Hip Hop Tigers

2nd and 3rd grade Grunge Tigers!

With 2nd and 3rd grade I wanted to start with something really fun, bold and new. My girls LOVE letting their paint drip and watching it trail along the paper making colorful lines. I decided to do something using this idea!

 I have done neon tigers before but not quite like this.  I let the students choose which animal was their favorite before we started and they chose tigers! We started with viewing lots of images of tigers from books. We talked about and examined the stripe patterns in different kind of tigers. Then we drew them first with black crayon and painted with black paint to make bold dark stripes. 

Students used neon paint and I started my example like this. On top of the nose. I only gave them pink, blue, and yellow (primary colors) I told them to paint a large yellow a stripe across the nose and then a blue one above it, blend in the middle so that all three colors are showing. I made sure to tell them that when they mixed the colors not to cover the original color so that the tiger has many many colors when its done.

I gave them tracers for decorations or they could make their own

Splatter/ dripping stations were set up on one side of each table so they wouldn't splatter paint the people across from them 

They tap the brush with their finger, NOT fling with the wrist/arm!

black tempera was used for drips at the top

Finished Big Big Cats

2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade finsihed working on their Big Big Cats last week. Here are a few of the finished products. Students outlined and added details with oil pastels when finsihed. Some students drew girraffes and zebras in the background along with the Acatia trees. We used gold and copper tempra for the grass. I am sort of obsessed with metallic tempra paint. It's different, the kids like it, and it just adds an element of surprise and interest to a painting!

BIG BIG CATS!!

Do you ever feel like you could write a book of facts on a particular subject after teaching something over and over to group after group! Ask me about Big Cats!! "Why don't you look at the book when you read it, Mrs. Waggenspack" they ask. I guess its because I've read it four billion times!
So we are painting Big Cats on Big paper. Students have lots of pictures to look at. I show them how to draw a basic big cat face, then we look at the special markings on different cats.
All students are required to draw the iris, pupil, and reflection of light on any face we draw. We focused on using a dry brush for texture/fur, creating value by blending colors from light to dark, and using our watercolor knowledge for the background. We used tempra on the cat and watercolor and oil pastels on the background.


Some kids added interesting details like a fresh kill






First the students outline their drawings with a dark brown or dark orange.







Then they add light colors (yellow, white, light orange) to blend the edges from dark to light

We used my favorite super bright liquid watercolors from sargent to paint the background. I also let them use gold tempra in the grass and I put gold glitter paint in the orange paint to add a subtle sparkle to the cats! Kids LOVE anything that sparkles!!

I will post more cats as more groups finish them.