End of the Year Murals

Well everyone – we’re done in the Art Room until September.  Before we go, here’s one last project from our fabulous G-Town artists!

What to do with all that opened paint that won’t keep over the summer months?  What to do now that the District Art Show is over?  HOW to keep summer-ready students interested and excited about making art?  Hello, Pinterest and the inspiration for this awesome mural project!

Big, big thanks to Katie at Experiments in Art Education for this very cool end of the year project.  My kiddos LOVED it.  Their comments as they were painting were awesome to hear, including this one:  “Mrs. Brouwer, I could do this ALL DAY!!”

Here’s what we did:

1) Talked about murals – interestingly, I have never taught a mural lesson, and I need to expand on that idea – many of my students were not familiar with murals and mural artists.  Yikes!

2) Began with black line shapes.  The shapes could not touch, and when the paper was full, we connected the shapes with lines.

3) Painted the shapes with color – each student got a cup of color and was instructed to walk around the room, adding color to all the murals in different areas.

4) Final step – we outlined around the shapes again to make ’em POP.   Love, love love these.  They will decorate the art room and our hallways in the fall.  Can’t wait!

  Ta-Daa!  Finished Mural.

Have a great summer, everyone!

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

20 thoughts on “End of the Year Murals

  1. You bet! It’s a keeper. What are you planning to do with your murals? I still have ours from last spring…I need to figure out a way to display those beauties!

  2. Hi Trina – I used white Kraft paper from a 36″ x 1000′ roll. The paper was a little thin, but it held up well for the tempera paint. Your kiddos will love this project! -josey

  3. It looks like FUN! I want to try it with my First grades at the Boys & Girls Club! Will post results…if it works…

  4. It will work…your kiddos will LOVE it. Put some music on and let ’em wander around the room with their paint cups…painting a dab here and there…total painting enjoyment.

  5. I teach art K-3 at an English immersion school in Guatemala… I can’t wait to incorporate this project into our lesson on shapes! Thank you!!

  6. Fabulous idea! I want to try it at my daughter’s art-themed birthday party. I wondered if it would work with canvases and acrylic paints? I thought each girl could draw her own shapes with Sharpie and then everyone would go around the table, adding their colours in a several places on the design, rotating until everyone’s project was finished. Then they’d each have some collaborative art to take home.

  7. How long did the murals take? I’m trying to gage if this could be a one class activity

  8. Well…three 50 minute class sessions; one to do the black outlines, another to paint, and the final class to go over the edges with black. It could go quicker though…I had all my upper elementary classes work on these, one class after the other; one class began with the outlining, the next two classes painted with color, and my class at the end of the day (when everything was dry) re-did the black outlines.

  9. Hi Verena – we just used tempera paints, straight from the bottles – not thinned with water at all. I think watercolors would be fun too…the finished pieces would be a little lighter in color, maybe more of a pastel look. It would be a neat experiment!

  10. I’ve done similar murals with lightweight white-on-white cotton fabric that I’ve bought at my local Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts Store. Sometimes used for quilting, this fabric is inexpensive when on sale and with a coupon, and can be draped in windows, hung across walls, laid out in the grass to be painted, ideas are endless. We’ve used dot paints, pray bottle dyes, neon acrylics for handprints, etc. The students love it! Thanks for your additional ideas about painting shapes and creating stained-glass inspired images.

  11. You could use an inexpensive dollar store tablecloth that is double sided, plastic on one side and cloth on the other.

  12. WOW!! This sounds like F U N!! Can’t wait to try it. I was thinking of using it as a “Get-to-Know Me” project for the first TWO days of school!!!!

  13. Hi,
    Do you currently have Blacklines or a specific lesson to use when teaching this great idea?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *