June 2023 – CREATIVE ARTS

In this lesson, we will create a beautiful landscape with Hot Air balloons in the sky, and the balloons decorated in Zentangle style.

What is Zentangle?

Zentangle is a form of art where we add lines and patterns in a conscious manner to create a beautiful pattern. It is a great way to increase your creativity, hand-eye concentration and practice your fine motor skills. Below you will find 8 simple Zentangle patterns I drew. You can try some ideas on your own too! If you look carefully there are different types of straight and curved lines, some basic C and S strokes, and some dots, dashes, and circles. Add them in different combinations and you have created your Zentangles!

Let’s Start our Hot Air Balloon Drawing Project

Things Needed:

9×12 or larger mixed-media or Watercolor paper.
A well-sharpened pencil and eraser.
A Black Thin Permanent Marker ( Sharpie)
A basic watercolor set with brushes and Water to paint the background.
Zentangling pattern ideas 🙂

Step-by-Step Process:

Draw 3 circles on the top half of your drawing paper to make three balloons as shown below.

2. Now extend lines from the sides of the circle to make the shape of a hot air balloon as shown in the picture.

3. Next draw baskets for each of the balloons.

4. Next give a 3-dimensional form to the balloons by adding contour and cross-contour lines as shown below.

5. Now, it is time to let your creativity flow and add your zentangle patterns.

6. Finally, finish your landscape by coloring the background and negative spaces with watercolors or any medium of your choice.

Your artwork is ready to display!!

If you are not much of a reader and would rather watch a video, follow along with this Youtube step-by-step video:

Medium: Oil Pastels and white acrylic Paint on Mixed-Media paper

Who doesn’t like a Monarch Butterfly? So many of the kindergarteners and first graders must have learned about them in their classroom while observing the life cycle and ultimately seen them hatching out of their cocoons! Well, I am not here right now for giving a science lesson, but I remember my kids used to love those National Geographic books about animals when they were little, and look what I found…an online link to it! So, why not read about it with your kids and have fun drawing them too!!

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/monarch-butterfly

Let’s start with the materials required for the drawing:

Mixed-media paper or any white paper that you have
A well-sharpened pencil and eraser.
A thick card-stock paper or watercolor paper to create a stencil.
Scissors
Oil Pastels
White acrylic paint and a thin brush or an Acrylic Paint pen
Painter’s tape

Step-by-step Process

Making the stencil- We want the left and right sides of the butterfly wings to be symmetrical, so we are going to make a stencil of butterfly wings. If your drawing paper is 9×12, make sure your cardstock is at least 5×7. When we draw the wings on the card stock make sure to utilize maximum space, in other words, draw big. Cut it out to create your stencil.

2. Place your stencil on the paper towards the left and draw the left side of the wing, next turn it to the right side to draw the right side of the wings as shown in the picture. You could stick your stencil on the paper with masking tape before drawing so that it stays in place.