Thursday, March 10, 2011

Fireflies, Moonlit Landscape


I got this idea from Mary at http://marymaking.blogspot.com/ Thanks Mary!


We talked about landscapes, and how the light of the moon would effect a landscape. We talked about the coooool colors and dark silhouettes.



students had a great lesson on value before painting the moon!


firefly1


Students blended the white and blue with a dry brush to form a smooth gradient


firefly3


We then used green and yellow acrylic paint for the grass. We used this Pearlescent mixing medium for the silver shimmering fog. fireflypaint


firefly2


We used black tempera paint for the trees. Students had to have foreground trees, middle ground trees, and background trees. firefly6


Then they used a silver oil pastel to highlight each branch on the side closest to the moon (light source)


then they made fireflies with silver sharpies, construction paper, and floral wire. We glued a piece of cardboard from a cut up box behind it for relief.


firefly5


They added glow in the dark paint to the flies, moon, and background fireflies


elephant2 firefly4


These paintings turned out gorgeous! The kids LOVED them and the groups were excited whenever they came in the room to finish them.

The best part of this project was when a little girl came up to me with a huge smile on her face and said “ I LOVE my painting, Mrs. Waggenspack, I hung it on my wall and just stared at it glowing ALL night!”


It just made my day and made up for all the green and blue stains on my closes, the time it took to scrub the squished black oil pastels off the floor, and the frustration of having to count every silver sharpie after each class and still end up with one or two missing at the end of each day.

8 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful project! I know just the class to do it with Thanks!

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  2. I love your version! The addition of the silver oil pastel to highlight the trees is wonderful.

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  3. am planning on doing this one next week. Your version turned out great!

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  4. You have some very talented kids creating art! I found this blog on clusterlove.blogspot.com and I look forward to seeing more beautiful art.

    http://www.ourbananamoments.com
    http://www.facebook.com/ourbananamoments

    Marsha

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  5. So so pretty! I wish I had silver Sharpies, pearlescent medium, and glow in the dark paint!

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  6. This is great! What age group did you do this with? How long did it take?

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  7. Love this! I did a variation with my second graders and I am linking this to my blog as the inspiration!

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  8. This is great! What age group did you do this with? How long did it take?
    https://infomastar.com/

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