Grid drawing, chuck close, charcoal and collaborative drawing!

My 4th-6th graders at a Montessori school are learning how to use charcoal and the grid method of drawing. As a fun intro, I gave them pieces of a "mystery" image, and then put the whole thing together to get....a very abstract portrait of Maria Montessori!

I heard a lower el. student say "that looks creepy!"  and another student quickly said, "it's Impressionism!!!"

Ha!  Way to stick up for the art young one!   I left some of their Kandinsky-inspired art up for color.

If you decide to do this I have a couple of tips...
When you grid out your image keep in mind that if you FLIP THE PHOTO OVER and number it left to right, top to bottom, that when you PUT IT ALL TOGETHER AGAIN the numbers will actually be flipped...if you don't follow me don't worry about it - but it nearly gave me a panic attack when nothing was making sense in the image...

Also, I don't like the idea of laminating student work BUT for this purpose it really helped polish it off.  All of those little tiles and charcoal smudgy-ness...it's nice to have it all sealed in.

3rd Grade Collograph Prints

Students learned about what a collograph print is, what a composition is and various printmakers.  We watched some videos online on how to make a collograph plate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaSKKg-igNU&safe=active) and I showed them my own process (see images at bottom).  We used black printing inks and brayers, but you could use a sponge and tempera paint - you just wouldn't get as nice of detail.

Look for feathers, buttons, foam cut outs, string, burlap and more!  Look how amazing they turned out!!

I used these 5 images below in my own powerpoint to show kids how I made one...you can use them too!  Helps break down the process (but so does the video I posted above)