Aztec Masks Art History Lesson

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This Aztec Masks art lesson is another project I did with one of my 5th and 6th grade classes this year. I tied it in with their study of the Aztec and Mayan cultures and the early explorers. This took two 2-hour class periods.

How To:

I created a mask template (with eyes cut out) that each student traced around onto their board, then they attached a piece of cardboard we cut for a nose shape using tape. The inside of the mask was base coated black (except for the eyes and mouth), and the outside of the mask was base coated white.
While that was drying, I had the students paint 1/4 sheets of watercolor paper with a medium, dark, and light turquoise color streaking it on the paper instead of blending it in ( to make it look like real turquoise).
When the paint was dry they cut these into small tile pieces.
After the mask board was dry they added a border with a ruler and painted that in yellow, and the background orange.
Next they added the mosaic pieces with some Mod Podge, being careful to leave the black showing thru on all sides of each piece.
After painting the teeth and eyes in they went over the whole mask with the Mod Podge.
They each finished the piece with their own border design, and a Sharpie outline between the background and border.

This was a time consuming process, but produced a very real mosaic look when finished. I forgot my camera that day and so I don’t have any pictures of the student’s Aztec masks art.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if you try out this project and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

I'm writing a book!

I am excited to announce my latest project! My daughter and I are working on a big, beautiful, creatively designed book on artist related lessons (similar to the ones on this website but with more details, step by step instructions and photos). The book will be for anyone who wants concise, detailed, well laid out lessons that are ready to teach, in a format that is fun to look at as well.

Book Info

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Supplies:

Canson XL Series Watercolor Pad, 9″ x 12″

Acrylic paint in yellow, orange, turquoise, white and black

ROYAL BRUSH Big Kids Choice, Set of 6

Fiskars 5 Inch Blunt Tip Kids Scissors

Crayola Colored Pencils

Mod Podge Glue

Ultra Fine Point Sharpie

Set of 24 Clear Plastic Rainbow Rulers

Flat Cardboard Sheets

Other Lessons:

Kevin Red Star Painted Tepees

Pablo Picasso Blue Guitar Art Lesson

Modigliani Tissue Paper Face Project

This page contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Everything on this page I have used and heartily recommend for teaching art.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian artist who worked mainly in France. If you are not familiar with this artist he was famous for his paintings of elongated faces with long skinny necks. His drawings were simple and stylized. This is a fun lesson to do with all ages, and I have added the tissue paper background for an extra twist, since the face

painting can be a fairly quick project to do.

How To:

I begin this lesson by showing some of Modigliani’s portraits. I talk about the long skinny faces and necks, and the almond shaped eyes,simple nose, and small rosebud lips.
Starting with a big skinny U shape, I have the students practice a simple face drawing in this style following my steps as I do it on a whiteboard. For fun I have them do simple curly lines for the hair. If I have already done a portrait lesson with them I point out the difference between a more realistic portrait; the shape and size of the features, and the placement of them compared to Modigliani’s faces.
Next I have them do a large drawing of the face on the watercolor paper, filling up most of the space. After they have done it in pencil, I have them go over all the lines with Sharpie.
Then we watercolor the faces. I let them have some freedom with the hair, making it two-tone if they want, and just painting it loosely around their Sharpie lines.
After they have done the painting part then we use small pieces of tissue paper to fill in the background putting water under and over each piece with a brush and overlapping them.
When the tissue dries we pull that off, and you end up with a textured looking background.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂

I'm writing a book!

Book Info

Sign up here for news about my upcoming art lesson book:

Supplies:

Crayola Watercolors

Canson XL Series Watercolor Pad, 9″ x 12″

Assorted Color Tissue Pack

Ticonderoga Pencils

Sharpies

Other Lessons:

Kevin Red Star Painted Ponies

Laurel Burch Cats Art Lesson

This is a project I just did with my preschool class, but it could be adapted for older ages. Kids love the bright colors, funny shapes and lines Miro uses in his work. I like using abstract art to teach kids that you don’t have to be able to draw something realistically to come up with a great piece of art.

For the preschool class I pre-painted the board white, and pre-drew the large shapes (see sample). If this were a kindergarten class or above I would let them do all the drawing. I had the preschoolers sand down the board. Then I had them draw in the other lines and shapes with a pencil, while I demonstrated it on a whiteboard. We talked about the different kinds of lines and shapes in this piece and how to make them.

They went over all the lines in Sharpie (on my sample I skipped the Sharpie part). Then we started with the lightest color (yellow) and filled in all the shapes-giving the yellow, red, green and blue areas two coats. After everything was dry we went back in with a small round brush with black paint and went over all the lines and filled in the circles.

The results were great and the kids had fun (Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera).

New step by step Joan Miro lesson in my upcoming book. Click here to see more information on my book and subscribe for book updates!

Please refer people back to this site if you use this lesson! 🙂