Dine Hearts

Lots of teachers use Jim Dine and his simplistic series of the heart shape.  I took the opportunity to teach my 3rd graders about analogous colors and painting loosely with this lesson.  We used the Crayola SO BIG brushes and I told them I wanted to "see" the brushstrokes.  After viewing a powerpoint on this American artist, I gave a demo and here is what my little people saw.

1.  Begin by picking a set of analogous colors.  These lie next to each other on the color wheel and blend beautifully to create an intermediate color.  White was also used, so they got 3 colors on their paper palette.  White will lighten any color, so you see, the paintings had many colors in them.  I showed my students how to mix on my paper, and not on the palette.  Another point is to tell students not to over-mix!  If they get something they like, leave it alone.  Use loose, big brush strokes.  I showed them how to dry-brush (using just a little paint on the brush which makes a soft look.)  I showed them stippling (bouncing the brush up and down and dabbing paint on).  I showed them big sweeping motions with my arm and brush.  You could hear the oohs and ahhs while I gave my 6 minute demo.

2.  Then off they went to paint.   They were to fill their entire paper.  Here is what they look like after the painting.

3.  The second class session we used oil pastels to layer on more details.  I showed them how to add a shadow with black and asked them to use the paint to guide them in adding more details.  Whatever they decided to do, they needed to REPEAT to create a unifying design.  This was an opportunity to talk about contrasting colors and complementary colors (colors opposite each other on the color wheel) and why artists use them.

I got some pretty amazing paintings!  Take a look!