The Start of Our Winter Mural

 Thanks to the inspiring posts on Art With Mr. E's blog and TaraMarie's We Heart Art, I was able to get some murals started at my school too.  Mr. E's fall mural videos were very helpful.  Thank you so much for making those.  I liked the idea that Tara had her students construct the mural in separate sections.  That is making it easier to split up the jobs in my classroom, as we work on the collage components.

Panels A and B



We are off to a running start on our winter mural project.  It has just been two days since Christmas vacation ended and most of our background work is done on the 4 panels.  Considering that we just started Monday, I think that is excellent progress.


Panels C and D



 Grade three students got started with the swirly, whirly sky using only oil crayons.  Later in the day the sixth grade students were able to mix similar winter colors by tinting blue, purple and turquoise with lots of white.  They applied the paint with 1inch and 2 inch foam and bristle brushes. 

Close up of Panel A

Under my guidance, the sixth graders were able to attach 2 or three panels in a row and overpaint the transitions.  This helped each separate page blend well into the next.

Pieces to join to panels B, C, and D




Vincent Van Gogh and his double motivate us from the bulletin board.

 

Inspiration for the Sky of our Winter Mural

Today, many of the fifth graders were able to help create 9 more panels to make each of the sections a little longer.  Several volunteers from that fifth grade class were interested to submit some pencil sketches that will guide our collage parts.  We are thinking to do one panel for each theme:  Winter Sports, Nature, Arctic Animals, and Scenic Winter.

Tomorrow we will start of some pine trees for landscaping.  I'll have more information later this week and perhaps next week too.