Many of my 3rd-5th graders love to draw from their imaginations.  I found a project that used the folk artist, Horace Pippin, for inspiration.  Horace Pippin was an African American folk artist.  He was self taught and painted the world around him, memories, stories, etc…  We first read the book, A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant.  I love the illustrations by Melissa Sweet! We used one illustration of Pippin at work in his home for inspiration for this project.

We took a minute to imagine ourselves in our dream art studio.  Where would it be?  What would we like to have around us for inspiration?  What type of art would we be making?  Students began by tracing a rectangle to be their “canvas”, then added themselves and their creative space.  I let them have all the freedom they wanted with this.  Some created traditional studios while others set their creative space outside or even on the moon!

We will finish drawing these next week and then add color with watercolor and colored pencil.  I couldn’t resist sharing some of these drawings in progress.  It was fun to see all their creative ideas appear on the page.  Can’t wait to see them finished. : )  I will post all of them when they are complete.

Thank you Patty at Deep Space Sparkle for the idea!