Monet's Waterlilies

http://artasticartists.blogspot.com/2011/03/going-greek-scratch-into-history-with.html

4th graders are finishing their Monet unit and learning about the man who started Impression! We made our own Monet-esque painting and 3-D waterlilies. Click on the link above to take you to the indepth post!

Claude Monet: Discovering Impressionism!

4th graders learned all about the artist who started the Impressionist art movement, Claude Monet! We learned about who he was as an artist and his signature 'dabbing' brushstroke not focusing on detail but capturing a moment in time. Stand far away and see it all come together as your eye does the mixing of the colors to form the image! On one side of the worksheet had a summary of the artist and a picture of one of his many waterlily studies. On the other side, there is a copy of his 'waterlilies' to fill in with paint. Student were given Q-tips to create the 'dabs' of paint to fill in and recreate his masterpiece- concentrating on making the same type of brushstrokes as Monet.



I instructed students to not 'paint like a paint brush'. We're also not doing perfect dots like that of Seurat. Simply, just dabs of paint. Then we put them into the drying rack. This is a great way to do it because  you have the information of the famous artist and what we learned in class on the other side so parents can see what we're working on with a great explanation!



Wonderful Waterlilies: Monet's 3-D waterlilies



Voila! A student's Monet Waterlilies with a 3-D touch!



4th just finished up with Impressionism and ending where we started....with Monet! We first looked a very beautiful poster, given to me by the one and only amazing Becky Brandt, and other visuals of Monet's studies of various waterlilies floating on the water. We looked at the different colors in the water and reflections we saw. Students pointed out pinks, blues, greens, yellow greens, lavenders, magentas, purples and more. The result looks complex but the process was fairly simple!

Students first took a 12x18 heavy weight sulphite piece of a paper and used crayons to make scribbles using the colors we discovered in the reflections in the water (note above colors listed). Then using a green, making 3 green ovals for lily pads. Then after crayon, students used blue, green, purple and a little bit of pink watercolor in areas and blended them. I explained to "keep it light to keep it right" "lots of water little bit of paint" to really get those nice blends. Of course I demo-ed everything at the beginning of class so students knew how to go about these processes.



Miss Oetken's Monet:)



 

check out another students beautiful way of adding lots of
pink tissue to make a giant lily on the lily pad!

Before they left, I said to count to 10 and scribble with green and blue (if they wanted they could add a little purple) Crayola marker and write their name in permanent marker with their class on a.....COFFEE FILTER! Yes! Then I put them all in the drying rack and sprayed em down to get that beautiful, blended, watercolor look.

 

                                          

 

student using their pencil to wrap a small piece of pink tissue around for the lily. Then while holding the tissue wrapped around the pencil, the student adds glue to the end and attatches it to the paper and twists, lifts up leaving a lily

For classtime 2 students took their big tye dyed coffee filter, folded it in have, then made a cone or 'teepee' shape, then smashed it down (you don't have to do it this way I explained if they had another idea) and glued it down on the page where they wanted. Then take some pink small pieces of tissue paper for the lilies. We wrapped them around a pencil eraser end, then added a dot of glue on the paper where it would stick, pressed the tissue wrapped end of pencil to the glue, twisted while pressing, and lift up! Instant blossom! Add more to one area if you want to make a more bountiful blossom waterlily.

student work

Add pink tissue paper lilies to your green crayon lily pads to give it a finishing touch! Tah Dah! Check out how beautiful these turned out! Check below:)

My wonderful tissue paper tear-ers! Woo go team!

Mimicking Monet!

4th grade has moved onto art history to Impressionism and on from the Renaissance in art history! We talked about some of the main, big names of Impressionism such as Seurat, Van Gogh, Degas and one of Impressionism's founders, the one, the only Claude Monet! Did you know I love Monet's art so much I named my cat (she's a girl) Claudia Monet!? We watched Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artists video on Claude Monet. We learned he is famous for his lily pads in water, scenic views, garden scenes, and haystack studies that change with the weather and time of day. But, most importantly, Claude Monet is famous for his style of applying paint in his brush strokes. He used many tiny dabs of layered colors of paint to form his pictures. Your eyes does the mixing of the colors when you stand far away from it, because up close it just looks like a mess of dabs of paint!  

 We used some of Monet's most famous works as our muse when we mimicked his brushstrokes. We drew a quick outlined sketch with pencil and I had paint at different tables with Q-tips to make the 'dabs' of paint. We also talked about 'layering' the dabs of paint and making sure to throw away or use the other side of the Q tip to make sure you don't muddy up the clean paint stations. We just got started but I can't wait to see the final project!