An Enchanted Elementary Art Sub Plan: Mary Blair Inspired Castles
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Next up in my elementary art sub plan article series: Mary Blair inspired Castles. Your students will love her charming and magical artwork. The lesson is easy to leave for substitute teachers as the students will essentially be stacking shapes like building blocks in their drawings.
Who is Mary Blair?
Mary Blair was an American artist, designer and animator. She is best known for her concept art in Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella. She also contributed to the design for “It’s a Small World”. When we look at her art we see a style that is bold, whimsical and vibrant in its use of color. The shapes used in her work can be described as flat and abstract. Check out this great Mary Blair tribute website with more information about the artist and the work. As always, preview the art before showing students!
Mary Blair Inspired Castle Drawing-Elementary Art Sub Plan Steps
- Start with a horizontal piece of drawing paper
- Choose a shape to start with towards the bottom of the paper. A rectangle or a square is a good starting point.
- The student will continue to fill in their papers with stacked shapes to the left, right and on top of the original shape. They can think of it like building a structure with building blocks.
- Next they will need to add a variety of roof shapes to the top of each of the rows that they have created.
- The students will add windows, doors, possibly a draw bridge, etc.
- Now for the really fun whimsical part: the decorations! The students will add a variety of fun patterns and designs within the shapes they created while stacking. Think flowers, diamonds, x shapes, stripes or whatever appeals to them. They will also add lines to the roof shapes.
- Using a limited, yet bright color scheme, the castle designs will be colored in neatly to complete.
*Something that you can also focus on with the kids is how they can utilize repetition of color and pattern to create a balanced design. Since their castle drawings are going to be busy and packed with design, the repetition will help their artwork to feel more stable and easier to view.
*As always, my elementary art sub plans are left with handouts with steps, and references to jump start students ideas. When prepping for a sub my main goal is to make teaching the activity as easy as possible. The supplies should be out, packets printed, paper cut, schedule easily accessible and notes left out where the sub can easily find them. I want students to be able to create and enjoy art making whether or not my sub has an art background. I also choose to not have my on-going projects left for my substitute teacher. This helps with quality control and takes pressure off the sub.
I like for the kids to be able to take this drawing home at the end of class. They are always happy to take art home. The best part is that you won’t have to go through or hand anything back when you return to school!
My favorite markers to use with kids are Mr. Sketch markers. Kids love these nostalgic markers whether they are upper or lower elementary!
Full lesson with step by step handout, optional templates, decoration ideas starters and a coloring page available in my TPT store.
If you enjoyed this post, read more about my elementary art sub plan article from last week-Create a Funky Fish: An Easy Elementary Art Sub Plan with Fun Patterns!
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