Students cut custom stencils to create a striped pattern with implied form.
Category:TPT Products
Stacking the Deck
I like to begin the year with a series of preinstructional drawings. One of these involves drawing from a small still-life and then drawing from a similar photograph for comparison.
Goopy Shading Demo
Aestheometry Demo
Comic Panel Painting Demo
Reflective Metal Illusion Demo
Mystery Grid Drawing Demo
YouTube Channel
I’ve recently begun to update my YouTube channel.
Pastel Paintings 2018
My students completed their Pastel Animal Portraits recently.
Watercolor Self Portraits
My eighth grade class is just completing their self portraits in monochromatic watercolor.
Metallic Scratch Art
Students recently completed a scratch-art project on silver or gold metallic scratch board. In this example, the student used a reference animal graphic and chose to fill in the sections on the design using intricate patterns and designs. The lesson emphasizes the use of texture shading and using value and contrast to make details easily …
Continue reading Metallic Scratch Art
Fish Project
I’m tinkering around with a new resource with fish themed coloring sheets and reference images.
Shared Student Work
Thanks to Kim & Karen: 2 Soul Sisters (Art Education Blog) for sharing photos and a link with the results of students using some of my resources. Photos of student work is my favorite kind of feedback to receive.
Animal Art Projects
By request, this Animal Color Thumbnails (click the link) PDF file depicts color thumbnails of the Animals in my Animal Op-Art TPT product for those who would like a realistic representation of the op-art animal designs. These are also the animals included in my Pastel Animal Project as well as the Animal Op-Art Coloring Book edition.
Beste Liner Brushes
I recently purchased some Beste Finest Golden Taklon Hair liner brushes from Jerry’s Artarama for use on our comic panel paintings in tempera paint. I chose these brushes primarily because of the price and I was particular in wanting a long haired liner brush for those students who wished to try outlining their paintings in black …
Continue reading Beste Liner Brushes
Kaleidoscope Hearts
Eighth grade art students are working on their kaleidoscope mechanical drawing. I’ve done several varieties of these over the years. This year we are doing a heart shaped design on 18×18″ paper.
Mechanical Drawing Heart Designs
This week, students began creating Kaleidoscope Heart Designs. I like to have them do some variety of this type of art each year. Our first step is to create a blank heart template on 18×18″ white paper. Each student creates theirs from a demonstration I lead using a compass and ruler. One of the primary challenges is …
Continue reading Mechanical Drawing Heart Designs
Painting in the Classroom
I have had good results using tempera paint for middle school art. Being water soluble means that I never have to be concerned about paint spills or brushes and materials not being cleaned completely. Tempera paint can sit for a year and still be dissolved easily in water. I recommend avoiding the cheapest tempera and go …
Continue reading Painting in the Classroom
Flower Designs for Student Reference
I just put the finishing touches on some flower inspired graphics for student use. They make great reference material for various media.
Cooperative Posters 2016
We completed our final project for this year. Three cooperative grid posters.
Animal Op-Art
I’ve recently created some animal face op-art style designs to be used for reference, coloring and shading.
Op-Art Eggs
Last month, my students completed their Op-Art egg designs.We used a combination of marker and colored-pencil to create interesting color schemes on these pre-printed graphics. The focus was on contrast and blending as well as good shading techniques.
Tiki Doodle Art
Scratch Art Tiki Face Designs
We recently completed a scratch-art project using Tiki inspired symmetrical faces as subject matter. For this project, I chose to use the largest student-grade scratch material I could find. I believe the sheets were 11×13″. We discussed and practiced symmetrical transfer to create our own Tiki faces. I also made available a set of pre-printed …
Continue reading Scratch Art Tiki Face Designs
Tessellating Kaleidoscopes
Earlier this year, my students created tessellating mosaic tiles with individual kaleidoscope designs. The designs stack together for display. We created a common motif in each design so that a black and white stripe element coils continuously through the display. I chose to affix the artworks to a strip of kraft paper and display it like …
Continue reading Tessellating Kaleidoscopes
Martin Luther King Pictorial Maze
A free Martin Luther King pictorial maze in honor of the upcoming national holiday. https://goo.gl/BJqZn5
Scratch Art Tiki
We have been working on scratch art activities recently. For our final project, students will create a “carved” tiki-style face. We will emphasize giving the illusion of 3 dimensions while communicating a linear wood texture. Students can create their own face image or use my printable resources.
Veterans Day
My wife’s fourth grade class completed the Veterans Day cooperative poster.
Get ready for Veterans Day
A cooperative poster project for Veterans Day.
Spooooky Perspective
My classes are working this week on their Spooky/Autumn Perspective Drawings. I took the opportunity to prepare this lesson as a product for my TPT store. While my students work on theirs, it will remain at an introductory discount. I’ve enjoyed doing this project for years and I always do it a bit differently. This time, …
Continue reading Spooooky Perspective
Chrome FX in Colored Pencil
At the time of this post, my students are in the middle of working on their chrome emblem design. We apply blends in colored pencil to achieve the illusion of highly polished metal. For the next few days, my Metallic Shading Effect project on TPT will be on sale.
Love Back to School sale
I will be participating in the site-wide Love Back to School sale on TPT August 3rd and 4th.
Completed Cooperative Posters
Each grade level had time to complete a coop design. (6,7,8) For the tiger and leopard, students could choose their colors and materials but they were instructed to color the appropriate portions dark or light according to the example on their tile worksheet. There are always a few who fail to follow through on this. …
Continue reading Completed Cooperative Posters
Cooperative Poster Projects
I sometimes end the year with a cooperative poster project. It is a flexible activity that fits well with the odd schedules, interruptions, and make-up work that are unavoidable at the end of the year. Students who are done with their primary work move on to the coop poster while the others catch up. Some …
Continue reading Cooperative Poster Projects
Teacher Appreciation Sale
I will be participating in TPT sitewide sale this week with all my digital products.
Doodle Designs
This week, students began working on their Doodle Designs. This is where they fill in the page with freehand doodles and patterns. They are provided numerous examples to help with ideas for a variety of hand-drawn patterns. I’ve done several varieties of this project over the years. This year, I provided each students with a …
Continue reading Doodle Designs
Op-Art Orb Designs
Milestone Free Download on TPT
My 7-Day free download has expired. Thanks to all who shared or downloaded. You’ll be drawn to this #FlashFreebie! Thanks, Outside the Lines Lesson Designs. http://bit.ly/1HABxIW Posted by TeachersPayTeachers.com on Thursday, April 2, 2015
Spring Fever Collaborative Poster
Here is an example of a coloring grid completed by 4th grade students.
Op-Art Designs
My students began working on op-art designs this week. The designs are actually pre-printed copies. The activity is centered around applying color to the images. It’s a good opportunity to introduce a new technique or medium. This group is using watercolor pencils. As the designs are printed on regular copy paper, special considerations must be …
Continue reading Op-Art Designs
Egg Coloring
Egg-themed coloring sheets
Painted/Cut-Paper Color Wheel
This is one of the first projects I developed when I began teaching. Students create four recognizable shapes along a single theme to use for the three color groups and neutral gray. I provide the primary colors, students are to mix the rest. If pretty, bright violet is important to you, consider providing magenta paint. …
Continue reading Painted/Cut-Paper Color Wheel
Simple 3-D techniques
My sixth grade classes are completing a drawing to illustrate some very basic three dimensional techniques this week. We typically follow this with an introduction to linear perspective.
Read America Collaborative Poster
Students cooperate on a large grid poster. Just in time for Read Across America week!
Metamorphosis
I’ve added several new pages to my Tessellating Designs lesson on TPT. One of the new strategies illustrated is metamorphosis. My own classes will begin coloring their tessellations next week.
Tessellations
Today, my students began preparing for their Tessellation Design art projects.
More Presidential Progress
Earlier this week, students began applying color to their Presidential Portraits. We used watercolor marker for our color medium. When I know this project is coming up, I order a supply of red, blue, and black markers. Those happen to be the colors that tend to be used up quickest anyway, so its good to …
Continue reading More Presidential Progress
Positive Negative
My sixth grade students are well into working on their Positive-Negative cut paper artwork.
Presidential Progress
This is day four of the president drawings. Students are completing the grid drawing portion of the project. The first day, we created the grid. Those who completed it early were to create a second grid for a “back-up” or possibly extra credit. The next three days have been drawing the image square by square. …
Continue reading Presidential Progress
Picturing the Presidents
This week, my students are beginning the Presidential Portraits Art Project to be completed for President’s Day. This item has been recently updated with improved and additional resources.
Maze makin’
I’ve found myself creating some new mazes this week.
Apollo 11 Grid Drawing
I posted a couple of new resources this week.
Preinstructional Drawings
I like to begin a new group of students with a series of preinstructional drawings. One of the series makes use of a small still-life object. One is placed in front of each student to be drawn for a example of drawing from life in order to compare that activity with a number of other drawing types. …
Continue reading Preinstructional Drawings
Nutcracker Graphics
My wife’s students were going to see a performance of The Nutcracker this week so she asked me to help her out with an activity for when they return. I prepared a set of nutcracker inspired faces for her students to color. They are full page designs but also set up to print in other …
Continue reading Nutcracker Graphics
Drawing in Linear Perspective
Quite a line-up of projects have come and gone since I began teaching. Linear perspective, however, will always have a place in my curriculum. It’s one of those fundamental techniques that can be put to use by a wide range of skill and experience levels. There are also endless varieties of drawings that perspective can …
Continue reading Drawing in Linear Perspective
Shading with Texture
My classes will be moving on to Scratch-Art soon. I always like to precede scratch-art with some texture shading lessons. I have quite a few handouts prepared for this but I only use a selection of them depending on the grade and skill level. Currently, I am working with 6th grade. We began a few …
Continue reading Shading with Texture
TPT Cyber Savings
I have uploaded a discount product bundle for the Super Cyber Savings event on TPT. Seven cooperative coloring grid projects.
Aestheometry Designs
Students are currently working on their Aestheometry design. Pictured here are the materials that we use daily. Upper left: Nineteen different aestheometry practice sheets that are distributed over several class periods. Upper middle: The large paper with the number four is a student folder that we create at the beginning of the year. It’s a 18×24″ …
Continue reading Aestheometry Designs
Christmas Tree Cooperative Poster
I recently posted a new cooperative grid product in my store. This bundle contians four versions. The coloring grid features pre-printed sections ready to be colored and assembled by the students. The drawing grid guides the students in drawing the sections themselves prior to coloring in various media. One can choose to have students complete a Christmas …
Continue reading Christmas Tree Cooperative Poster
On the Board
Students are working on their Aestheometry Designs. I provide several days worth of design exercises and encourage students to experiment with a variety of materials before beginning the final designs. Each student will complete a design on white paper and a second one on black paper. I provide metallic colored pencils for the black paper …
Continue reading On the Board
PDF Editing
My TeachersPayTeachers store consists primarily of resources in PDF format. A number of customers have inquired about editing the files. The majority of these files are not intended to be edited by customers and I would not encourage it. Rather, if you find an error in a file, let me know through the TPT question …
Continue reading PDF Editing
On the Board – Hidden Lizards
Students have begun their Hidden Lizards drawing. They design a background over which they come up with an imaginative way to “camouflage” a lizard, frog or snake.
TPT Banner
Playing around with a fun little banner for my TPT store in the “personal quote” space.
Why are you being asked to register as a customer?
If you have purchased or are interested in my teacher resources, I encourage you to register as a customer. While TPT is a great marketplace for buyers and sellers, I have found the customer communication options are very limited. With an accurate mailing list I am better able to notify my customers of sales and other opportunities. Additionally, …
Continue reading Why are you being asked to register as a customer?
Sharpener maintenence
Even custom built monster sharpeners eventually need replacement blades. One can prolong the useful life of a sharpener by swapping blades on the dual hole models. This is due to the fact that one blade will likely get more use than the other. In my classes, the sharpeners are used most heavily for extra thick Prang colored pencils I provide, resulting …
Continue reading Sharpener maintenence