Kindergarten: Paul Klee Inspired Portrait

Recently, I had kindergarten study Paul Klee and his painting “Senecio”. We talked about portraits and how there are all types of portraits. Some realistic, some that are abstract. I had the students look for basic shapes that form parts of the face.

You can see where I am using the Document camera to draw the face and I have Paul Klee’s painting right next to my drawing. That way the students can see how I am creating a portrait like the “Senecio”.

These are a couple of examples I showed them. The students loved them and thought they were so funny.

Bowl of Fruit

This project was done during the first week of art camp for k-2nd graders. The focus of the drawing was how overlapping objects can create a sense of space and how to layer the oil pastel colors to add shadow.

1. Start by drawing an oval for the opening of the bowl. Then a half circle for the front of the bowl.
2. Draw the fruit. I talked about drawing the fruit closest first, then draw the fruit behind it. Usually the younger kids want to draw the whole fruit so I made sure to point out to the kids that you would not see the bottom of the fruit because of them overlapping.
3. Draw the horizon line behind the fruit to represent the table and the wall. Remind kids to be careful not to draw through the bowl and fruit.
4. Fill the shapes with oil pastel.
5. Shadows. I made sure the kids study where the shadows are on the fruit and on the table and how to layer the shadow color over the original pastel color. The last tip I gave them is that a shadow is the shade of the color that it is casting on. Meaning if the apple is a light green, the shadow is a darker green.