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!

 

4th Grade - Laurel Burch Fantastic Felines Mural in Black & White

Laurel Burch is so inspiring to me, I love her cats in color AND in black & white.  This version of Fantastic Felines was created on 18×24 light gray, dark gray and black paper.  Students painted with only black and white, mixing grays. Then to finish, we used some gold acrylic to bring out their decorative lines and patterns.  Thrown in some large flowers, you have a great display!

1st Grade - Laurel Burch inspired Collage Cats!

This is an ALL TIME FAVORITE lesson of mine. I have taught it many times, with very minor adjustments, depending on my mood. Always, I show students several works of art by Laurel Burch. We look at her color, line and shape patterns. 

I have 4 classes of 1st graders, so to keep everything organized, I have two classes make tall cats, two classes make wide cats. One of each start with a warm color head other, a cool colored head.  

Once the heads are traced and cut, students start with 2" strips of paper, cutting zigzag and curvy lines. They glue them down. Then, they cut white paper for eyes and a colored piece for the center.  Next, a folded 4x6 is cut for the mouth area, a strip is cut for the nose. Eyelashes and wiskers are optional. 

When all the collaging is done, we work on adding pattern through dotting with different sized circle sponges on stick.

Last step, we make flowers with leaves. Flowers are tempera paint with black India Ink details. Leaves are green construction paper with black India Ink.

Always a crowd pleaser! 

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!!!