Holiday Project - The Nutcracker

THE NUTCRACKER – A Christmas Tradition, the Nutcracker ballet has long since been a festive tradition in cities all over the world. Children and adults alike look forward to attending a performance of this delightful ballet; often as a yearly Christmas tradition. The Nutcracker was used as the inspiration for our lesson. We used of shapes, symmetry and color to compose our project.

Materials: This project can be done with oil pastel, chalk pastel, pencil or watercolor.

Step #1: Draw light guidelines across the middle and down the center. Draw a border around the edge of your paper. Draw a rectangle near center of the page as shown below for the body.
Step #2: Draw a rectangle for the head and another rectangle for his hat. Draw eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, mustache and beard.
Step #3: Draw his hair and his hat. Draw half circle for the shoulders, rectangles for the arms and circle for hands.
Step #4: Draw rectangles for the legs, add the boots.
Step #5: Draw in the details of the Nutcrackers jacket, boots, hands, hat and more. Choose your colors and materials to finish your project.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Artist: Paul Klee - Cat and Bird

Image
One of my favorite artist is Paul Klee, his work is simple and complicated at same time. Paul Klee was a Swiss artist and teacher from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His "Cat and Bird” painting from 1928 is a classic example of his philosophy. Klee grew up in a musical family and was himself a violinist. After much hesitation he chose to study art, not music, and he attended the Munich Academy in 1900. Klee loved to use continuous lines in his work, the cat's head and the bird were drawn with one continuous line . Our lesson experiments with both geometric shapes and color. Materials: Your choice of materials, we have used the "Cat and Bird" for acrylic painting, watercolor painting. oil pastel, chalk pastel and pencil. Step #1: Draw a border around the paper. Draw light guidelines down the center and across the middle. Draw a large "W" type shape for cats head. Step #2: Draw the cats eyes and snout
Read more

Artist: Van Gogh Sunflowers

Image
Vincent Van Gogh (1853- 1890) was son of a Dutch pastor in The Netherlands. He was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art . Most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years in Arles France. He painted several studies of the Sunflowers as a deliberate experiment in color. Our project uses one of Van Gogh Sunflower still life to work on the elements of composition and color. Materials: I have used acrylic paint, oil pastel, watercolor paint, watercolor pencil and chalk pastel for this project. I like to have the students be like Van Gogh and try the project several times and then look at the results. Step #1: Draw the bottom of your flower vase. Dr
Read more

Artist: Henri Rousseau - Surprised! Storm in the Forest

Image
One of the best animal artists for kids is Henri Rousseau. Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) was a French artist did not start painting until he was in his 40’s. Ridiculed during his life, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. He tried to paint in the schooled manner of the traditional artists, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of many avant-garde artists such as Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. Rousseau's loving attention to detail that made him an exceptional artist. We use Rousseau “Surprised, storm in the forest” as the inspiration for our lesson. We want the tiger's head to look like he is through the leaves. This lesson focuses on color and space. Materials: Sketching pencil, heavy weight drawing paper, sharpie. Finish with your choice of watercolor pencils, oil pastels or pastel chalk. Step #1: Draw light guidelines with a sketching pencil. Draw a large circle for the head. Step
Read more