Shaving Cream Marbleized Starry Night Cactus!

 My fifth graders are having SO much fun making these!!!

For this project you will need:
watercolor paper
shaving cream
liquid watercolor or food coloring
scraper
paint brush
watercolor pencils

-First, spread shaving cream on the table the size of your paper

-Then drip the paint directly on the shaving cream where you want your cactus to go

- Then drip blue and turquoise paint around the green drips for the sky

-finally a few tiny drips of yellow for moon and stars, plus red or pink for the flowers

Next you will use the back end of a paint brush to make tiny swirls. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that the brush TOUCHES the table and stands STRAIGHT UP, if it leans and isn't straight up and down it will not work

 - Next place the paper directly on the shaving cream and tap it gently to release and air bubbles

Lift the paper 

 and use a scraper to scrape ALL the shaving cream off the paper. This is when everyone gets excited! You will hear OOOOhs and AAAAHHHHs!!! IF you miss any it will be blurry, so make sure to get it all off

When you are finished with the print you can use watercolor pencils dipped in water to outline your cactus. You can also use pan watercolors to fill in the edges or add more color. Another fun material to use is Reeves water soluble oil pastels dipped in water. 

Clean up is always the BEST PART for this project!!!

Rodeo Art

Every year our school participates in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Art Show. The little girl above is one of my students who won "best of Show" for our district a few years ago. She painted the adorable cowgirl above and I got her the matching outfit so she could BE the cowgirl she created at the big awards ceremony! It was unforgettable! Each year we watch videos clips of the Rodeo events and read Texas and western themed books, and I let the students choose what they want to draw.

This year first graders chose Bull Riding. They splatter painted the mud and drew a crowd of spectators adorned in their Rodeo best!

students practiced the art elements of

overlapping

background

movement

Second grade chose armadillos. They had to create an interesting Texas themed background. Students practiced the art principles and elements of

space

foreground, middle ground, and background

and texture on the armadillo

Third, Fourth and Fifth was a mixture of cows, bulls, and dogs.

The classes that chose dogs, sketched dogs from dog books for several weeks. They decided what they wanted for their background and created a country western composition including a dog. They were all so creative and different.

The painting above was created by a very special 5th grader. He is an amazing artist!! The composition was created entirely out of his head! He used acrylic on poster board. He actually changed the color of the dog about five times!!

And now the cows. I wish I had photos of more of them. I had some blue cows and green cows that looked awesome! They all have such unique adorable personalities