Simple Abstract Shape Art by K & 1st Grade

This was a super easy project I did with my K & 1st grade students last week in one class session. I also taught variations of this one to my 2nd-5th graders as well. The idea was inspired by a fantastic observation visit last week with Marla Roberson at Herod Elementary whose students were creating beautiful elephants using this same technique.

Materials:

Crayola watercolor markers
Sulphite paper 9 X 12 size* (or as a nice alternative, I used long skinny scrap paper to create a different kind of vertical composition with older students)
Oil Pastels
Poster with various geometric and organic shapes



Procedure: 
1. The students drew shapes with black Crayola watercolor markers and then traced them with a colored marker, being careful not to blend the two. 
2. Next, we created a background in the negative space with oil pastels. 
3. We then took plain water and painted inside the marker-drawn shapes, dissolving the pigments in the markers. 


Art Teacher Thoughts: 
I love how such a simple project created results that look pretty complicated! I especially like the layered watercolor wash appearance of the diluted marker and that some students managed to create a resist painting in the process. I also liked the contrast between the grayscale shapes and the colorful backgrounds.This lesson worked so perfectly! I had no tweaks to the instruction after the first teaching, which is pretty rare.