Vincent Van Gogh Inspired Skylines

In class we looked at the art style of Vincent Van Gogh in conjunction with skylines that contrast with the bright sky. We glued tissue paper on dark construction paper to create swirl-like designs in homage to Van Gogh's art style. We followed this up by cutting out dark skylines to lay over our skies. I did buildings, but the skylines could be anything, such as trees or a farm. We then used pastels to color swirl designs throughout our sky, further emulating Van Gogh. We also could draw over the buildings to show lights, which I used for my windows. I think this project is a good way for kids to get familiar with different materials. Personally I never got to work with tissue paper much in my K-12 art classes, and I think it's a good medium to get kids to better understand colors. Overlaying different tissue papers can create different colors. 

An extension activity that could be used in conjunction with this project is to do a smaller version of the original project, then use the acquired skills to complete a much bigger group project. Students could work together to apply the different colored tissue papers, perhaps even using it as means to learn the color spectrum order. Students could apply the tissue paper in the Roy G Biv order across the sky, then each add their own cut out building. The project would be finished with the pastel swirls over the whole thing. Through this bigger project, students could work on working in a big group to solve the problem of fitting everyone's building in one space, as well as figuring out the order of the rainbow as a class.