Let's Draw Faces!

Children love to draw cartoons, but to draw a good one one must draw realistically first. the following is one of Mizz Mac's Easy Artsy Lessons for Beginners:

Supplies needed:

a hand held mirror

White paper

Pencil, eraser

A variety of crayons, markers, or colored pencils

1. First draw a small dot in the middle of your paper. Look in the mirror at the eyes. The dark circle is the pupil. The colored part is the iris. Look at the shape of the eye. It’s a football or almond shape. Draw a football shape on one side of the dot. Draw another football shape on the other side of the dot.

2. Look in the mirror again. What covers the eyes? There are upper and lower eye lids. Draw curved lines for the top and lower eyelids.

3. Look at the iris. Is it a whole circle? No. The upper part of the circle isn’t seen. Draw irises in each. Also look at the pupil. You can see the while black circle. Draw the pupils in each eye.

4. Add short lines on the eyelids for the eyelashes. Draw curved lines above the eyes for eyebrows.

5. Draw a nose in between the eyes and a little below the eyes.

6. Draw a mouth by first drawing the shadow line of the closed lips. Then draw curvy lines for the top lip and one curve line for the bottom lip. See below for examples of mouths. Manly man lips are sometimes thin. Girly girl lips are sometimes curvy.

7. Draw “(“ and “)” on the outer sides of the eyes for ears.

8. Draw the jawline beginning at the bottom of one ear, curve around and below the mouth and back up to the bottom of the next ear. See below for examples of jawlines.

9. Finish the drawing by adding straight and curvy lines for the hair at the top of the head. Draw curvy lines for the neck. Manly man necks are thicker and straighter than girly girl ones. Add shoulders and shirt lines.

Example:

For more check out my Drawing Faces with Beginners or Mona Lisa Self Portraits drawing project on teachers pay teachers. www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena_Mcwilliams

Spring, Children's Art Projects and Landscapes galore!

We have had the craziest weather! Easter was late this year and I expected to have warm weather here in Middle Georgia. Was it?? No! It rained all day yesterday and this morning it was miserable and cool. the sun finally came around 11 just in time for church services. It was still cool this afternoon but great weather to play a little t-ball with my grand son!!
 I still want to go outside to make art just like the plein aire artists of the mid 1800"s. I have compiled a group of my favorite landscape lessons I have used with my classes and posted it on my store on Teacherspay teachers. I have used some for Mother's Day presents for my students.www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Artsy-Landscapes-Earth-day-and-Mothers-Day-Art-Projects-1212604

Flowers in a Vase a Mizz Mac's Easy Artsy Art Project for children

Monet painted “A Bouquet of Sunflowers” in 1881. Van Gogh painted his famous “A Vase with 12 Sunflowers” in 1888. There are many other artists who have painted vases of flowers.  Most of us have placed a vase of flowers on a table in our home.  Let’s try drawing one with colored chalk.  The paper you will need should have a little texture called a tooth in art terms. Construction paper, student grade watercolor paper, and pastel paper have a tooth. Chalk can also be erased with a standard pink eraser. It can be smeared for an impressionistic affect like Monet . Dip chalk in milk or water to make an impasto affect like Van Gogh’s art.

Begin by looking at the middle of the flowers. Draw the middle of the flower. Next add the petals. When you draw the flowers, notice they don’t all face forward. When you are finished drawing the flowers, add the vase. Add the stems and leaves last.

Here is a photograph of one of my flowers in a vase:

Here is an example of a chalk drawing of Flowers in a Vase:

Do you need more ideas? Mizz Mac’s website is www.artforkidsonline.com, and she is on www.teacherspayteachers.com.  Mizz Mac can also be found teaching children’s art classes at the Creative Alternative on Riley Ave in Macon, Ga. 

Baby Animals, Pastel Colors, Spring Art Projects for kids

Are you looking for art projects that teach how to make pastel colors for many ages? Try this one!http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Baby-Animals-Childrens-Art-Projects-1124304

Easter and Overlapping Eggs

Several years ago I had a problem. My principal didn't want any more Easter Eggs hunts or religious oriented art or crafts. What to do?  I was teaching in a private school and most of the children had come up to the elementary school through  the preschool who had Easter Egg Hunts. What did I do? I had kept several oval shaped cardboard inserts from small mats I had used to mat another art project. I took the oval and taught the perspective principle of overlapping shapes to show one in front of the other, making overlapping ovals. We colored with markers and made a variety of line and shape patterns. I never called the lesson "Overlapping Eggs", but if you like the idea, the directions are in the following group of art lessons on my teachers pay teachers store and posted on Make it Work Molly blog.
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Easy-Artsy-Easter-and-Spring-Art-Projects-k-5-577032
www.makeitworkmolly.com