Rousseau's Hidden Art

Description: After learning about Henri Rousseau's art and how he liked to hide objects in his artwork, the class drew animals using a blue colored pencil. We actually drew our animals upside down and practiced contour drawing (copying the shape). This allowed us to visualize the image as lines and shapes put together instead of an animal we were trying to recreate. After the animal was drawn, we took our warm-colored crayons and drew several patterns over the animal. This hid the animal. To discover the animal, we created "Ruby Red Glasses," using red construction paper and red transparent plastic. When you look through the glasses, the red filter cancels out the warm patterns and it is easy to see the animal left behind!

Extension Activity: There are many ways I could use this concept in my classroom. My students could send hidden messages by obstructing the message with patterns that require the special glasses to remove. This process could also be used to hide answers to different homework questions. It would be a fun way to encourage students to get their work done so they could use their glasses to correct their work.

Tissue Paper Art

Description: For this project, we tore up tissue paper and used clear acrylic paint to sort of "glue" it to a black sheet of construction paper. Then we were tasked with creating some sort of landscape scene to glue to the front. The goal of this piece was to embody the practices of Vincent van Gogh in his famous piece, "Starry Night." We also wrote down facts we learned about the artist during the presentation at the beginning of the lesson. This slip of paper will be displayed with the art projects. I think this is a great way for viewers to learn a bit about the artist that inspired the project.

Extension Activity: I would have my students rip up tissue paper and create their own design on a piece of wax paper. Once their projects were dry, we would cut the rough edges and make two frames out of construction paper and sandwich the tissue design in the center. The final product would be a sun catcher they could place in the windows of the classroom, and eventually their home.