Fun and Funky Folk Art!

I have to preface this with the fact that I have absolutely terrific projects going in the shop write now. The only problem is that they are all Christmas presents and I can't blog about them lest I spoil the holiday surprises! This is a lesson in patience for a very impatient person! 

Fortunately my students have been working on a fun art project the past couple weeks and a handful of them are complete for the world to see! 

I found this clever plan on Pinterest (of course) and couldn't wait to give it a shot! I have to say that for a person who is able to craft and create on my own, but not share and teach such things very well, Pinterest is a teacher's lifesaver! I have become a fan of an art project blog, Painted Paper, that is chalk-full of kid friendly projects. 

Material list:

8.5" by 11" white paper

Pencils

Black Sharpies

Crayons

Water color paints

Black construction paper

To start the project, we looked at the inspiring folk artist, Heather Galler (check out her Etsy shop). I then gave students the basic steps aloud, written on the board, and showed them my example pieces. Students needed to use about 2/3 of the paper to create an outline of the landscape, including any hills or curves. They then divided the land space into at least fifteen areas.  Once they had the land divided up, they added patterns including stars, hearts, stripes, checkerboards, flowers, zigzag lines, and many more creative designs.  The final piece of pencil work was to create a barn or house, one or more trees, and a festive, funky sunshine.  All of the pencil lines were then carefully traced with black Sharpie marker so they would stand out in the end.

The students then used crayon to color in the patterns, leaving the background of each area white.  If they had stripes or checkerboard patterns, many kids colored every other section so they could add color through paint to the remaining sections.  

Once the crayon work was complete, they carefully painted in the all of the white paper that was left. This gave the art pieces great dimension and texture. Once the paint was dry, art was mounted on black construction paper, and boy did the colors pop! The final products that I have received thus far are AMAZING! Absolutely phenomenal! I may be biased, but seriously... Check them out!