May 16 2011
Last week, we wrapped up our fishtank project with my last two classes. Everyone agreed that this was a real blast to do. Does anyone have any suggestions for a big project like this for next years first thru third grade classes? I have a few ideas, but I’d like to hear your feedback.
Apr 25 2011
Some of you did not get the chance to draw the jellyfish. I’d say about half of the classes I taught did not get to draw it.
For those classes who did get to draw the jellyfish, more than likely you were quiet and followed directions well, and got to draw it as a reward.
Here is the printable ‘how-to’ for the jellyfish:
Here is my jellyfish.
Apr 16 2011
Now, if you did not draw a pufferfish, that is ok. In fact, only one class got to draw the pufferfish.
During class, when we finished our drawings quickly and quietly, I had us do an extra drawing as a reward for those who wanted to.
The actual pufferfish ‘how-to’ sheet can be printed from here:
Here is my pufferfish that I drew and colored.
Apr 10 2011
I wanted to include some more pics in the aquarium project process.
After I applied water to the canvas boards, I then applied the acrylic paint to the wet surface. The ratio is roughly 3 parts blue, 1 part red, and 1 part yellow.
Leaving a swirly pattern with the blue seems to really please the students, but I’ve also tried zig-zags and other sorts of foreign letters as a means to spread the paint. My first attempt at using the large paint pump left me with a hurting back, and the pump itself isn’t reliable. I had a ‘pump’ malfunction during another class, and I found myself extracting the pump mechanism for each canvas and smearing the blue pump innards on the canvas… that worked too. After that incident, I began using small, hand held containers, and refilling them after every class… especially the blue paint.
Be prepared for problems.
Always have a plan B.
Please note my consistent strategy in keeping the red and yellow at opposite ends of the wet canvas, this helps us avoid more of the brown colors. A brown fish tank is not a healthy fish tank in my book. 
Apr 04 2011
Here we have some pictures from our Second Grade artists. I’m sure you can see how pleased some of them are with their completed work.
The only issue we had with some of them was a bit of overhang. I’m sure this can be easily corrected by gently peeling off the piece of art in question and just re-applying it to the canvas board itself.
Mar 29 2011
Here are some pics of some of our completed fish tanks! It is soooo exciting!
First, see how some of our canvases turned out. It’s always wonderful to see how different each student’s canvas is different even though the same amount of paint and water is used.
First grade shown here.
Mar 23 2011
I am excited to see some changes in our projects this week.
The first thing I’m happy about is that my last two sixth grade classes that were painting the acrylic ‘boat house’ picture are now finished. Woo hoo! Now, don’t forget to take those canvas boards home.
The second thing is that my first class to finish our ‘Aquarium’ project is Ms. E’s 2nd grade class!
I am very proud of you all.
Just a reminder for those of you that have art on friday, I will be working all day with the Kindergarten on the Kinder Rodeo. I am sorry, but duty calls.
** P.S. Pictures of our finished fish tanks will be making it to the web very soon. **
Mar 19 2011
The very last step for our project is cutting out our drawings and pasting them to the finished canvas.
As I have mentioned in class, it’s best for all of us to cut them out together and paste them as a class.
I also have mentioned that there may be overlap on some of our drawings, and for those of us who draw large pictures, maybe some of the drawings will not fit at all. This is ok. That is where some of your decision making comes into play as an artist, and the ones we don’t cut out, can be left safely in our art binder.
Something else that I have noticed is that some of the paper might curl a little toward the edges of our art. There are two solutions to keep your drawings from falling off the canvas.
Solution 1 - Place your finished project in a frame. The glass in the frame will look very cool and will help the illusion of it being an actual fish tank!
Solution 2 - If a frame is not available, our project can be covered in clear contact paper. The contact paper isn’t cheap, but might be less expensive than an actual wooden or metal frame. One of the hazards of contact paper is that it is like a big clear sticker, and if you aren’t careful when applying, sometimes air gets trapped under the paper, making air bubbles. This hazard can work for you and actually lend to the illusion that your tank has water in it! I think that is pretty cool.
Next time, I will be adding some of the BONUS creatures that we have drawn.
Mar 18 2011
Now that we are done drawing our main set of things to go into our aquarium, we will then work on our background.
The background for our fishtank could easily be done with a piece of light blue construction paper, but if we really want this to be a proper “mixed media” project then we will use some canvas boards.
We will use our canvas with acrylic paint and a wet-brush technique.
Step 1 - we cover the canvas with a light sheen of water. I use a big house painting brush to do this for the students.
Step 2 - we add the paint. I place a drop of red in one corner. A drop of yellow in the opposite corner and a nice healthy amount of blue right in the middle.
Step 3 - the students mix the colors, completely covering their canvas. I recommend not bringing the yellow over to the red paint thru the blue, otherwise it turns brownish… and no one wants a brown fish tank, yuck.
It’s cool to watch the drops of paint interact with the small amount of water and how it begins to spread out. I used very little paint on my own canvas, and I didn’t bother to mix it up too much which you will see in this picture here:
Step 4 – get the canvas away from the student when it looks done, and let it dry. Make sure their name and home room teacher name is on the reverse side.
Next post will be about wrapping the project up, and the few posts after that will deal with extra objects to add to the project, with downloadable instructions.
Mar 16 2011
Week 6 brought us to the Sucker-Fish, or Algae-Eater as my Grand-dad used to call them. Their real name is a plecostomus. These are weird fish. Just weird…
They just sit there and suck on the glass, or rocks. Thinking really deep thoughts.
This fish is not drawn just like our first fish, no sir-ee. Please note the longer body, the black little eyes, the extra fins, and even the fin details are different. This is all part of the plan.
Like I have mentioned in class, part of what makes a group of cartoon characters interesting is that they have their differences. Look at Mickey Mouse, he and Donald Duck are roughly the same height and mass, but they are totally different in design … and in personality. Goofy is longer in body and is nothing like Donald or Mickey.
So, lets enjoy the differences between our two types of fish. You can do the same thing when creating your own creatures, and designing your own characters.
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