Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Inspired by George Rodrigue: Blue Dog Paintings


I recently introduced 4th graders to George Rodrigue and his fun Blue Dog paintings.  We watched this video and this video to introduce the project.  Since George is an artist who was living (until he sadly passed away in 2013) during their lifetime, its neat for them to see him and hear him speak about his work.  They especially loved the references to his dog and the stories of the Loup Garou (a Cajun werewolf.) 

We looked at a calendar I had of Blue Dog paintings and checked out a few more on the internet.  Students were inspired by the variety of Blue Dog paintings that Rodrigue created and were excited to create their own.

I led them in a guided drawing of a basic blue dog and asked them to add background or accessories to their dogs to give them personality!  Many of them chose to paint their dogs blue, but they were allowed to use any color they liked.

After practice drawings, students redrew their dog on 12 x 18 paper and painted them with tempera cakes, outlining in black marker when done.







Students love the Blue Dog and I love seeing their creativity get fired up!  Happy Painting!

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