"Year of the Dragon" art projects

My Grade 7-9 students recently finished their Chinese Dragons for Lunar New Year. This was an end of semester project for them. I gave them total free reign and said the only theme was "Chinese Dragon"- they could use any media they wished to illustrate this. I showed them a video about Lunar New Year celebration as well as one explaining the Chinese zodiac story. Some students shared how they celebrate with their families. I didn't do any tutorials other than showing them examples of dragons in Asian art. 

We discussed the physical  characteristics of a Chinese dragon. Chinese dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles and fish, but are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. Academicians have identified four reliable theories on the origin of the Chinese dragon: snakes, Chinese alligators, thunder worship and nature worship. They traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water.

Chinese dragons have nine characteristics which are a complex combination. They have a camel’s head, a demon’s eyes, a cow’s ears, a deer’s horns, a clam’s belly, a snake’s neck, an eagle’s claws, a tiger’s paws and 117 carp scales.

Prior to the lesson, I hunted down some dragon themed Lunar New Year decorations at our local Asian supermarket. They had loads to choose from as you can see below.

Look at these giant cans of Lays potato chips!!!

I was super impressed by how these artworks turned out!  Watercolour was a popular medium.

 

  

 

Winter Evergreen Tree Paintings

This is a charming winter landscape painting lesson that I saw on Art with Mrs. H's Instagram HERE.

We have a lot of snow here where I live in Canada- yes, in March!!

Grade 4-6 students started by painting a watercolour sky. That took one class.

Next class, I demonstrated how to paint an evergreen tree using black tempera. I encouraged Grade 5,6 student to paint two trees; Grade 4 students only had to paint one. 

Once that layer dried, they layered on gray paint. 

The final layer was white tempera.

Some added snow in the sky afterwards.

I mounted these onto coloured construction paper, then added a gold glitter border using white glue.

I love how these turned out!

Some finished Grade 4-6 artworks:

 

Sandra Silberzweig style Whimsical Portrait Paintings

 

Grade 4-6 students created these poster sized portrait paintings inspired by contemporary Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig. 

 She has a rare condition known as "synesthesia". People Diagnosed with this condition, see, hear and taste color! Children growing up with this condition, may not be aware that others do not see or experience the world as they do. She uses her talents to create tribal-like colorful abstract portraits. Her influences come from  many sources. Picasso's art influenced  her work most of all.  

I started off by showing a slideshow of Silberzweig's artwork. We discussed how stylized her portraits are, with elements of Cubism. 

On poster paper, students drew out their good copy face. 

Then they outlined them using a King Size Sharpie.

Some kids worked on the floor so they had space to spread out!

The first media they used was watercolour. They painted in all the areas of the face- not the background.

  

Next class, they added chalk pastel over top the watercolour in areas, and blended that out.

Then they painted the entire background with black tempera. This needed two coats to be fully opaque.

Once dry, they used gold tempera (I like the gold from the brand 'Handy Art') and painted a simple pattern on top of the black backgrounds.

The final step was using acrylic paint pens to add small patterns and line work 

Some Grade 4,5,6 paintings: