front of the projector screen and shine the projector towards the screen (this creates a shadow profile of the student on the paper that you taped up)

Step 3: trace the outline of the student's profile on the paper (or have students work in pairs to trace each others' profiles)

Step 4: have students brainstorm things that represent their identity

Step 5: have students research visual references for their chosen symbols and items

Step 6: have students organize the space inside their traced profile to draw their symbols using the reference images they found

Cool stuff coming up at the A.G.O.

There's lots of cool stuff coming up at the A.G.O., check out their site for more info: https://ago.ca/

First of all, starting today (May 25th) and going for the next year for sure,
anyone under 25 gets in free!!!!!
Also, annual passes are $35!!!!!  
A few great changes from C.E.O. Stephan Jost- thank you!

I can't wait to check out:

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room (now open and part of the permanent collection)
Brian Jungen: Friendship Centre (opening June 20th)

- Patrick

French Elements and Principles of Design Handouts and Worksheets

Les Éléments et Principes de Design!

I have uploaded French Elements and Principles of Design Handouts and Worksheets to my Teachers Pay Teachers site:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Les-Elements-et-Principes-de-Design-4559755

These are great to use with any age group.

Patrick

Coco Oil Pastel scratch-board project

Recently my class had a great time making their own scratch-board using oil pastels. We used the "Land of the Dead" from the movie Coco as inspiration for a colourful, geometric, fantasy landscape.

Step 1: use warm coloured crayons to colour a white sheet of paper
Step 2: cover the crayon completely with black oil pastel
Step 3: use a toothpick to draw (scratch away) a geometric landscape to reveal the colour beneath

This is great way to use a new technique with different materials and practice using the principle of design: contrast and the elements of design: colour, shape and form.

Here are some examples of student work:

Patrick

Class Snowflake Project

Happy Holidays!

A simple, traditional and fun winter art activity is the class snowflake project. For this, I used two different basic templates for students to use as guides and then cut to make their own patterns.

They look great all together up in the hall, and make the school look more festive and ready for winter!