Our Angelico art projects turned out so much better than expected! Here’s a bit about our Christmas in the style of Angelico (which is quite appropriate, since Angelico made many a painting depicting scenes about the birth of Christ).
Supplies for Angelico Art Project
- Angelico Picture Study Pages (pictured below) from this Great Artists Picture Study Packet
- Printouts of simple nativity-themed images for reference (scroll the bottom of this post for links) or the Madonna and Child templates from That Artist Woman. You can actually print the entire image of the Madonna and Child on black cardstock. (Also check out our Great Artists Coloring Pages.)
- Dark construction paper or cardstock
- Scissors
- Chalk or pencil
- Aluminum foil, metallic wrapping paper, metallic tissue paper, or metallic markers/paint pens
- Glue
- Tempera paints
And now for the procedure…
First, we studied the Angelico Art Study Pages from the Great Artists Picture Study Packet. (Print out the Angelico Art Study Pages and discuss with your student(s) to incorporate picture study and art appreciation.)
Step 1. Sketch a simple nativity image (angel, manger scene, etc.) using chalk or pencil. (Chalk smeared quite a bit, but in the end, paint covered the chalk.)
Step 2. Choose an area or areas of your painting that you would like to add “gold leaf.” Cut aluminum foil or metallic wrapping paper to fit those areas of your painting. (Our twelve-year-old ditched the aluminum foil and opted for the wrapping paper. He said aluminum foil was more difficult to cut without ripping.)
Another option for the “gold-leaf” was metallic paint. It was a no-go for our 7-year-old. He tried to “fix” his star with a sharpie marker, but eventually decided to paint over it with metallic paint pens instead.
Step 3. Glue “gold-leaf” onto sketch. David decided to draw an angel, since we took a look at Angelico’s Archangel Gabriel’s Annunciate, for which I made an outline drawing. (You can download it on our Great Artists Coloring Pages post.)
Step 4. Paint around the “gold-leaf” with tempera paints.
Christmas in the style of Angelico!
A few thoughts
Construction paper warped and curled more than the cardstock. I’ve decided to purchase a set of black cardstock paper for this project.
For younger students, metallic paint pens may be the best medium to use for the “gold-leaf.” Our older children (ages 9 and 12) preferred the metallic wrapping paper over foil. And… after Christmas, you may find wrapping paper on sale! 🙂
This was a lovely art project for our family!
Below are some links to simple nativity-themed coloring pages for reference:
Angel Template
Christmas Nativity Coloring Page
Star & Manger and Mary & Baby Jesus
Mother and Child
Wise Men Coloring Page
For our other art project posts visit…
Giotto Art Project
Ghiberti Art Project
Durer Art Project
Michelangelo Art Project
El Greco Art Project
Other related posts:
Great Artist Coloring Pages
Fine Arts Notebooking Pages
Great Artists Study