Art Buffet is a class I created for the kid who loves to do everything, so we always do a drawing, sculpture, and painting by the end of the week.
We did an art quote in front of my building.
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” ― Pablo Picasso.
We had 10 children in the class so they picked a word of the quote from a bucket and did a fanciful sketch of that word. Sketches were taken outside where I had measured about 2 feet of space for each participant to work. We even used paint brushes to blend colors which worked out really well.
Each student created a treasure map of an imaginary island. It could be scary or cute, and having a treasure was optional, though most included "ye olde X-marks the spot."
We always start with a thumbnail sketch for quick ideas, then go to a 1/2 size sketch where we use rulers to get use to them. Then onto the final drawing which is a large 18 x 24 inch paper.
(Skipping sketches does make projects worse.)
Maps included the following: Detailed border, rose compass, longitude/latitude, 5 land feature symbols, key for symbols, 2 landmarks, 2 water symbols in the water, 1 sea monster and 1 ship.
Maps were wrinkled and aged by soaking in watered-down paint. We used heavy drawing paper, near 100lb. Pencil, sharpie, watercolors, then aged in a watered down paint solution. Maps need to be in and out as quickly as possible, more than 5 seconds makes more rips. 10+ seconds and it shreds. Type of paper may matter a lot. Always test teacher samples first. The final solution for aging was about 1 cup of any brown paint per gallon of water.
For older students, we use dip pens and india ink to make our drawings more authentic.
We used information from "The Emotional Color Wheel" to pick colors, so each color had a specific personal meaning. (Use discount code 3YPBN853 for 30% off all their books)
You can see by the last image we had to wear our cut yarn at least once for a silly class photo. It was a sun week with a "Pirate" theme.