After we read several children's books written by Eric Carle, my students were very interested to know how he created the art in his books. After a search online, I found a website that showed exactly how he created his illustrations and decided to have my students give it a try!
To begin, I laid out 2 layers of White Tissue Paper. We painted on the top layer and used the bottom layer to give support to the wet paint. I drew a rectangle on the tissue paper and let my students choose what paint color they wanted to use. They were able to choose from the Washable Glitter Confetti Paint or the Washable Tropical Tempera Paint. To make the painting quick and easy to accomplish, we used some Jumbo Chubby Brushes and Small Paint Cups. They painted on a fairly thick layer of paint; enough so that the tissue paper was mostly covered up. Many students added more detail to their paintings by using their paintbrushes to place dots, stripes, and other designs over the wet paint.
Immediately after my students finished painting, I handed them a Clear Plastic Fork and showed them how to turn it over and drag it through the wet paint to create different kinds of lines. By turning the fork over and using the back of the fork, they were able to create interesting lines in their paint. We explored using straight lines, wavy lines, zigzag lines, and we even found out how to make a plaid design! The best part of creating lines in wet paint was that if my students did not like the lines they created, they just used the Jumbo Chubby Brush to erase them and start over again. We then set their work aside to dry for a few hours.
Once the paint was all dry, I had each of my students cut out their rectangle of dried paint. We used Chenille Stems to gather the rectangles together in the middle to create butterflies. My students twisted the chenille stems around the body of their butterflies and then shaped the rest of the chenille stem into antennae. The texture and lines that showed up on every child's individual butterflies were amazing! Each one truly looked like something right out of an Eric Carle book!
We used our beautiful butterflies to create a bulletin board to help us fly into a new year! This was such a fun way to help students remember our lesson and see their own work in action.
