We enjoyed another delightful Van Gogh Art Appreciation activity!
We chose the “Starry Night” and I used the image on christineparkdesign.com because we could zoom in and really look at his brushstrokes, colours and details.
I drew a Van Gogh Starry Night outline for the girls (to save time) and although it seemed like a colouring-in picture, there was so much detail for them to put into the picture, that I didn’t want to use most the time copying the drawing off a print-out using a grid.
Van Gogh Starry Night outline
First the girls coloured only the white and yellow areas on the white outline page with oil pastels. (This was not easy – you can’t see white on white! And it had to be coloured in little strokes like Van Gogh’s.) We used oil several different types of pastels; some thick and greasy, others with many shades of colours, all pressed hard to make thick stokes on the paper.
Finding and filling all the white and yellow areas
Then we washed the page with black water-colour. This was to have a dark background between the little strokes and to give a night-time feel to the picture. The white and yellow moon, stars and windows really stood out!
Washing the page with black water colour
Now the girls started to fill in areas. They sat at the computer, zoomed in and really looked to see what colours Van Gogh used. This took some time, but already they were happy with their art as it began to look more and more like the masterpiece!
The dark greens, blacks and greys of the Cypress tree
Swirling blues, whites and greys of the sky
All done, in just an hour or so! They really appreciated how long Van Gogh must have worked on this masterpiece, how many colours he dabbed on the canvas and how these colours created movement and mood. They loved this lesson!
Van Gogh's Starry Night by Miss K, 10 years old
Van Gogh's Starry Night by Miss L 7 years old
Here are some links I used to prepare this lesson:
artprojectsforkids.org – Kathy Barbro’s delightful art lesson ideas!
vangoghmuseum.nl – colouring pages of several of van Gogh’s masterpieces. (I drew my own of the “Starry Night”)
Web Gallery of Art – for pictures of masterpieces
Thanks for sharing! What a great lesson. We love Van Gogh! Your girls did a great job creating masterpieces of their own.
This is a wonderful lesson. Good job, girls – the pictures look very Van Gogh.
I really love the fact you used the basic outline, but had them fill in the details. I loved that you had them use a couple of different mediums and that you had them try to recreate at least the feel of brush strokes. This is a wonderful art project that really teaches attention to detail and appreciate for the work. Excellent job…makes me want to do a unit on Van Gogh…
-Phyllis
We’re studying A Starry Night this week, too. When my son saw the painting he said, ‘I can’t paint this!’ So your outline is really going to come in handy; thank you so much!
I did a series of lessons on Van Gogh a few years ago with my class of 8 year olds. One of the pictures we studied was Starry Night. I had one particularly difficult young man and to get him motivated I sat with him and painted my own version. I thoroughly enjoyed that lesson and was quite impressed with my own artistic abilities.
I think your idea of using the oil pastels as well as a watercolour wash was brilliant. I shall try that with my son who I’m now homeschooling.
I love your ideas and creativity. Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Amanda
Hi Nadene, I came across your daughters Starry Night. Beautiful work. See what an odd thing
happened to my daughter’s Starry Night!
http://web.mac.com/kuitenbrouwer/Paula_Kuitenbrouwer/Be_Creative_Blog/Entries/2010/3/4_Van_Gogh_In_Green.html
I love your daughter’s colourful and exciting painting! Van Gogh would be pleased! Thanks for sharing it with us.
And a song to go with it!
http://www.google.cn/music/search?q=vincent+starry+starry+night&aq=1m&oq=starry+sta
Then choose the second song to listen to. I love it!
Nice work. Thank you for these ideas. We donát have oil pastel. Does this work with crayons, too? What do you think?
My daughter did this by her own.
http://gesztus.blogspot.com/2010/04/festes-painting.html
Eszter from Ukraine, Europe
Eszter, your daughter’s work is fabulous! She captured Van Gogh’s colours and style in her painting.
You can definitely use wax crayons or just paints instead of oil pastels. I like the rich, clear colours oil pastels create.
Yeah! its a great lesson… hmm… perhaps I will try it sometime some school kids @ Hyderabad
Many thanks for sharing this lesson – I shall be using it tomorrow with my class of 8/9 year olds in a little Christian school in South Wales, UK. I will be doing my own picture alongside the children to encourage them.
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Thank you so much for your ideas, inspiration and generoursity!
thank you for posting all this wonderful information. while we dont home school through the school year, i do like to have “summer home school” learning time. I’m hoping to enrich my children’s love of art this summer, and this blog is a great resource.
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