Warm & Cool colors with Formline Art

One of the 2nd grade teachers, Ms. Attaway, approached me about creating a unique work of art to send to an elementary class in King Cove, Alaska. They had been in correspondence and what better way to connect with others than through visual communication?

Since we were studying form line art with the Raven landscape artworks (see "The Raven" post),  I decided to take the lesson further by asking the students to paint warm or cool striped sunset backgrounds with water color crayons. They then cut and glued their form line drawings on these backgrounds. We added patterns to the black borders by using white colored pencils and form line shapes.

Here are some of the results!

Cool colors with the Raven

Warm colors with the Raven

Another variation with cool colors. I love this border!

The one looks as if it could be singing.

Cool colors with an Orca whale. Look at the detail in that face!

Warm colors with an eagle

I really love how different each artwork turned out and how simple shapes and colors can create powerful images. I'm so proud of these artists for their hard work.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Marker ink as watercolor

Don't throw away those dried up washable markers! They can be soaked in water to create "re-purposed" watercolor paint! I had about 24 packs of markers from last year that I just couldn't throw away. They had just enough juice in them but not enough as far as the students were concerned. I had read online (Pinterest, Cassie Stephen's blog) how to soak markers in cups of water over night to create this "marker juice" paint. So I went forth and sorted the colors, soaked them, and what I discovered was...free paint! Woo-hoo!

Soaking markers

I really like to use watercolors in the classroom but I find the primary grades tend to muck up the lighter colors by not properly rinsing brushes and the older students were less mindful about applying the paint with enough water to make it flow. Marker ink were a great way to paint with the effect of watercolor.

The more markers you soak in a cup, the brighter and bolder the color. If you want to dilute colors, just use less markers or add more water to the cup. It is so simple and is a great way to control the color's brilliancy.

The students were really amazed by how simple this was and even went home and asked their parents to help them do it with their dried up markers. Whats more is that it is washable. If it spills on clothing, hands, etc...it is easily cleaned up.

Here are some photographs of the marker ink paint in use.

3rd graders used the marker ink to mix intermediate colors.

1st grade painted Henri Matisse's "Fish bowl"

3rd grade painted Paul Cezanne's "Still life with apples"

These marker inks are a great alternative or addition to watercolor paints. They also can serve as a stepping stone to tempera painting as students learn to mix colors and handle brushes.