Choosing Projects for the Art Auction

Choosing projects for my upcoming April Art Auction has been challenging. I want the projects to be more than just fingerprints or a poster of multiple student pieces. I want kids to create pieces that I'd put on my wall in my home.

3rd-5th Grade Project

I have a huge skills gap between kindergartners and fifth graders, so I've kept that in mind during my search. My Third-Fifth grade students will be doing an acrylic painting of Koi Fish, individually. It is a painting that teaches them how to layer paint, and will span across three class periods. It is also a great lesson on composition and arranging a painting. Here is an example of the piece they will recreate with their own personal flare.

The Second grade piece, which I will post a sample of after I've completed it, will be a watercolor of birch trees. I've seen this done on multiple sites and can't wait to see how it goes. The students will do two paintings. One painting with be with the lighting at night, and one at sunrise. Each student will have both of their pieces mounted side by side and auctioned off that way.

The First graders will be creating Mondrian-inspired pieces, using primary colors. Again they will be small pieces so that I can mount three students per mat board (won't that create some bidding wars, tee hee.)

One of my Kindergarten classes will be painting a 2-D tea cup. Using crayon and watercolors, they will have the freedom to design their tea cup with shapes and colors. I will be stacking five tea cups on each other and mounting them on one mat board.

My other Kindergarten class will be doing flowers and vases (2-D) using watercolors and acrylics. I'll be taking the flower bloom of five students and creating a 2-D bouquet and choosing five of the best vases to hold them.

I'll be creating samples of each of these pieces and post them as I go. Now that I've decided what will go into the auction, I will be creating a supply list and calendar for myself. It will be one thing to have the students create all the beautiful pieces, it will be another for me to pull it all together and mount them professionally.

We are already planning a week of preview in our school's entrance before the auction to get the parents and children excited. One concern I have is deciding whether every child gets to be a part of the auction or only the best artists. It is difficult to be that kind of judge, even if that is part of life, but I won't need to make that decision until much later.

Kids Painting Workshops

I ended up doing four different painting workshops for kids grades 2nd-6th. From the comments I've received from parents, it sounds like the workshops were a success! I thought I'd pick a few from the three I haven't posted. The students had 2.5 hours to complete the task. We only used tempura paint on canvas paper.

The Second Workshop

Becca, 2nd Grade

Erin, 4th Grade

We used the sponge technique for the background. The color palette was yellow, blue, white, and brown for the background. I wanted it soft so that the silhouette of the branches and bird would stand out. The kids had to do two coats of the black paint. For the composition I asked that the branches cross each other.
What I learned: It is really hard for the kids to paint the branches, making them fat to thin. We blow dry the layers to speed up the process, but too much heat cracks the tempura.


The Third Workshop

Collin, 6th grade

Megan, 2nd grade

I decided for the third workshop to go with a holiday theme. We did a sponge painted background again with greens, browns and yellows for glowing lights. Then we used shapes, and talked about how to make them look more three dimensional by shading and highlighting it. After they painted their ornament objects then they used dot painting to create patterns.

What I learned: For the younger students, three ornaments they had to think about shading was a lot. For them, I should have had them focused on just one ornament.


The Fourth Workshop

Madison, 5th grade

This one was fun and I had different results. My morning class took at least two hours to finish. My afternoon class, which had a younger age average only took one hour. Sponge water background required that I explain you add small amounts of color to white to make light colors, not the other way around.

Zoe, 1st grade

I then gave templates of three fish and two lily pads. They played with their composition by moving the templates around the page. I explained that if the elements all lead the eye out of the painting, people will naturally not take the time to look at the detail inside the painting.

Rachel, 2nd grade

I showed the students several different artists interpretations of koi fish. They were given freedom of the fish coloring and patterns.

What I learned: Have a back up plan for those students that finish early. I did directive draw, free draw and paint, and finished with pictionary. I am always surprised by how different each child puts their personality into their work, no matter their age. I love that!