This project was inspired by the wonderful art teacher, Mary, over at the MaryMaking blog.
I did this project with my 7-12 years olds, and it took two 90 minutes sessions.
The first session we focused on our hippos. I did a guided line drawing on the white board and the students followed along on brown drawing paper. We mapped out the features, shapes and eyes in detail. The students had visuals of hippo photographs at their table so they could also look to see detailed characteristics of hippos, particularly their big eyes, their wrinkles and skin folds and their large snout (not sure that what it's called on a hippo....). I always feel that when doing a guided drawing exercise, the addition of visuals helps to makes the process a bit more authentic and allows students to add their own details and touches with observational precision.
After the hippos were drawn in pencil we outlined them in black marker. A large reflection spot was left white in the eyes.
Then on to our chalk. Using neutral tones of browns, grays, oranges, yellows and even red, we colored in the hippo while looking at the various folds of skin, textures, shadows and highlights on our photographs. We used our fingers to blend but were encouraged not to over-blend, rather, to leave things looking a bit rough and edgy.
On the second day we created our background. Our paper was divided into horizonal thirds. The bottom (our lake) was scribbled with white crayon (water ripples) and painted over in light watercolor blues and greens. The sky was done in watercolor in a choice of warm or cool colors, onto which we splattered a few pinches of salt. The middle was acrylic paint in green and yellows applied with sponges for a more textured look. While this dried, we cut out long grass from green pattered deco paper.
Finally, our hippos were cut out and pasted on the final paper with our grass pasted behind and in front of them.
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| Kids 7-9 |
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| Kids 7-11 |