Van Gogh Style Portraits

Vincent Van Gogh was famous for his self-portraits. We are thankful for that because now we can tell how he actually looked like in different times of his life. We had the kids paint their own self-portraits and have fun exploring their faces!
First we placed mirrors on the tables so they can see themselves as they are drawing,

Then we guided them through the drawing process.

 

Ask them questions - Where do you see you eyes? Do you have long or short hair?

 

Would you like to smile or be serious in your self-portrait?

 

Next class we had them paint their pictures. One of our kids decided to take it a step further and paint a portrait of his dad as well as Van Gogh painted a portrait of his friend the postman. And here are the results :-)

My Room - The Van Gogh Project

"Bedroom in Arles" is one of Van Gogh's famous paintings. Apparently he was a pretty messy guy (according to his friend Gauguin anyway) but he made sure he cleaned up his space before placing it forever on a canvas. 

Today the kids will create just the same painting. We had them each choose from which side they would like to portray their rooms and that is where they would sit and draw their sketches.

 

Next day they came to our studio and painted the rooms. It was quite darling to see the perspective with which they saw certain proportions or shapes.

 

Here are our final products together with Van Gogh's own.

The Starry Night Project

Our next artist is Vincent Van Gogh. Again, besides using Erica's resources, we came up with some extra activities for the kiddos to help them remember some famous paintings. Here is the famous Starry Night painting that we put a bit of a spin on...

You will need: 

card stock paper

black, yellow, white, and blue paint

paint brush

plastic forks

First have the kids use paint brushes and paint the bottom part of the painting. We used a painting in our book for the kids to see the details. Then, drip a big blob of yellow paint into the right corner and smaller blobs of white and blue along the top.

 

Then have kids use the fork to spread it around, swirl and twirl the paint just like this.

 

Everyone loved the effect and there is always certain excitement with using new things to create art with!

Our next Vincent Van Gogh project is coming up very shortly.

Jackson Pollock Resources

We would like to make your life easier and list some helpful resources on Jackson Pollock to make your learning fun.

Here are couple videos:

Art with Mati and Dada is really fun.

You can see some of his paintings by clicking here.

Here are some books we used for our study of his life and art:

Marble Art - Jackson Pollack Study

Get ready for some marble fun! This was a part of our Jackson Pollack's study. Not only were we using an unusual object to create art with, but also the final product resembled the artist's work

You will need:

deep tray

card stock paper

paint 

marbles

Ask the kids what colors they would like to use and place small dabs of paint on their paper. You don't want to use bigger amount only because it will be difficult for the marble to roll and it will be getting stuck everytime it will pass through the paint.

 

We used 3 marbles for each child. Have them pick up the tray and roll the marbles all over the paper back and forth and side to side. They had so much fun doing this they wanted to do more...

And here are our little Jackson Pollacks ;-)

Spoon Art - Painting the Pollack's Way

This was an easy one! We all know that Jackson Pollack used anything he could find around the kitchen to paint with. What did the kids find this time? Plastic spoons...

You will need:

card stock paper

plastic spoons

trays

paint diluted with water

 

Place the paper onto a tray and give your kids some paint diluted with water to run a bit easier.

Now just let them have fun swirling, twirling, and splashing the paint using their plastic spoons. Painting Pollack's style is always such a hit!

 

Action Jackson

The first artist in our study this year is Jackson Pollack. And what else would we start our lessons with but the action painting that Jackson Pollack is so famous for. 

You will need:

big paper
(we used two strips of paper that came with our easel. Next time I would go for sturdier paper or even giant canvas if that would be in your budget)

any kitchen utensils that you think would be fun to use 
cups

paint 

(we diluted regular washable paint with water but the artist used regular wall paint, so if you have some left over feel free to use that)

paint brushes

 

Be creative!

 

 Wish for good weather, because this is definitely an outside activity! Spread the paper on the ground and secure it with heavy objects on the edges. Let the kids have fun! They can pour, splash, sprinkle... but no actual painting allowed ;-)

 Be prepared for a whole lot of mess but even more fun!