As a primary school art teacher, I always look for new ideas and lessons for my upper primary school students. However, long-distance learning and virtual classrooms have given my students and me a whole new challenge.
When we were first exposed to a virtual classroom, I tried to fit in as many art lessons as possible in their 45-minute classes. I wanted to make their learning as exciting as possible.
Little did I know that this strategy was too overwhelming for both my students and me.
However, that did not stop me from trying to make art lessons fun. There is always room for improvement!
After a year of getting used to the online atmosphere, we had just found the rhythm of our fun and effective virtual art classes.
Here’s how we found our rhythm.
The challenge
Time was one of the main problems my student faced.
It takes time for students to develop the speed and skills needed to create art.
Before I started my students giving quick 45 minutes art projects, they took more than an hour to complete their masterpieces. This excludes the time spent drying the artworks in between lessons!
Because of this, they usually put their art aside to complete as homework. But amid other assignments, they often forget about their deadlines and end up not submitting their amazing artworks!.
That’s when I realised a vital lesson that drastically improved my art teaching methodology:
To teach art effectively online, the art projects have to be short and sweet.
If we can’t control the time students take to complete their work, we need to alter the art projects we give them!
45 minute Art Projects
With this revelation, I started planning art projects that are quick yet engaging for my students to create.
Here are some quick art lessons I’ve introduced to the students throughout this MCO 3.0 period.
1. Simple Mountain Drawing + Blending Watercolour
I was inspired to teach this art project after watching a video posted by an art teacher in Tiktok.
In this art project, my students learnt the Jen Arayi mountain technique. This technique requires students to use both drawing and basic watercolour techniques.
First, I taught my children perspective-drawing with mountains and trees. I showed them a few examples to help them understand how size can affect their distance from the viewer in artworks.
Afterwards, I taught them how to paint a watercolour sky with the classic wet-on-wet technique. Once the paint was dry, we used white gel pens to add texture and stars to the sky.
This simple yet beautiful style helped my student draw the mountain and complete it within the allocated time. It was one of the lessons most enjoyed by the students.
At the same time, my students learnt two fundamental art techniques that strengthened their art foundation
2. Robin Meade Landscape
When searching for online art projects, choose projects that apply multiple art techniques easy to execute and learn.
Robin Meade’s Landscapes are a great example of a great art project that combines multiple art disciplines.
My students learned line art elements in this art project by drawing lines using a pencil before tracing them with a black sharpie.
After that, I showed my students samples of Robin Mead’s work to help them understand how warm and cool colours can blend in harmony. Then, my students experimented with warm and cool colours to make their own colourful combinations with these visual references
Give your students a range of choices to nurture their artistic creativity.
I also gave my students a choice to choose the following 3 materials for this lesson: watercolours, colour pencils, oil pastel. Most of them chose water colour and colour pencil as it’s less messier than oil pastel.
3. Art is therapeutic for both students and teachers
Art was not my main subject when I first started as a teacher. But after teaching the students art since 2018, the joys of art grew on me.
Art, to me, became a relaxing hobby that has not only helped me spend my time wisely but has also kept me sane during this lockdown! I am now painting daily.
With quick art projects like these, we give our students a strong foundation and stress reliever to calm our minds during the pandemic.
Like how I started to love art, I hope that my students will love and learn the beauty of art.
Regardless of how old you are, try out one of these quick art lessons during your free time.
Who knows? You may discover a new hidden talent within yourself!
