This week's art class we were celebrating Valentines Day by making our own mosaic hearts. First the students started by choosing two watercolor colors to paint with. I showed them how to use watercolors to create different values. By adding more water on the brush they made strips of watercolor paper that had a value scale beginning with the darker value and ending with the lightest value. Kids have a tendency to want to use watercolor paint like it is acrylic paint, so I had to keep reminding them not to load up their brushes with the paint.
After painting their strips, they drew a heart on their paper and then cut up the value strips randomly so they would have pieces to use for their mosaic hearts. The instructions were to start gluing the darker value watercolor pieces around the edges of the heart. From there, they were to get progressively lighter towards the center of the heart. This would give them more of a three dimensional heart as it would in the same way if you were shading a heart with pencil, etc.
Some students cut larger mosaic pieces and some cut smaller, narrower shaped pieces. I loved all the different variations of hearts!
They were allowed to mix their 2 colors, or even trade with their neighbor for colors they wanted.
I also gave them a choice to cut mosaic pieces into recognizable shapes. I suggested that they cut out shapes of things that they loved. I love how this heart came out, and I think they all turned out beautifully!
