A Paul Klee Inspired Children's Art Lesson Plan
"To paint well is simply this: to put the right color in the right place." -- Paul Klee
Brief Description:
Student-artist Rebecca (age 12) contributed two "Broken Window Paintings" to the ArtHouse
Children's Art Gallery, and told us about her teacher's wonderful project ideas. On Rebecca's
tip, we got in touch with innovative art teacher Jessica Broom to hear about this particular
lesson, and how she uses ArtHouse in her curriculum.
When a classroom window cracked, Ms. Broom noted that looking past the cracked glass altered
perception of the scene beyond. She began thinking about how to combine this "broken window"
idea with an existing lesson on line, color, and the work of painter Paul Klee. Jessica felt
students would quickly see how "glass-crack" lines could be used to divide sketches into
sections for color experimentation.
Keywords:
Paul Klee, cubism.
Materials Needed:
paper,
#2 pencil,
ruler or straight edge,
white glue,
watercolor crayons,
ArtHouse (recommended).
Lesson Plan - Background and Historical Information:
(see column at left)
Lesson Plan - Activity:
Day One: Making "Broken Window Drawings"
Step 1: The class reviewed the art of Paul Klee and discussed his use of lines. In early works,
like the ones at left, Klee outlined blocks before adding color.
Step 2: Sketching lightly in pencil, students drew their choice of animal or human figures.
They were asked to make simple, blocky drawings so later they'd be easy to paint over.
Ms. Broom instructed them that no line should be shorter than one half-inch, and no two lines
should come closer together than a half-inch unless intersecting. Since Ms. Broom's students
were already familiar with ArtHouse, they didn't need additional instruction on how to draw
basic "architectural" perspective lines such as the outlines of windows and doors or the
intersection lines between walls, floors and ceilings.
Step 3: Students made a dot anywhere near the center of the page. With straight-edges, they
drew radiating glass-crack lines outward from these dots to the edges of the paper, separated
"about the width of pie slices."
Step 4: With squeeze bottles of white glue, students were challenged to put narrow beads
down the middle of every pencil line. Glue was allowed to dry overnight.
Day Two: Experimental Paintings in the Style of Paul Klee
Step 1: The class reviewed the art of Paul Klee and discussed his use of color.
Step 2: Using Aquacolor crayons,
students colored-in their drawings. They were challenged to make each segment a different color
than its neighbors. Watercolor crayons are easy to blend, or different crayons can be used for
each segment. The glue-lines made this step move along quickly because raised lines stop the crayon
tips.
Step 3: Students painted over their drawings with wet brushes. With watercolor crayons, the
crayon effect is easily transformed into a distinctive painterly "watercolor" effect. Again, the
raised lines of dried glue help prevent watercolor from migrating across borders.
Day Three: Discussion
ArtHouse makes it easy for small groups of students to point out details, similarities and
differences between artworks in a visually interesting three-dimensional context. Ms. Broom gave
each project group a list of discussion questions to work from.
Example discussion question: "Do these painting meet the definition of cubism? Why or why not?"
(Although these may look a little like famous cubist paintings, they fail to meet the definition
of cubism. Characteristically, cubist painters tried to show objects and scenes from multiple
perspectives simultaneously. Like Paul Klee's paintings, these student paintings reflect a single viewpoint.)
Summary:
Ms. Broom likes to use ArtHouse for small project groups because it gets students onto the
same page quickly. Students can easily work on their own component parts, and then
bring them together for display - and they love seeing their artwork displayed in ArtHouse.
ArtHouse provides a focal point for studio art projects at all grade levels from
pre-kindergarten right through the middle grades. As shown here, it's easy and fun to combine
traditional art styles and techniques with new creative ideas in decorating ArtHouse.
Project-based learning - using ArtHouse - makes your lessons more memorable!
Our sincere thanks go out to Rebecca for sharing her artwork, and also to teacher
Jessica Broom for sharing her wonderful "Broken Window" Paul Klee lesson plan.
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