Art Lessons – Page 3 – Laughing Zebra Art

Ten Favorite Art History Books for Kids

Explore these art history books for some great educational fun! Artists typically have really interesting lives.

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

1. Journey on a Cloud: A Children's Book Inspired by Marc Chagall

Whimsical book that reflects the style and feeling of a real Chagall painting. He was a dreamer and you get that feeling from this lovely book.

2. Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors

This book is written from a child’s point of view who is doing a report on Matisse. I like that it particularly talks about his cut paper art and shows some real life pictures of him and his artwork.

3. Why Is Blue Dog Blue?

This is a kid favorite! I have used this alot as a read aloud and kids love the rhythm and guessing involved for each page. Also who doesn’t love this Blue Dog? Check out George Rodrigue’s other books and his artwork on Google.

4. Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder

Great illustrations in this one that tell the story of Alexander Calder’s life.

5. Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail

This author has a unique style and weaves a story about the artist that is entertaining while sharing information about the artist. He has several titles in his artist series including one on: Frida Kahlo, Edgar Degas, Vincent VanGogh, and Claude Monet.

6. Georgia O'Keeffe

I love these books. I have used these for years and they are entertaining to all ages. The kids love the comics and I love that the author shows the artist’s actual artwork and tells the story of their lives in a way that is interesting to kids. He also has books on composers and scientists.

7. A Walk in Monet's Garden

This is a neat little book that has a fold-out tour of Monet’s home and gardens and includes liftable flaps, screens that unfold, pull out buildings, and a figure of Monet at an easel. You can really feel like you are there with him. I got to visit Giverny last spring when I was in Paris and it is a beautiful place!

8. Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol

This is a fun book that captures the imagination of kids. Andy Warhol led an interesting and somewhat unusual life and this book does a good job of talking about his art and gives you a look at his eccentric personality. He was one of a kind for sure!

9. The Great Wave: A Children's Book Inspired by Hokusai

I love this artist and you have probably seen his Great Wave of Kanagawa print somewhere as it is very famous. I lived in Japan for 4 years so this touches my heart in a special way. I love using this artist and book to talk about the unique country that Japan is and all the great art that is produced there.

10. Edgar Degas: Paintings That Dance

This book is written from a child’s point of view who is doing a report on Degas. Fun illustrations and interesting facts are presented in a very kid friendly format. Love the style of this one!

Do you have favorite art history books for kids? Share them with me in the comments below!

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Ten Fun Projects for Kids

Explore these projects for some kid friendly fun!

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

1. Tinfoil Sculptures

Tinfoil sculptures that can be adapted for all ages.

2. Melted Crayon Rocks

All you need for this are rocks and crayons. Something so fun about this project and one I have done with lots of kids! (My own loved it)

3. Super Snazzy Painted Sticks

Beautiful painted sticks! Collect them on a walk then have fun painting them as a family!

4. Slime

Need I say more?

5. Really nice rocks

Great way to spread some kindness on your next walk! There are tons of great sites online for different ways to paint rocks. You can use just regular craft paint and small brushes. I also love using Uni Posca paint pens. They are opaque and cover so nicely. They come in 3 different sizes and tons of colors. (I ordered my set on here on Amazon)

6. Homemade Rain Stick

I have made these for an art camp with kids….so fun!

7. DIY Super Bouncy Ball

Just make sure not to do with really little kids (and watch out for the pets to).

8. Paper Kites

These DIY kites were a birthday party craft one year for my kids! Everyone had a blast with it.

9. Homemade Bows and Arrows

Homemade bows and arrows have provided hours of fun for my kids and their friends!

10. Magazine Beads

This takes some time and focusing…good for fine motor skills too!

Do you have favorite projects to do with kids? Share them with me in the comments below!

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Ten Links for Fun Kid-Friendly Art Sites and Videos

Leave a Comment / Blog Posts, Top Ten for the Next Ten / thelaughingzebra

Explore these sites and videos for a bit of kid-friendly artsy entertainment!

1. Art for Kids Hub

Here you’ll find all kinds of art lessons for kids, including how to draw for kids, even painting and origami for kids (including how to draw this adorable Love Monster).

2. Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence

Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home (Mo doodles with you everyday at home during his lunch hour.

3. Alisa Burke - Redefine Creativity

This gal is so inspiring and her website is just plain fun to look at. Might get an idea or two for a project of your own!

4. Draw With Rob

Rob Biddulph, a London-based author and illustrator, is holding online art classes for kids stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch one of these time-lapse videos of drawings he has guided kids through.

5. A Beautiful Mess

Fun artsy crafty stuff on this site (like dying your own eggs)!

6. Art Camp - Women Inspired Projects

Celebrate women artists with some fun lessons.

7. Mod Podge Rocks - DIY Ransom Note Magnets

Fun with letters and one of my favorite art supplies – Mod Podge!

8. DIY Network

Lots of fun things to build on this site. A Cornhole game would be great entertainment for the whole family!

9. Impressionist Art Lesson for Kids

Make a cool impressionist landscape with oil pastels!

10. Ramon Carrasco's Art Vlogs

He is fun to watch and this guy will teach you how to draw like Picasso, Matisse , Kahlo, Haring and more!

Do you have favorite go-to sites for art inspiration? Share them with me in the comments below!

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Top Ten for the Next Ten

Leave a Comment / Blog Posts, Top Ten for the Next Ten / thelaughingzebra

My Top Ten for the Next Ten

To all you moms and dads at home with the kids…. I know you must be going a bit crazy by now trying to keep your kids occupied and content. As an art teacher and artist I always tended to gravitate toward an art project of some kind when my kids were home during school breaks. I guess it is what I am most comfortable with and art gets the creative juices flowing which tends to be relaxing and engaging at the same time. Plus there are hidden things to learn and skills to master. A win win! I thought I would throw out some projects/ideas to help you find some fun artistic outlets.

So, in honor of the 10th day off school for us here in Montana I am posting a list a day for the next 10 days of 10 crazy, exciting, unusual, artsy, fun things to keep your kids and you smiling and learning some new things.

Check back tomorrow for my first list (hint: This one will include some great videos and art sites for kids to explore)!

Valentine’s Day Art Lesson on Peter Max

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Peter Max Heart Art

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

Are you looking for a great Valentine’s Day art project? Keep reading to find out about this awesome Peter Max Heart Art project.

I originally found this great lesson on PaintbrushRocket.blogspot.com. I have done it with multiple ages with lots of success. It is a fun one for Valentine’s Day and also to teach the double loading technique.

How To:

Have students draw a frame around the 11×11 paper using the 2/12 inch paper strip as a guide.
Fold the 5×6 inch paper in half the longer way (should be 6 inches long when folded).
Have them draw 1/2 of a heart to fill the side.
Cut out the heart and draw around the heart pattern in the center square of the paper.
Students can choose either warm colors or cool colors to paint the frame and heart. Students paint the heart and frame using the double loading technique (two colors at once on a brush load). Do not blend the colors but rather keep dipping in different combinations to give the finished multi color look. Individual brush strokes and colors should show.
When they are finished painting have them rinse and dry their brushes completely.
Now they will paint the small square background (around the heart) with the opposite color group they chose for the heart and frame. So if they chose the warm colors for the heart and frame, now they will use the cool colors for the small square background, and vice versa.
While all background colors are drying they will sketch out their heart and frame on a practice sheet (do this on the board and have them follow along with you) and decide what kind of Peter Max marks they will use to decorate their picture (demonstrate some squiggles, dashes, x’s, zig zags, wavy lines and hearts on the board).
Once the background paint is dry, they will add their decorative lines with their paint brush using the cool colors on the warm background and the warm colors on the cool background.
The last step is to add some india ink marks and lines (pour this into the small souffle cups for 1-2 students to share). Make sure you shake it up before you pour it. And make sure they don’t overdo the black lines.

Looking for another Valentine’s Day art project? Check out my Jim Dine Heart Art lesson!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

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Supplies

Scissors
Paint Brushes
Acrylic Paint in blue, green, purple, yellow, pink, red, orange
Pencils (I prefer Ticonderoga)
Block Eraser
9x12 Watercolor Paper Sheets

Recent Blog Posts:

door in Italy with turquoise bike by it.

The Doors of Italy

At the end of a 3 week vacation to Europe, I came away with so many pictures of things that captured my interest and the mood of the moment. I couldn’t get enough of all the time worn doors, especially those in Italy.

Making Reading Beautiful!

We painted Free Little Libraries! Does your city have a Little Free Library? These are little free standing libraries that have a “host” who looks after them and can be located in someone’s yard , out in the country, or in front of a business or in a park. You can take a book to read or leave one for someone else to find.

My Beautiful Tuscan Kitchen

This year marks the two year anniversary of our kitchen remodel! My wonderful cabinet maker husband finally got around to making this custom kitchen for our home and I couldn’t be happier!

Valentine’s Day Art Lesson on Peter Max Read More »

Pablo Picasso Blue Guitar Art Lesson

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Picasso Blue Guitar

This step-by-step Pablo Picasso art project will be available in my upcoming book! Check out more information and subscribe to stay in the loop about my book.

I love this Pablo Picasso Art lesson. It was one of my first art lessons on Picasso combining two of his signature styles.

Picasso did not actually paint a picture like this. I created this lesson back in 2011 as a way to introduce 3 different pieces of information about him: his frequent use of guitars as a subject matter, his Blue Period, and the art movement he co-founded: Cubism. Someone years ago mistook my art sample for a real Picasso and since then it has been circulating the internet in various ways (just google Picasso blue guitar and this sample will be one of the first to pop up)! It even made it as a backdrop in a Jimmy Buffett concert! Check back soon to see a blog post about this whole experience.

Please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

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Joan Miro Project

Matisse Flower Vase Art Lesson

The Doors of Italy

Making Reading Beautiful!

My Beautiful Tuscan Kitchen

This year marks the two year anniversary of our kitchen remodel! My wonderful cabinet maker husband finally got around to making this custom kitchen for our home and I couldn’t be happier!

Pablo Picasso Blue Guitar Art Lesson Read More »

Franz Marc Pink Elephants and Blue Horses Lesson

Leave a Comment / Art Lessons, m / thelaughingzebra

Franz Marc Colorful Animals

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

During the month of March my preschool class did two lessons based on the artist Franz Marc. The vivid use of color to express emotions and ideas is a trademark of this German born artist. He is most famous for his paintings of unusually colored animals set in almost abstract style scenery. These colorful animals are great for a preschool art lesson.

How To Horses:

For the first project I found a Franz Marc horse on the internet as a coloring sheet which I traced onto a scrap of poster board. They outlined them in sharpie and used chalk pastel to fill in the color. After spraying them with fixative I cut them out.
The kids then painted a colorful “warm colors” background with acrylic paints, using a sponge to add texture.
When the background was dry they used the glue stick to place their horse in the scene.

How To Elephants:

The second project was a great drawing project. I taught the kids how to draw a step by step simple elephant starting with a circle.(This is a simple way to draw an elephant-see How to Draw an Elephant. We practiced this two times on a practice sheet. Then we did the final drawing on a sheet of watercolor paper.
We outlined the elephant in Sharpie.
Then we used watercolors to fill in the pink and create a setting.

I think both of these colorful animals projects turned out amazingly well considering these are 3-5 yr.olds.

Please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

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Supplies:

ROYAL BRUSH Big Kids Choice, Set of 6

Acrylic in yellow, orange, turquoise, white, black

Crayola Watercolors

Artist Sponges Natural & Synethic

Canson XL Series Watercolor Pad, 9″ x 12″

Faber-Castel Chalk Pastel

Sharpies

Elmer’s All Purpose Glue Sticks

Krylon Workable Fixatif Spray

Recent Blog Posts:

The Doors of Italy

Making Reading Beautiful!

My Beautiful Tuscan Kitchen

This year marks the two year anniversary of our kitchen remodel! My wonderful cabinet maker husband finally got around to making this custom kitchen for our home and I couldn’t be happier!

Franz Marc Pink Elephants and Blue Horses Lesson Read More »

Aztec Masks Art Lesson

Leave a Comment / Art Lessons / thelaughingzebra

Aztec Masks Art History Lesson

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

This Aztec Masks art lesson is another project I did with one of my 5th and 6th grade classes this year. I tied it in with their study of the Aztec and Mayan cultures and the early explorers. This took two 2-hour class periods.

How To:

I created a mask template (with eyes cut out) that each student traced around onto their board, then they attached a piece of cardboard we cut for a nose shape using tape. The inside of the mask was base coated black (except for the eyes and mouth), and the outside of the mask was base coated white.
While that was drying, I had the students paint 1/4 sheets of watercolor paper with a medium, dark, and light turquoise color streaking it on the paper instead of blending it in ( to make it look like real turquoise).
When the paint was dry they cut these into small tile pieces.
After the mask board was dry they added a border with a ruler and painted that in yellow, and the background orange.
Next they added the mosaic pieces with some Mod Podge, being careful to leave the black showing thru on all sides of each piece.
After painting the teeth and eyes in they went over the whole mask with the Mod Podge.
They each finished the piece with their own border design, and a Sharpie outline between the background and border.

This was a time consuming process, but produced a very real mosaic look when finished. I forgot my camera that day and so I don’t have any pictures of the student’s Aztec masks art.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if you try out this project and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

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Supplies:

Canson XL Series Watercolor Pad, 9″ x 12″

Acrylic paint in yellow, orange, turquoise, white and black

ROYAL BRUSH Big Kids Choice, Set of 6

Fiskars 5 Inch Blunt Tip Kids Scissors

Crayola Colored Pencils

Mod Podge Glue

Ultra Fine Point Sharpie

Set of 24 Clear Plastic Rainbow Rulers

Flat Cardboard Sheets

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Montana Mona Lisa

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Montana Mona Lisa

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

This Mona Lisa painting project is one I have done several times and it really helps my Montana students relate to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting. It is also a good mixed media project. You could change it up by relating it to your state or area.

How To:

First I have the students paint about a 2 1/2″ border on their cardboard with the brown paint using a large brush and then using a small round brush paint in some lines and knot holes.
While that is drying they work on coloring in the Mona Lisa (lightly) with the colored pencils. They can choose the hair and eye colors and her blouse color.
Then using pattern pieces that I made in advance using poster board scraps they trace out a hat, cloak (from the scrapbook paper) and rectangular background piece (from the magazines). I used a map of Montana in my sample, but any large picture without a bunch of writing would work. (for example: a scenery picture, a herd of cows, a man on a horseback, close-up of a saddle or cowboy boots,etc.)
Then they cut and assemble all the pieces.
Next they find letters or words (mine came from the magazines or scrapbook papers) for the “Montana”, and letters (the ones in the sample came from a bag of random letters I got from Michaels) to spell out “Mona”, and lay them out on the frame.
Now they are ready to Mod Podge all the pieces onto the framed board, being careful to center everything.
Once they are done getting all the papers glued down, they do a final coat of Mod Podge over the whole piece.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

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Supplies:

Art Masterpieces to Color – I used this for the Mona Lisa

Brown and black acrylic paint

ROYAL BRUSH Big Kids Choice, Set of 6

Fiskars 5 Inch Blunt Tip Kids Scissors

Crayola Colored Pencils

Colorbok Designer Paper Pad, 8.5″ x 11″

Mod Podge Glue

Flat Cardboard Sheets

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Modigliani Multimedia Face Art Lesson

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Modigliani Tissue Paper Face Project

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian artist who worked mainly in France. If you are not familiar with this artist he was famous for his paintings of elongated faces with long skinny necks. His drawings were simple and stylized. This is a fun lesson to do with all ages, and I have added the tissue paper background for an extra twist, since the face

painting can be a fairly quick project to do.

How To:

I begin this lesson by showing some of Modigliani’s portraits. I talk about the long skinny faces and necks, and the almond shaped eyes,simple nose, and small rosebud lips.
Starting with a big skinny U shape, I have the students practice a simple face drawing in this style following my steps as I do it on a whiteboard. For fun I have them do simple curly lines for the hair. If I have already done a portrait lesson with them I point out the difference between a more realistic portrait; the shape and size of the features, and the placement of them compared to Modigliani’s faces.
Next I have them do a large drawing of the face on the watercolor paper, filling up most of the space. After they have done it in pencil, I have them go over all the lines with Sharpie.
Then we watercolor the faces. I let them have some freedom with the hair, making it two-tone if they want, and just painting it loosely around their Sharpie lines.
After they have done the painting part then we use small pieces of tissue paper to fill in the background putting water under and over each piece with a brush and overlapping them.
When the tissue dries we pull that off, and you end up with a textured looking background.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

Sign up here for news about my upcoming art lesson book:

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