Close Up Snowman - How do artists organize their artwork within the space of their paper?

The first graders have been on the "Space" unit for a quite a while now.  They have completed 4 or 5 projects using space (this unit included the landscapes, cityscapes, these snowmen and a winter landscape).  These snowmen have been so unique even though they are all cropped the same way.  I spoke about zooming in on a camera with the kids and even showed them what that looks like on a digital camera.  I had the kids follow along while I drew the outline of the snowman with a black crayon and they added their own details.  I also asked the students to draw snow flakes in the sky with a white crayon.  Then the students painted the details with watercolors...making sure to leave out the white snowman!

This project was inspired by a post on Deep Space Sparkle. 

Frank Stella's Protractor Series

Being that my husband in a math teacher I am always on the lookout to incorporate math in an artistic way.  Frank Stella's protractor series does just that.  I had the students look at his paintings and asked how he placed the protractor on his paintings.  Some answers I received was that protractors appeared:
-upside down
-right side up
-diagonal
-overlapped
-connected
-place next to or below another protractor
The list is really endless.  I gave each student a protractor (purchased from my own pocket) and had them trace in 4 or 5 times.  To create a better colored pattern students were told to only use 4 or 5 colors and the shapes were colored in using markers.  The kids love markers, as do I for the easy clean up.   The result are these beautiful abstract drawings.  These are 2 works in progress I will post a finished product soon.

Kindergarten Leaf Drawings

What better way to bring in the fall than some leaf (or line) studies?  I was inspired by the "How to draw a Maple Leaf" lesson from the blog http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/ 

This project was very simple and perfect for a busy week of assemblies (since I am at 3 school each one has an assembly on a different day).  Students followed a guided drawing and then colored them in using fall colored crayons.  On second inspection the top leaf inspired me to include this lesson in my line unit.  I can turn the veins of the leaf into many different types of lines....I will save that one for next year!