Dragon Slayer!

Hard at work finishing up

The Dragon Slayer project was a huge hit!  The students created castles and dragons to put onto a watercolor background.  First we spend some time discussing fiction and non-fiction and how those two categories can relate to art as well as books.  Then we decided that since castles are real (non-fiction) we had better do some research.  The students spent some time looking at photos of castles from around the world and came to the conclusion that all castles seem to have some of the same features.  Since dragons are pure fiction we decided that we could pretty much draw the dragons however we liked.  The students also came to the conclusion that artists from hundreds of years ago have greatly influenced our "modern day" ideas as to what dragons would look like.  Since we wanted our dragons to be "believable" we also decided that we needed to stick to some basic anatomic features when drawing our dragons.  For instance if the dragon is to be able to turn it's head, it must have a neck!  We spent weeks on this project, but it was well worth the time.  The kids have made some truly remarkable artwork.   Here are just a few-enjoy!

 The castles were drawn on watercolor paper.  Details were added, and crayons used to color some parts.  When ready the student used black and/or brown watercolor paints to finish the castle.

 The backgrounds were done with liquid watercolor.  The student chose what type of sky, and what time of day to portray in their painting.

 After the dragons were drawn the students had the choice of markers, crayons, or neon gel pens (donated by another art teacher) to color their dragon.  Hands down-the neon gel pens were the favorite!

 Once everything was drawn, painted, colored and dry the task of very careful cutting and gluing could begin.

Many weeks later....we have a finished product! Like I said, the time spent was well worth it! These paintings are amazing!!