Seascapes

Coming off of their autumn-y landscapes dotted with Aspen trees, fifth graders have moved on to seascapes. I've done seascapes for a few years but decided to mix things up this year, combining elements of projects I found here and here.

Like that second plan suggests, I use this project to show the kids the work of Winslow Homer. The more I study his realistic oil paintings, the more I appreciate both his talent and dedication to the subject of the sea.

This year, the kids looked at some of Homer's watercolors and oils before starting their own. Everyone chose a tempera paint color palette with which to cover a 12x18" sheet of white paper. They loved blending their colors and experimenting with brush techniques to achieve smooth waters or crashing seas. They added some sgraffito if desired. On this day, art class was sponsored by the letter M. For MESSY.

On day two, all students painted another 12x18" sheet--this time, watercolors on watercolor paper--for the sky. This day was sponsored by the color blue, a.k.a. an excuse to wear my new blue pants.

The 'ocean paper' was torn horizontally to create white waves and surf--so cool! These pieces were layered onto the watercolor paper to make sky and water meet.

Lastly, we went over a few origami boat folds. Kiddos had lots of paper and sizes from which to choose. I required them to use differing sizes to demonstrate perspective.

I pre-taught my Art Enrichment kids how to do the folds so they could teach the others.

Pile-up in the marina!

My fifth graders really enjoyed this mixed media approach--when I hear, "this is so cool!" and "woooow!" I want to do a happy little dance (and sometimes my blue pants and I indulge).

Some kiddos really went wild with this. I had a few kids 'sink' their ships by ripping them in half, and others made little "S.O.S." flags or named their boats. One of my outside-the-box thinkers asked to use a black Sharpie to draw on the sky; I asked if she'd prefer to paint on clouds but she said she'd like to use the black marker. I said yes and she ended up with this rockin' result, graphic and bold like the rest of the artworks I've seen from her:

Gosh I love these kids.