4th Grade - Laurel Burch inspired Printed Cat Portraits

Laurel Burch Printed Cat Portraits!  A very simple printmaking project with a couple fun embellishments!  A great  LINE, COLOR, TEXTURE and DESIGN lesson. You can lean any way you decide!

Week 1 - We look at the art of Laurel Burch, mostly her cats. We discuss their BIG human like eyes and beautiful patterns. Students drew their own cat portrait on a 6x9 piece of white paper. Then tape it and lightly trace it to a piece of printing styrofoam the same size. I like to use ball point pens to press the foam down further, to get it ready for printing. 

Week 2 - Students select 4 pieces of 6x9 pieces of construction paper in various colors. Then with old oil pastels, we color on the side a bit, making the paper multicolored. Once done, we printed our styrofoam with black printing ink. 

Week 3 - Students selected the best 2 of 4 prints to frame side by side on white 7x10, then down to a 12x18. We used colored metallic papers for eye balls, with black oil pastel lines if they liked. Then paper crimpers to make colorful whiskers. The final steps made them look more finished! A very satisfying product in the end!

 

2nd Grade - Laurel Burch Fantastic Felines!

A real favorite of mine... Top 10 when it comes to results. My students have always done an amazing job with this lesson. After a BIG look and discussion about the beautiful designs, patterns and colors of Laurel Burch's Fantastic Felines... we get to it!

I teach 4 sections of each grade level. To stay organized and add variety to our show, I have two classes use warm color papers, the other two classes, cool colored paper. Students get to choose, from 4-5 colors. First, students are taught how to draw the sitting cat and laying cat with just chalk on the board. They choose the one they want to paint...

and then we get started...

It seems scary to paint direct, with no pencil drawing first, but I prefer to. The only thing students draw with pencil is the head. I have them trace a 6" circle in the top corner of the paper first. It establishes scale. We start with outlining the head with black tempera, then draw the front legs. Tall cats - I stress all the way down to the bottom of the paper. Laying cat - under the head towards the bottom. 

Then paint the cat's back, stretching all the way over to the side of the paper and down. Then the back leg, big letter C with a foot that is a flat littler c. 

The face details - large human like eyes, long nose and simple smile. Then PATTERNS! We stop for a minute and look at her cats again and look at the patterns she used. I demonstrate painting the patterns on the whole cat and then let them go!

Coloring, we discuss her use of warm and cool colors but I give them freedom to be creative with their color choices. I only stress good craftsmanship, careful, purposeful coloring.

When Cats Fly! An Homage to Laurel Burch Mural Painting 2016!

I LOVE this time of year! I am seriously as excited as my students to begin the annual Spring mural painting!  I am lucky to have this very large space in the halls of my building covered with bulletin boards.  I staple up large banner paper, draw out a HUGE drawing and number it by color.  This year, our paint by number mural has 28 colors! I LOVE color, love mixing colors and seeing it come together before my eyes! This is my second year creating a time-lapse video documenting the masterpiece!  ENJOY!!!

Here are the finished photos...

The next three paintings are at the end of our academic wings...

2nd Grade Romero Britto Cats and Dogs!

I LOVE Romero Britto!  His art is so full of color energy, it wakes me up just to look at it!  Just like a cup of coffee!  My students loved Britto too, they loved making these cats and dogs.  Everyone was able to choose cat OR dog, since some people are cat people and others dog people.  The first day we looked at several of his works of art and discussed his use of color and pattern, (Romero Britto Prezi) and then I directed a drawing lesson with 4 variations of ears, and sitting positions.  

They did a great job! 

Second week we painted in the whole cat/dog.  Third week we outlined with black tempera and added dot and stripe patterns with the colors.  They turned out great!  Each has it's own personality!!!