Sea Turtle Reverse Glass Painting

Resources to Consider (I showed some of these on my Smartboard): http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/drawturtle
http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Sea-Turtle
http://drawsketch.about.com/library/bl-step-turtle.htm

Intended Grade Level(s): 2-4Grade

Estimated Class Period(s): 2

Materials Required: White 9X12 paper, Acetate, small paint brushes, pencils, sharpies, acrylic NEON paint, sea turtle pictures, ocean themed artwork examples, (optional: sea turtle tracers)

FYI: I used tempera paint for this initially, but it flaked off the acetate…I tried covering it with a layer of Modge Podge and that helped it to stay on…I am not sure if it is a permanent fix, acrylic works better on acetate so in the future that is what I will use.

Goals & Objectives: The goals of this lesson are technique and procedure based. (I did tie it in with a unit on ‘ocean’ art, but it could very easily adapt to other goals based on your district’s objectives.) The objectives include using organic shapes, using a variety of lines and complex patterns and filling in shapes using even color.

GLEs Accomplished In Lesson:
PP I.B Paint lines and fill in shapes with even color using tempera (see my note above about the type of paint)
AP 2.A Describe the use of the following in artworks: Outlines, Organic shapes, Organic forms, Positive and negative space, Contrast/ variety of values, Complex patterns

Procedure (Guided Lesson, Instructions, etc):
I set up the paint in those little round paint pallets, just a tiny bit of each color with one set of paints for each table. The students will only be using tiny amounts of paint and I found this to be less wasteful. Since it was using neon paint, I didn’t have them mix colors, but if you don’t have neon paint, color mixing could be part of the lesson goals.

Project (Steps, Examples, etc):

1. Demonstrate how to draw a sea turtle (I made sea turtle tracers….but a more advance group could have easily drawn the sea turtle without a tracer or with the help of an egg shaped/oval tracer) I suggest that they put it in the corner of the paper, rather than exactly in the middle, but I let students make the final compositional decisions.
2. After the outline is drawn demonstrate how to draw an oval on the inside of the shell and add lines all the way around to create smaller areas for the edge of the shell. Then add organic shapes in the middle.
3. Students will then lay their sheet of acetate over their drawing (I demonstrated this on my Elmo). They will use a sharpie to trace over the entire drawing so that it is now ‘traced’ onto the acetate. If you are worried the acetate will slide and shift, you can give them a small piece of tape to hold it in place. I did have a few students who were unable to line up their drawing after it had moved, but not everyone will need the tape.
4. Once they have drawn the outline in sharpie, demonstrate how to add a variety of lines, complex patterns and shapes inside their organic shape. Also, they should put small organic shapes on the flippers, neck and tail of the turtle so that it looks more like a reptile.
5. Have students flip their acetate over before they write their name in the corner or else it will be backwards.
6. Students will need to paint some of their tiny details today so that they will be dry by next week. Quickly demonstrate how they will use a tiny paintbrush with only 2 or 3 colors this week. Remind them that we are painting the back and this color will show through on the front even if they paint over it when it is dry. (If you don’t have time for this step it can be done at the beginning of the next lesson, just remind students to make sure the paint is dry before they paint over it!)
Day 2
1. Review the way that we painted last week. Demonstrate how they will paint right over the organic shape even if they painted the polka dots first, those will show through onto the front.
2. Make sure they paint the entire turtle.
3. Students can add patterns in the background with a sharpie, they could do tiny organic shapes, lines, or circles for bubbles. If time allows, students could also add paint to the background.

Assessment and Reflection: Students will design the Sea Turtle Reverse Glass Painting based on a teacher created rubric as it aligns with district objectives and goals. Students should be able to complete the drawing and painting with little or no teacher assistance and the finished product should have good craftsman ship and details appropriate to the grade level.

Here is the outline tracer I used...students still had to draw the shell, but this at least helped them to make it big enough.