Miro Creatures

This is a project I had 2nd and 3rd graders do as part of a class I teach at our local art museum. Joan Miro is one of my favorite artists. The creatures in his art are made of flowing, curvy shapes. Miro's art seems almost playful and child-like! Children were fascinated by viewing and discussing his art in the gallery and were quite busy filling their sketchbooks with lots of ideas. I also provided them other examples of his art while they were sketching creatures in his style.

To make this project, we did a tissue paper painting for the background. Using a heavier paper or posterboard, we painted first with water and then applied bleeding tissue paper squares. When they were dry, we peeled them off (and saved them for anotehr project!). The result was a colorful background. Finally, they took their sketches and drew their ideas on their tissue paper painting with oil pastels. The results were wonderful!