Creating Murals 101

I have been asked many times "How do you create a large mural?" I find murals to be the perfect expression of kid art.  It gives them a large area to put down their ideas, as well as work together with their classmates for a common goal.  Some students love to paint a specific item and that is what they focus on while others love creating shapes that turn into flowers, trees, animals or plants. 

You have asked for it ....so I have created a video on Vimeo
Creating Murals 101 by Painted Paper as well as some photos of the process on this blog. So grab some paints and brushes and go create!

INSPIRATION

I have a wonderful pop-out poster of a tropical rainforest, that the students enjoy to look at for ideas,
as well as visuals on the smart board, and old National Geographic Magazines.

Supplies
Large display paper is torn and laid over our work tables. Then medium paintbrushes and tempera paints are passed out to the students to let the creations begin.

DESIGN
Students start with the lightest colors first then move to the darker colors...
I start with the first class of the day, 2nd grade, and every class after them 4th, 3rd add more details then 5th grade finishes with the black outlining of designs on the mural. 

No need for a placemat because the display paper is so large

DETAILS

5th graders were my last class of the day so they outline with black tempera paint to make the images "POP"

You will find various leaves, trees and vines were created by the afternoon 3rd graders.

DRYING

DISPLAYING

Hanging is the fun part because you can step back and enjoy such fun creations!

Mountain Landscapes

Deep in the country of Mexico lies the Sierra Madre Mountain range.  While preparing for our Fine Arts Festival  -The Mexican Marketplace and Tropical Rainforest-my 5th grade students created these beautiful mountain landscapes that included at least 3 landscape details. 

DETAILS

such as: horizon line, foreground with trees and plants, middle ground with hills, smaller trees, rivers or streams, and background with mountains, sky etc.

SKETCH

First, students used pencils to sketch out their drawings, 

PAINT
next they painted with tempera paints, I brought out the egg cartons filled with lots of colors

students started with the warm colors first

 
then continued painting with the cool colors

It is all in the details...
Some added cabins with snow capped mountains,  

while others added streams and rivers, 

OUTLINE

once the vibrant landscape paintings were dried, 

students outlined all the details with black tempera paint

 TEXTURE

lastly, oil pastels were added for texture

ADMIRE

I love seeing the beautiful colors hanging in the hallway...

MATERIALS
12 x 18 sulphite paper
premium tempera paint
brushes thin and wide
oil pastels

these materials are all you need to create beautiful mountain landscapes! Create and Enjoy!

Laura

FoLk ArT BiRdS

I have been using painted paper for a while, it just really adds spectacular color to students work. This project was a combination of tempera painted birds shapes with painted paper details such as feathers, claws, beaks. etc.  

I had my 3rd graders use a template to get started, (this class has some severe special needs and I put out a template to get them started as well as feel successful with the bird shape.) 

My key objective of this project was  *create patterns (not the shape of the bird)
                                                            * folk art usually has fun personalized patterns.

The students loaded up their paintbrushes and started painting feverishly the first class.
I love the thick, broad paint strokes!

After the paintings were dry, students add shapes with painted paper to complete the bird. 

Claws, feathers, beaks, eyes, etc. brought out the personality of the bird.

Once the details were complete the students added oil pastels on top of painted patterns 

Rainbow Bird

Polk-a-dotted bird

 Once they were all done, we added them to a fun background made from art display paper and displayed them for our art show.

Creative, Colorful Chalk

As we prepared for our annual Fine Arts Festival my fourth graders had been creating some beautiful projects. This one has been a favorite. Students created a glue resist chalk drawing by first using pencils to draw their image; then applying glue directly to the drawing and coloring in the image with chalk.  

Day One: Beautiful birds outlined in glue. I used Elmer's Glue All because sometimes the school glue has too much of a liquid consistency.

Make sure you have a flat surface so the glue dries neatly.

Day 2: The students were all smiles!

They love blending and shading their tropical rainforest birds. With all the vivid colors at their disposal 
they went to straight to work.

Toucans!

When blending I demonstrated how to use a different finger with each new color so the colors stay bright.

Parrots!

Sometimes the students just didn't want to go back to class. 

They wanted to keep working! Like this one. 

Butterflies and Dragonflies!

I just love how all these turned out!

Each 4th grade class created different rainforest creatures.

So go ahead grab some chalk and have fun!

Laura