Miro Project

I wanted to share a project I taught in Miss Shepstone's 3rd grade yesterday.. and in Mr. Mercuro's class a few weeks ago. This project was developed by Karen Rosenbaum for Mr. Mercuro's 4th grade. It's based on the painting "Woman in Front of the Sun" by Joan Miro. (pronounced Juan Mee-ro, I taught the kids it rhymes with "hero").

I started with a powerpoint that talks about who Joan Miro was, his various paintings and other works in sculpture, mosaic, tapestry, etc. (If you'd like to use the powerpoint I made, please email me at brooke@hellrey.com and I will email you the file.)

We worked on blue construction paper, and used oil pastels. I love using pastels on colored paper because some of the paper shows through the pastels and it almost looks painted. Blue cardstock would have been nice too since it's a little thicker.

You'll need:
blue paper 
a pencil
thick sharpie (not the fine point, in the art closet)
oil pastels (in the art closet)
fixative (in the art closet)

1. Use the ladybug to do a directed draw. Have the kids start in pencil first drawing the body, legs, eye, head, arms, and then the red circle and stars. 

2. Have the kids go over everything with the sharpie. Let them add extra stars, moons, etc. if they feel like they have empty space. Have them sign their work in cursive in the bottom right corner.

3. Start coloring with the oil pastels. Make sure you remind them that the colors will smudge. We started with the eye, then did the red circle, and did the black last.

4. Spray projects with fixative and let dry.

There is a sample project pinned to the wall by the art closet, and some other materials that show you the step by step process that Karen made. 

Have fun!