Flower Letters

Welcome back to school everyone!

I have been seeing a lot of these flower letters lately but wasn't sure how successful it would be as a school project.

So I came up with an art hack to make it a bit easier.  Click on image to see larger.











MATERIALS & SUPPLIES REQUIRED:

- good painting paper, more about this in a minute
- disk tempera paint
- smallish paint brushes
- letters cut out with a cricut, Ellison machine, or just old fashioned template
- glue
- pencil

PROCEDURE:

The paper I am using is this white construction paper by SunWorks.  I really like it.  The white is not actually construction paper but more like a good quality sketch paper with a bit of texture.  It works well as a student painting paper..... you will still have some buckling but it is much better than just regular paper.  It's cheap too :)

By all means you can use watercolour paper (wc) if you have it but it's pricey and out of most schools budgets these days.

First the HARD way, I traced out a letter on the paper in pencil.

Then using disk tempera and a small brush I began adding leaves and flowers. You need to maintain the edges of the letter so you need to be very careful while painting.

You also need way more flowers and leaves then you might think to get a good impression of the letter.



I don't know about you but I was thinking there has got to be an easier way for students.

So now the EASY way:



I still traced out a letter....

But this time I didn't really worry about maintaining the edges of my letter I just started painting.

I did this one with just leaves but again I am not worried about my edges.

I then take my letter tracer and trace and cut a letter out of poster board or painting paper. (You can also use your cricut or Ellison machine)

I then glue it into place on my painting.

I get the same effect but much easier.

Here is a side by side for you to compare.

Now you don't just have to do flowers. I did the all leaf one, a cactus one, and a sunflower one.

Here is a little cheat sheet on how I painted everything. (click to see larger)

Hope that gives you some inspiration and I will see you next time.


Gail

Flower Inchies

This spring I have done this flower inchie series with both Grade 3 and Grade 5, (different schools).


Amazing results.  As always each inchie represents a stand alone art project that you can do in larger form.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper, I used a 140lb cut into 3"x3" squares
- disk tempera
- acrylic paint
- white glue
- oil pastels
- a few buttons
- black beads
- black paper for mounting

PROCEDURE:

First up is the close crop.

1) Draw in pencil a close cropped view of a flower. Reference photos are always helpful.
2) With oil pastels do a bit of outlining.
3) Paint flower and background with disk tempera paint.

Painted Paper Collage

1) Paint a wc square a nice background colour with disk tempera.
2) Out of painted paper scraps cut flower petals. I have a stash of painted paper.  Whenever we paint we use up excess paint or paint extra to add to the stash.
3) Glue onto background and add a center.  Glue on a few beads as well to the center.

Black Glue Sunflower
1) Draw a sunflower on wc paper with pencil.
2) Go over lines with black glue.  I have a class set of black glue.  You can make it yourself by adding a few squirts of black acrylic paint into a white glue bottle. Shake and you are ready to go. I use the same set and just refill as needed.
Set aside to dry overnight, make sure it is lying flat.
3) Paint in with disk tempera.

Abstract Bouquet

1) Using acrylic paint I painted an orange splotch and blue background.

2) I added some dark purple parts to the splotch and then used it to show shadow side of vase.

3) I added a little green into splotch. I then took a little white paint and mixed a lighter version of both the orange and blue. I added the lighter blue into the background further defining the vase. I added the lighter orange into the splotch.

Drywall Flower 

1) Draw a flower shape onto cardboard and cut out.  Make sure it fits on wc square.

2) Cover with a little bit of drywall filler.

3) Set aside to dry overnight.

4) Paint background square. I used turquoise and green disk tempera.

5) Lay on a crumpled piece of wax paper. I then turn it over keeping the wax paper in place and put a magazine or something on top, (not too heavy). Leave to dry.

Next day:

6) Paint drywall flower with acrylic paint.

7) Glue on background.  Add some buttons in the center.

Hibiscus

This is one of my favourite painting projects to do with kids in the large form.  Do a practice drawing with the kids first.
1) Draw the stamen. It's like a horn or banana shape with dots or grapes at the point.

2) Next draw a petal, a ruffly rounded triangle shape.
3) A hibiscus needs 5 petals.

4) Do drawing on a wc square.
5) Add some oil pastel (white and yellow) to stamen.
6) Paint the background. I used blue and purple disk tempera.

7) Add a touch of red and pink disk tempera above the stamen.
8) Use a clean brush and wet it in some clean water. Just touch the edge of the center and pull out into the petal. You just want a subtle colour here. Repeat for all 5 petals.

That's it.

A great spring or summer art project.



Gail