It's a Small World Mural - Time-Lapse Video - 3rd, 4th, & 5th

Mary Blair and Joey Chou are the inspiration behind these murals. I loved Mary Blair's original work for Disney. All of her amazing illustrations remind me of my childhood. Joey Chou was hired to modernize her It's a Small World illustrations. He did an amazing job and is now a big source of inspiration of mine.

I pre-drew several versions of the city on paper before I grabbed my chalk and drew on the black paper. But when I start, I like it to flow, I do not stick to the drawing. It is more a guideline and source of ideas. 

Once the whole drawing is complete, I go mix my paint. MIX PAINT BEFORE NUMBERING! You need to know how many numbers you need. I like to mix a lot of intermediate colors, trying to stretch the color wheel. 

Once colors are mixed,  I number and create a chart for myself. Additionally, I set up a paint cart and get it labeled and numbered. 

Once the paint is mixed, I number the painting! usually 20-26 colors... depending on the subject. 

When students start painting, they are instructed to OUTLINE each shape before painting it in. They get one color, I hand them the cup. They look for their number only. For the most part, they all do it perfectly. I do not worry if there is a spot painted with the wrong number.

Once we got most the mural painted in, I added the black and white ribbon in the background and the tile look at the bottom. It needed a break in color. Then to fill in the back ground, we printed with large sponges on sticks, gold tempera paint. It finished it off!

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!

3rd Grade - Laurel Burch inspired Suns & Moons

These are so happy! A very simple lesson... we looked at the art of Laurel Burch. She is most known for her cats, but she did some other subjects like suns & moons too. Students could decide which, sun, moon or a sun/moon combo. We worked in warms and cools. 

First step, we traced a 8" circle in the middle of a 18x18 piece of colored construction. We drew very little with pencil. The large eyes, long nose. Then depending on what type of ray... triangular or more soft, they drew one at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. Then we got the paint out and outlines the pencil lines carefully, and added more rays and details. The second day, we started coloring. I recommended warm and cool colors, since we discussed all the color groups. But I always like to leave it up to them. It is always more creative looking.