Vermont Farms and Barns

In Vermont, spring has sprung for the fourth grade artists painting these spring landscapes.  Fourth grade artists work to capture the various greens of the Green Mountain State in springtime and to create the illusion of space by developing a foreground, middle ground and background.  After painting these artists returned with brush and black paint to freshen up the outlines.  I love the bold color and lines.

Vermont Farms and Barns

Artists are off to a good start drawing Vermont Landscapes.  I think they did a great job, perhaps because it's a subject near and dear to our hearts.  This lesson was inspired by Josette Brower at  Georgetown Elementary Art.  Our learning objective was to practice drawing 3-D shapes, cubes and cylinders, and to draw a barn and silo in perspective.  We practiced once and then kids started their paintings.  No under drawing was necessary.     The only rule I gave the kids about the project was that the barn could be placed anywhere on the page except the very bottom of the paper.  We talked about leaving room for the animals to get in and out of the barn, and I wanted my youngest artists to experience creating space in their landscapes. 

Josette's students placed their barns in a winter landscape, but I think we'll go for spring so we can put the green in the Green Mountain State. Here are some examples of first, second, and third grade work.  Can you tell which is which...hmmmm.

Kids love learning to draw basic forms using perspective.  It's so exciting and this project was a big hit....Thanks Josette Brower!  Can't wait to add color.