Living seas.

As my third graders studied a unit on landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes, they used many different art media and created multimedia projects. In all the pictures, students thought about a foreground, middle ground, and background. In this project, they studied the sea, its many colors, and what things they would incorporate into a seascape. They used their knowledge of how to create an effective composition to show space in their picture.

Looking at Artwork Related to the Sea

We first looked at sea paintings by artist Winslow Homer. Students could really see, feel, and hear the sounds of the sea during a storm or as a quiet evening lay over the water. We discussed how the colors he used in the paintings give you a certain mood or feeling. I asked them what colors they saw in his paintings. They saw that bright colors were missing; instead, the artist used shades of gold, brown, and gray. Although students would use bright colors in this assignment, I wanted them to see that not all artwork has to be painted that way. It was important for them to feel what the artist was trying to show.

Many students didn't know the term "white caps." I explained to them what it meant, as this would have importance in their picture. We also discussed what they might include in their seascape--fish, sea creatures, boats, land, lighthouses, islands, coconut trees, and people--taking them to a tropical place of warmth and color.

Painting Water and Creating Wavy Textures

During the first class, students painted their sea colors on white 12 x 18" (31 x 46 cm) paper with tempera paint in colors of blue, teal, green, white, and purple. As they painted and mixed these colors on their paper, they used plastic scrapers to make wavy, textured lines through the paint. This added more interest in the water, showing a feeling of the movement of waves. They enjoyed freely painting, thinking about which colors appealed to them and how to mix them to make other colors. Students painted one long section at a time across the paper and scraped that before the paint dried. Then, they painted and scraped the next section across the paper. Students covered the whole sheet of paper with these vibrant colors and textures of paint. We set these papers to dry for use later.

Creating Sea Life

To create fish, seaweed, and sea creatures, we used torn pieces of colored tissue paper. Each student had a piece of 9 x 12" (23 x 31 cm) oak tag. Students tore small tissue paper pieces in shades of pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange, and green and arranged them on the oak tag. I showed them how to glue down the pieces using a mixture of water and glue I had previously mixed for them. They used a bristle brush to paint over the tissue paper pieces. I encouraged them to overlap some edges of the tissue paper pieces to discover different colors coming through; not too many pieces, though, as that would make for a muddy color. I emphasized that using bright colors different from their sea colors would add more contrast in their pictures. We set these boards aside to dry and would later use them to cut out their fish, seaweed, and other sea creatures.

Making Waves

Taking the large sea-painted sheets of paper, students tore them down in long strips, carefully using one hand as a guide while the other hand ripped paper down beside it. Some students needed assistance here so they would not rip off little pieces. Through tearing different ways, students made either sharp, large waves or straight, calm waves, with the white edges of each torn piece creating their white caps. Students placed these strips on their backgrounds of oak tag paper, starting in the middle of the paper. I demonstrated how to slightly over lap each strip before gluing the ends in place. They did not glue the tops of the strips so they would be left open for tucking in fish or boats in the waves.

Watercolor Skies and Details Complete Seascape

After they glued the strips of waves, students used watercolor paint to fill in their sky. We talked about what type of skies they could paint with clouds, rain, rainbows, and sunsets. I showed them how to do a light wash using clear water first and then dripping the colors of watercolor paint to make a soft glowing sky.

While that was drying, students returned to their tissue paper collages. Using crayons, they drew sea creatures on the tissue paper collage and cut them out. They made fish, octopus, dolphin, seaweed, and other sea creatures and placed them in and on the waves.

Students created other details to put in their pictures as the last step. Some used sandpaper for islands and rocks. They also cut scraps of colored construction paper for light houses, boats, people, trees, and any other things they wanted in the picture. For drawing any other added details, students used crayons.

Our Final Masterpiece

Students created colorful, living seas. They saw, felt, and heard the sounds of their beautiful seascapes as they had when looking at Winslow Homer's paintings. The process involved students in a multitude of art concepts and materials that allowed all students to successfully create a multimedia project. The pictures, so bright and alive, were noticed by all when on display.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

Trina Wicks-Patnaude is an art teacher in the elementary schools in Loudon, Webster, and Salisbury, New Hampshire.