Sumi-e Style Paintings with Third Grade

     In third grade at Suffield we were finally able to use some Sumi-e brushes that I had ordered, but had no plan for at the time!  We learned a little about traditional Japanese Sumi-e Painting and used the style as inspiration for these artworks. 

    We started by creating either a warm or cool colored wash on our papers and then we painted compositions with bamboo and/or flowers.  We painted with watered down India Ink and the students were really able to get some nice value variation in their work.

    We finished them up by creating our own artist signatures and gluing them in a spot on the work that would create balance.  This was a really different kind of artwork for us, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it!

We practiced on Manila paper first.