1. Starry Seattle Night 2nd Grade January Art Project
Presentation modified and prepared by Alice Finch 2012
2nd Grade January Art Project
West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program

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3. Lesson Overview Time: 60 minutes, or less Medium: Oil Pastels
Curriculum Tie: None
Project Overview/Skills
Students will learn about Vincent Van Gogh and his masterpiece, Starry Night. The students will create their own version of “Starry Night” utilizing short, overlapping color strokes in the style of Van Gogh. Their setting will be scenes from the Seattle area. 
Resources:
“Camille and the Sunflowers” by Laurence Anholt (owned by West Mercer’s library). Please return promptly so other classes will have access (or store in the hanging lesson file until all classes have used it).
Print Suggestions
162, Cypresses (landscape example with hills, short brushstrokes, large tree)
170, Self Portrait (cool colors, good example of short, swirling brushstrokes)
171, Starry Night
172, Sunflowers (warm colors)

4. Materials Needed Oil Pastels
Yellow, brown, grey, green, blue, and purple construction paper for cutting
Black construction paper- one per student for background
Scissors
Glue Sticks

5. Today’s Project
Make our own “Starry Night” with the setting in Seattle.

6. Dutch painter who lived mostly in France
Vincent Van Gogh
Dutch painter who lived mostly in France
Painted every day scenes, landscapes, and people
Begin with a discussion of Vincent Van Gogh. A good introduction would be to read “Camille and the Sunflowers” by Laurence Anholt (it helps make him more “real” to the students).
Van Gogh spent years trying to figure out what to do with his life.
He was an art dealer, a teacher and a minister before deciding to become an artist.
Once he discovered what he was meant to do, Vincent Van Gogh painted masterpieces, most within the last 10 years of his short life (a total of more than 1,700!).
His pictures were full of bright, swirling color; he painted many pictures of the countryside and its trees and flowers.
He also painted pictures of people he met.
Van Gogh died a poor man—he sold only one of his paintings during his lifetime.
But now, more than a hundred years after his death, his paintings are worth millions of dollars and he is one of the most beloved artists.

7. Bedroom

8. The Yellow House

9. Mulberry Tree

10. Starry Night Introduce the “Starry Night” painting.
Prompt the students with open-ended questions about the painting, such as:
What feelings do you get when you look at the scene?
What is the mood of the painting?
What do they think about the colors used?
Does the sky look stormy and fierce, or is it more peaceful?
Focus on the feeling of movement and wind in the painting.
Ask them how Van Gogh made that happen (by using short, overlapping color strokes-- tiny “hatch-like” lines).
They will do the same, filling in their entire sky with these small strokes.
Why do they think the tree is big and the town little? Van Gogh uses the difference in size between the tree and the church spire to create the illusion of depth in the painting. He also used them to guide our eyes upward to view the stars. Discuss foreground and background and what is in each in this painting.
Here is one description of “Starry Night:” While the village sleeps it seems guarded by the church steeple and the towering cypress tree. The night sky vibrates, swirls and rolls in the starry sky like waves in a stormy sea. The hills spread like a blue blanket of color. Van Gogh uses his brush strokes to make electric waves from the stars like pebbles dropped in water.
Starry Night

11. Step 1- Cut stars and moon
Black paper in landscape position
Cut small circles out of yellow paper to represent stars
Cut crescent or circle for the moon
Position the shapes in the sky
Then glue them down

12. Step 2- Choose color scheme
You may choose whether to create a
nighttime sky (using cool colors of different greens and blues, white and yellow too)
Or a sunrise/sunset sky with warm colors (yellow, white, orange, red)

13. Step 3- Oil Pastels
Draw glowing circles using short overlapping strokes.
Draw a few rows around the stars and moon in one color, then change
Keep adding swirl lines until sky is filled.

14. Step 4- Seattle Skyline
Use construction paper to create a Seattle landscape.
Draw the outline
then cut out
Paper should be long enough to go from side to side
Brainstorm ideas with the class: mountains, lakes, rivers, skyscrapers, Mt. Rainier, Space Needle, ferryboats, boats, bridges, scenes from Mercer Island, etc.).
If creating mountains, use brown or dark purple paper the same width as their picture (landscape position). They may cut crooked, curvy or zigzag to form the land.
They will glue this down on the bottom ¼ of the paper. If they choose to do a cityscape, they could use gray paper and cut up and down to make rectangles, squares etc. They should glue this down in the same manner. If they choose a combination of mountains and cityscape, they could first glue down the mountain paper, and then glue down the cityscape slightly below so it appears the mountains are behind the city.
If they want a body of water in their picture, they can lay down a strip of blue paper or cut the paper to create the water to their liking.

15. Step 5- Add detail shapes
Add detail shapes of bridges, boats, trees, buildings, etc.
Arrange all shapes on paper first, then glue down.
Encourage them to cut all the shapes they will use and position them on their picture before gluing down.
Remind them that they will try to create depth in their picture by using both large and small shapes.
The large shapes must go in the front and the small shapes in the back (objects appear larger when they are closer and smaller when farther away).
Once they have glued everything down, they can outline/color the trees/buildings/mountains etc. with their oil pastels (coloring directly on the construction paper they have glued down; for example, white pastels to create snow on mountains, or white (or another color) pastels on the cityscape paper to create windows or to outline the buildings).