Students learned how to mix tints (a color + white) and shades (a color + black) then used this skill to create an atmospheric landscape with tempera on paper.

It can be tough to fit art into a busy homeschooling schedule, but these quick and easy art projects make it simple. They're perfect for middle schoolers.

This unit focuses explicitly on Dale Chihuly: his life, his art. The artmaking pursued in this unit is inspired by one of Chihuly’s most well-known themes: the bowl.

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

We found the best middle school art projects online! Whether you are an art teacher teaching middle school students or have kids in middle school that you

Blacklight Unit Materials: Fluorescent fixtures ($10 at Wal-Mart suggest getting 2) Blacklight bulbs (4ft ones at WM cost $12 each. For two fixtures, need 4 bulbs) Highlighters White colored Pencils Reams of colored office paper (they end up nonreactive to UV light) Ream of yellow/goldenrod office paper Reams of regular office paper (they are reactive) Fluorescent paints (can now get from many art suppliers like Blick) Pens Day one. Review classroom expectations. Turn on backlights and let the students explore and look at their belongings. Talk about blacklight properties, wavelengths, (science component) etc. Studio- Invisible Drawing Pass out drawing paper that is reactive to the light. Pass out white colored pencils and students draw on the glowing paper. The white colored pencils show up dark on the glowing paper. Turn off the blacklight and on the regular lights. The drawing disappears! Highlighter drawings Have any students who have highlighters bring them out. Trade out the paper for one that does not glow in blacklight…. Draw with highlighters to get a neon sign effect… students really like this one. Before and after drawings Have students brainstorm over different situations that would best be described with two pictures, such as Bruce Wayne turning into Batman, or leaves on then falling off a tree, day vs. night, etc. They should pick one scenario, and on goldenrod office paper, draw the first scene in pen in regular light. Then, when all are finished, turn the black light on, and the second drawing is made directly on top of the first using yellow highlighter. In the regular light the yellow highlighter is hard to see, and in the blacklight, the pen is hard to see. Talk about filling up all the space with loose crosshatching or objects. This masks the highlighter drawing better. Do not completely darken any areas, since the highlighter will not work on that. When all are finished, turn on the lights and pass the paper to a neighbor. Turn on the blacklight and the image will change! Turn on the regular lights again and the blacklight off, and pass papers again... Repeat until everyone has seen everyone else’s drawing. Day four, five Prep day for glow in the dark radial designs. Hand out non-reactive paper and have students create a simple radial design using pencil. By folding the paper it is easy to recreate exact copies by rubbing the back and transferring the image across. When all are done, pass out the fluorescent paint and paint in the designs. Hang in the room for display. Radial design using French Curves: Get a square paper and fold from corners and sides to find center. Use ruler to go over the fold lines. Use a compass to draw a large circle. The grid formed will aid in repeatedly tracing using the French curves. Pick a French curve and a location. Draw the center x or the circle x on the tool. You also need at least one line as reference. Copy section. Move the tool to the next position and realign the marks to the next location. Copy section. If there is overlap or missing section, adjust. Continue until it is repeated 8 times. Repeat the process with different French curves until paper has a completed radial design. Paint. Before and after Project 1. Brainstorm over different situations that would best be described with two pictures, such as Bruce Wayne turning into Batman, or leaves on then falling off a tree, day vs. night, etc. 2. Pick one scenario, and on goldenrod office paper, draw the first scene in pen in regular light. 3. Then, when all are finished, turn the black light on, and the second drawing is made directly on top of the first using yellow highlighter. In the regular light the yellow highlighter is hard to see, and in the blacklight, the pen is hard to see. Fill up all the space with loose crosshatching or objects. This masks the highlighter drawing better. Do not completely darken any areas, since the highlighter will not work on that. 4. When all are finished, turn on the lights and pass the paper to a neighbor. Turn on the blacklight and the image will change! Turn on the regular lights again and the blacklight off, and pass papers again... Repeat until everyone has seen everyone else’s drawing. BEFORE AND AFTER EXAMPLE LIST Riding bike or skateboard/ crash Spiderman swinging/ landing on a building Clark Kent/ superman Bruce Wayne/ Batman Bruce Banner/ Hulk Man turning into Wolfman Dracula turn into bat Cake, cake gone Apple, apple core Woman pregnant/ thinner holding a baby Pizza / bite gone Weakling with dumbbells/ muscular after Calm to angry Happy to sad Peaceful to angry Day to night Summer to fall Fall to winter Winter to spring Snowman/ melted Sitting in a chair/ it breaks and crash Animal crossing road/ road-kill Caterpillar/ butterfly Tadpole/ frog A tree / losing its leaves Blowing bubble with gum/ it pops on face

Welcome! This blog post features a guided tutorial of how to create a drip sculpture inspired by one of my FAVORITE contemporary artists, Dan Lam. Before exploring this project, check out Dan Lam's eye catching drip sculptures on her website here and her Instagram page here. Dan Lam’s "tactile, technicolor sculptures use unconventional materials to

Middle School artists began the year by looking at the art Guiseppe Arcimboldo, a Renaissance painter who created portraits made up of other objects (such as fruit, vegetables and birds). The students took this concept and made it their own by filling their own silhouette with images of things that tell something about themselves. Students used pencil, ink and watercolors to complete their works.

Create this woven bowl using the free printable template, a paper plate, & yarn. This is a great elementary / middle school art lesson to introduce weaving.

Looking for fun, educational games for art class? Check out these three simple games you can put together in a few minutes.

This project is perfect for middle school students and above! Create these stunning Hummingbirds to add a little color to your windows! Faux Stained Glass! Easily adaptable for multiple ages.

One of my goals this year was to have my students really understand the artistic behaviors. I thought last year the students were looking at them only on the surface. I want a deeper understandin…

We had a lot fun studying real candy prices as our inspiration for our Pop Art Candy Paintings. Tempra paint and black Sharpie outlines adde...

I love cross curricular teaching and this lesson allows me to work with our 6th grade religion/social studies teacher. While she teaches about Islam, I introduce the kids to the beautiful world of Mehndi! Another art teacher found this lesson through Dick Blick and I adapted it and made it one of my favorite lessons to teach (who am I kidding--I say that about all of my lessons; I can't pick just one favorite!). I introduce the students to the history and significance of mehndi. Most of the students have no idea what I am talking about when I first use the word "mehndi" but as soon as I start my slideshow and it has a photograph of an adorned hand, I have tons of people go "Oh! I know that! I always called it 'henna' instead!" And then I get into how henna is the medium and mehndi is the art...yadda yadda yadda...BAM! We're creating our own on vinyl gloves! I have the students create some patterns and radial designs in their sketchbook first, so that they have some ideas to start with. Then I teach them about creating a flow between patterns and designs via color and interaction. Once they have a jumping off point I have them work while wearing the glove as an added challenge. It requires them to be more careful and mindful with their mark making since they are working on a 3D surface. Once they have their glove designed, I have them stuff the hand with a polyester fill and a small (upside down) cup so that the glove can stand. The results are amazing!

For this printing project, students were asked to research a famous structure and create a styrofoam printing plate highlighting it within a cityscape. We created a watercolor background showing sky m

Try this easy tinfoil sculpture art lesson in your classroom. Learn more from this blog post.

I saw something similar to this while searching for collage ideas. I used it at the beginning of the year because I wanted to start with something I was pretty sure they could all be successful with - especially for those that have no art background. They were allowed to use an image of their choice. Those that chose to use a photo of themselves were my favorite. It's amazing how much the end result actually looks like them -- even without facial feature details! They shared their image with me via Google Docs or email. I projected the image onto the front whiteboard, they taped up a large piece of cardboard, and traced the important lines and shapes. From there they looked through magazines to try and find the same type of colors and values as in their image. This could be a challenge, but it worked out very well. Some kids worked by themselves, others alone. It took about a week and a half to complete. One of my favorites!!

One of the first posts I pinned to my "Painting Inspirations, Tutorials, and Projects" Pinterest board was an abstract watercolor tutorial from Grow Creative. I have been wanting to try Elise's technique for months, and now that I've done it, I don't think I can stop! The results are absolutely beautiful, and their map-like-qualities appeal greatly to the arty cartophile in me! (I am borrowing the term "arty cartophile" from Jill K. Berry and her book Personal Geographies, which I was inspired to pull off the bookshelf after creating these rubber cement resist watercolor paintings.) I followed Elise's technique pretty much exactly, so you can read her blog post for her directions, but I also took photos of each step of the process as I carried it out, so I thought I would share them with you here: First, I used blue painter's tape to secure my 9x12 cold-press watercolor paper to a piece of palette paper on my work space. (I tried low-tack artist's tape first, and too much watercolor paint seeped underneath it. The blue painter's tape left a gorgeous crisp edge.) Next, I dribbled rubber cement over the watercolor paper. There is no planning, just random dripping in all different directions. Then, I spent a little time with my embossing tool, speeding up the drying process for the rubber cement. This is not a task for the impatient! I get into a kind of trance, watching the rubber cement boil, bubble, pop, and dry. Once the rubber cement is dry, the paper is ready for its first application of watercolor paint. For this particular piece, I used Reeves tube watercolors in "Lemon Yellow." In some of my first pieces, I did a watercolor wash across the entire paper. For the example photographed here, I applied this first layer of watercolor in just some portions of the paper, leaving other parts white. The drying process for the watercolor paint is much faster than for the rubber cement! Now technically, you are supposed to apply more rubber cement, but I actually forgot, and put on a different color of watercolor. This time is was Reeves tube paint in basic "orange." I supplemented with another shade of orange from a set of pan watercolors. I used the orange paint to fill in some of those white spaces I left when I applied the Lemon Yellow. After a bit more drying with the heating tool, I applied more random rubber cement. More drying--which meant more time mesmerized by bubbling rubber cement.  At this point it was time for my final color--Reeves tube watercolor in "Magenta." Gorgeous! After one final drying session with the embossing tool, I was ready to pull back the painter's tape and enjoy the crisp edge along the perimeter of my watercolor paper. The next step is to use the pads of my fingers to rub away all of the rubber cement that has been resisting various layers of watercolor paint. The rubber cement comes away in balls and crumbs, and leaves behind the wonderful pathways that give the art such a map-like quality. When all the rubber cement has been rubbed away...voila! Now, I think this piece looks beautiful, and am tempted to leave it as it is, but there is a final step that makes it look even more beautiful. Using a fine-tipped black Sharpie pen, I outline various pathways around the piece. (I tried Microns, but the "tooth" of the watercolor paper really does them in.) I start with all of the white pathways, and usually move on to the secondary colors, like yellow in this piece. When I was finished deciding which areas to outline in black, I had my finished piece: I think I could sit around and look at it all day! I really love the results of this technique. What do you think? This was my fourth 9x12 art piece using the rubber cement resist technique. Here are the earlier ones I created: These first two have a similar color combination, with more "lake blue" in the first one. I like how they look when I photograph them without the white perimeter: I'm showing these in backwards order, because this last one I am showing you is the first one I tried. Instead of using rubber cement, I used Art Maskoid, which is the same as frisket. But my bottle was almost completely dried up so I was kind of smearing sticky frisket across the page. At first, I thought the result looked kind of terrible, but it has grown on me, and looks like a map of some archipelago far out in the ocean. (You can also see how the artist's tape didn't give as clean of an edge as the painter's tape does.) Stay tuned, because in an upcoming post I will share some pretty cards I have made using this same rubber cement resist technique!

We borrowed this lesson idea from the awesome Italian art blog of Arteascuola. Check out the blog here. The make-your-own scratch art surface is such a cool way to work on value, complex pattern, focal points and unity (we plan on putting these vases together as a large scale group arrangement). The original lesson from Arteascuola is here.

In this architecture unit, middle school students learn about famous buildings in the world. Students create one of the buildings with a unique sky.

Mixed Media Art Summer Camp Project Ideas - Fun mixed media projects with full instructions and planning suggestions to make successful!

Check out the coolest printable ever! Grab one, color it and glue together to make a totally awesome flextangle!

5 Successful One-Day Art Lessons for the Middle School Classroom Curriculum Design % %

We found the best middle school art projects online! Whether you are an art teacher teaching middle school students or have kids in middle school that you

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

Every quarter in 7th grade art, we attempt an architecture drawing project. Last quarter, it was castle design. This quarter we went back to the old favorite of ornate, Victorian style homes. Using Deep Space Sparkle's Architecture Made Easy template drawing directions, we cruised through the beginning part of this work (I was gone the day the students started this and I came back to amazing results!). Color was added with a pastel chalk graded background, and a water-based marker bleeding technique was used for inside the house. Colored Sharpies added a punch in areas too small for the bleeding technique.

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

Have you discovered Blackout Poetry yet? It's equally fun for kids and adults and you probably have all you need to do it without buying a thing!

Ceramic Slab Lanterns Cut-Out Design-Ceramic Slab Lanterns Cut-Out Design, Hgh school ceramics project. Slab construction art lesson

For our final work in our portrait unit, we completed a Surrealist-style collage drawing. We had previously spent a lot of time drawing realistic portraits and features so this time around we complete

In this architecture unit, middle school students learn about famous buildings in the world. Students create one of the buildings with a unique sky.

In this mixed media lesson, students will use three mediums to create a shaded, unified piece of art.

Middle Schoolers are awkward. I think that's one of the reasons that anytime a self-portrait is mentioned they groan obnoxiously and throw t...

In this Aquarium Perspective Lesson, Middle School students will dive right into learning about the principle of perspective while designing an aquarium.

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

Find the latest teaching resources and ideas for the elementary and middle school classroom. Interactive notebooks, classroom management, and more

I really enjoy the process of painting and drawing on a black surface. The black paper sets your deepest shadows, and your job as the artist is to bring the light and color to life. You are essentially creating LIGHT with color, how cool is that? If you are new to working on black paper

This project proved to be both very challenging and a lot of fun. Creating pattern isn't as easy as it looks. Zentangle patterns can be difficult to think up. We used some 4-step Zentangle pattern hand-outs to get going but most of us created our own complex patterns as well. The landscape format gave this "doodle" drawing a new layout and scratch-art and tooling foil gave the project some varied texture. Varied line thickness was also highlighted.

Try this easy tinfoil sculpture art lesson in your classroom. Learn more from this blog post.