Mrs. Miller – Messy Art Teacher Blog
Art Teacher and Artist
Elementary Art Lessons from Messy Art Teacher
I just posted a lesson on the SmartArtteacher for my K-1st grade lesson on Sandy Skoglund’s Revenge of the Goldfish. Fun lesson! I did this years ago with students. Here is the link to the lesson. Revenge of the Goldfish Art Lesson by Messy Art Teacher.
I created this video because when I went to the art supply store I got so overwhelmed at the different types of handles and nibs that are offered for dip pens. This covers the basics of which nib fits with which handle. How to care for the nibs. I store my nibs and handle in an old plastic battery case from Radio Shack. It fits perfectly and it was free. Then I did a speed inking of a drawing of some characters. I purchased mine from Dick Blick.
My students even in elementary school loved using dip pens. I used to teach them calligraphy starting in 3rd grade after cursive was removed the curriculum. I told them you should be able to make your name distinctive like John Hancock. It leaves an impression. We talked briefly about how it was used in the past and tie it into social studies.
To purchase your own nibs and handles. This is the basic set I purchased in college. https://www.dickblick.com/products/speedball-c-style-calligraphy-set/
Amazon Affiliate: https://amzn.to/3fOTp7W
Here is the other handle Crow Quill for fine lines: https://www.dickblick.com/products/speedball-crow-quill-dip-pen-nibs/
Amazon Affiliate: https://amzn.to/2JtR4TR
I posted my freebie Behavior Crayons on my TPT store. This is for elementary art teachers.
I’m not going to post lessons this week. I’m in a starting phase next week, and I would like to post some image as well when they are finished. I decided to make a purchase of some new art supplies. I’m teaching a beginning drawing class at Georgia Southern University for the Continuing Edu Classes at Night. They classes are 2 hrs long at once a week. I’m so looking forward to getting back to drawing classes. I do my work digitally now but I really enjoy drawing by hand. I feel like my Wacom Cintiq gets pretty close, but I still love pencil, pen & ink, and watercolor.
I noticed on the website when I was ordering they are doing BOGO’s depends on what you are ordering. I saw it for the Canson XL Mix Media Pads. I like these drawing pads a lot. Own a smaller one, and I use it for pen/ink, watercolor. It doesn’t bleed through. The paper is a strong cold press and has a nice tooth.
There are some Tombow pens that they are also doing a BOGO special when you buy a set. I decided not to get that. I’ll have to wait to invest in the Tombows. I’ve heard great things about their pens.
I will do a video unboxing and try some facebook live video feed when I get my purchase and also try to video record me unboxing everything using my digital camera. We’ll see how that video set up goes. I’ll tell you about the quality of the supplies I got. I think I’ll try and do a demo for the products on my instagram.
I’ve been seeing lots of social media ads for Arteza. I like the look of their products. Never used them, but their watercolor brush pens have been calling my name. Stay tuned for some art supply reviews. I miss working in traditional media.
I’m super excited to try this with my animation class. I could do this with my graphics/photography class as well. About 4 months ago this app came out called Artivive. I think it takes art into a whole new realm. Animation and video bring a new dimension to the work. The app is available for android or iOS. Free!!! Every art teacher on a budget has got to love it. I’m thinking I’ve taught my animation students how to creating animations in Photoshop and then export as MP4 files. They we print out a frame from the animation then print out the symbol that activates the animation/video when you focus it with the app it plays. Sweet! Their animation will actually play on someone’s phone as long as they have the app. Also with my graphics/photography students we will make cinemagraphs. We print out a frame and then people can actually watch their cinemagraphs. How cool would that be? They are using this in major museums and galleries through out the world. #1 downloaded app in Singapore.
Back in the day when I taught elementary art I would put these large size crayons I made above each group of students’ table. I had 4 students to teach table. That way I could do my seating chart. I no longer teach elementary school, but wanted to share how I made these. The end of the crayon is just a styrofoam cup that I got for free from the lovely lunchroom ladies. The body of the crayon is just a piece of poster board wrapped into a cylinder. I stuffed the cylinder with old newspaper so that it would hold it shape. Then I glued the cup and the body together using hot glue. I would make the cylinder slightly smaller then the opening of the cup so it would fit tight. Then I would close the end off by hot gluing on a poster board circle at the bottom. Then I would paint the crayons, and use construction paper for a wrapper. The color names I made those in Adobe Indesign. I’m including a PDF to download if you would like to use them. I really think it helped me with the volume of student in elementary to have a seating chart for attendance and for behavior. I placed my son’s guitar next to it so you could get a sense of the size.
I really think more art education programs focused on classroom management. Though lessons are important, but if you don’t have good management nothing is going to get taught. It’s really about having protocol. People in general do better when they know what to expect and how things are run.
I think every art teacher has a version of this lesson. I got mine from when I student taught. My cooperative teacher did this with 1st grade. It’s too much fun with boogie woogie music, NYC, primary colors, and Piet Mondrain. I have a slide show that we watch and move around the room like NYC traffic. It’s one of those lessons I teach every year. Never gets old.
I made a video for students to watch and move around the room. Here is a link to the Broadway Boogie Woogie Video.
Picture book inspired mask lesson. Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? By Bill Martin and illustrations by Eric Carle. The masks are made from construction paper, paper plates, and crayons. We make lions, tigers, bears oh my!
Surrealism and Magritte’s False Eye are a great combination for an intro for 3rd. We talked about neutral colors and surrealism art movement. What are the parts of the eye: sclera, pupil, iris, eyelid. Students often get hung up on having that perfect circle so I had them use a CD to trace the inside and the outside for the pupil and iris. It does help to make the kids feel more confident about what they are doing. I had the students think about what they would want to see in their False Eye?
Shaving cream and watercolors is how these night skies where made. It’s a easy monoprint process of painting on the shaving cream and pressing down with a sheet of paper. The results are different and amazing each time. I got this lesson from the Incredible ART Dept.
I know many art teachers do O’Keefe’s flowers, but I really find her skulls to be visually striking. I had the students paint the background using tempera and create implied textures using plastic cards that had different notches cut off of them. I saw this tip from Painted Paper blog. Then on a new sheet we drew a deer skull from observation. Talked about values, shadows, and proportion. Below is a student example.
Mrs. Miller - Messy Art Teacher Blog 