How to Paint a Life-sized Chinese Dragon Part I

It's been busy the last couple of days...a nice distraction tho. Here's what I have been up to...

My daughter's charter school mascot is the Mustang, and this year happens to be the year of the horse according the the Chinese zodiac. Since the year of the horse comes around only once every twelve years we will have a celebration marking this special event, which falls on January 31. Our Mandarin teacher, Mrs. Tong will help us put together the celebration.

For the decorations we will create a Chinese Dragon. An important symbol in Chinese culture; and viewed as symbol of power, wisdom and luck. The Chinese dragon has a body of a snake, antlers of a deer, talons of an eagle and scales of a fish. They have no wings, but are able to fly!

To paint a dragon you will need.

Paper (tag paper), the larger the paper the larger your dragon will be.
Paint (Water Color or Tempera) in assorted colors
Tissue paper or construction paper
Scissors


First a row of scalloped line. Your next row starts at the lowest point of the first scallop. Repeat until you have completed the entire page. Don't worry about having the scallops perfect. Hint: The larger your dragon, the large your scales should be. I painted mine with the paper in portrait (vertical), because I will be cutting it half. If you want an extra large dragon you will draw your scallops with the paper in landscape (horizontal).

Outlined in sharpie for viewing, however you will want to do this in pencil.

Next you will paint each scallop, being careful to not have the same color touching each.

When you finish painting it will look like this. You will want to make several of these, the more pages you paint the longer your dragon be. This makes a great group project.

Finally, trim the paper like this:

Flip the paper so you can cut a few sections with the scales in this direction:

If you are making the dragon as a group, don't worry if the scales are not alike or have different colors. I promise, it will still turn out beautiful!

Several students and their parents are helping to paint the dragon in sections. I am off to paint some more!

Stay tuned...

Painting Tips for Pre-K and Kindergarten

Teaching 3, 4, and 5 year old children to paint can challenging. However, when you see their eyes light up with discovery it is wonderful and can be fun for both of you.

Start off by using a good brush. One that has a wider handle with smooth bristles. Cheap, stiff brushes are not nearly as good for spreading paint.

Demonstrate how to use big, sweeping arm movements for broad paint strokes (petting a cat is a good analogy) and then small movements for small strokes. Let the children experiment with both.

For little kids, try not to use small watercolor pan paints that come in the trays. Watercolor sets with larger color wells are best at this age.

Tempera cakes provide brilliant color in a convenient package.

Try not fuss about paint colors mixing together in the palettes. It's okay if it gets a bit messy.  By the end of kindergarten and first grade you  will be able to tell them about paint manners.

Teach them about primary and secondary colors by mixing your own paint.

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of flour (for gluten free version use Cup4Cup)
• 1 cup of salt
• food coloring

Give Pre-K students lots of opportunity to free-paint. Keep instruction and direction to a minimum. Always react to paintings in neutral and enthusiastic manner :-).

With a few cheap and simple materials, students can begin to express themselves in color!

What tips and tricks do you have for working with Pre-K and kindergartners?