6 Quick Art Projects with Outstanding Results!
In the world of teaching art, planning our curriculum can often feel like a balancing act. We encounter a myriad of factors that require us to be adaptable—school schedules, preparations for the art show, open house events, and the ever-important bulletin board displays. Flexibility becomes our mantra as we strive to create an engaging and enriching experience for our students, regardless of the hurdles that come our way.
One of our best strategies is to incorporate quick projects that not only fit within our time constraints, but also yield remarkable results. These projects are designed to enhance our students’ artistic self-esteem while providing stunning pieces to showcase in various school events. By focusing on manageable yet impactful art activities, we ensure that our students continue to thrive creatively and feel proud of their accomplishments.
Show off Your Classroom’s Creativity in No Time with These 6 Engaging and Easy Art Projects
Looking through our Collection of projects that we have developed over the years, we’ve handpicked six standout projects that truly shine in a short amount of time!
- Cut Fruit Oil Pastels
- Magic Morphing Animals in Ink Wash and Dip Pen
- Fauvism Landscapes Tempera Paint and Chalk Pastels
- Glass Still Life in White Charcoal
- Organic Connections in Watercolor, Pen and Colored Pencils
- Pop Art Poster in Markers, Sharpies and colored Pencils
Cut Fruit Still Life in Oil Pastels
The entire Cut Fruit Still Life unit spans approximately 10 days, encompassing around 6 days of foundational lessons focusing on composition, shading basic shapes, and mastering oil pastel techniques.
Students are tasked with taking a photo of cut fruit (or using the photos we have on hand) and creating a successful, monochromatic composition, some featuring a complementary background, using oil pastels. We keep the project small with an 8×8 paper size. The final project itself takes about 2-3 days to complete, resulting in bright, colorful, and skillfully executed artwork.
Magic Morphing Animals in Ink Wash with a Dipped Pen
This is a fun and imaginative project! In this unit, students will receive an introduction to India Ink by exploring various techniques such as wet-into-wet, gradient wash, dry brush, and experimenting with different resist methods.
Students will also learn about the history of Surrealism, focusing on the concept of hybrids. They will then demonstrate their learning by creating an India Ink painting that combines an animal and an object into one cohesive piece.
Students love learning how to use a dip pen to add detailing and texture. They especially enjoy the creative freedom that comes with this project.
This unit is excellent for mastering basic painting techniques and building confidence in their painting skills. It can be completed in 10 days or less, including all practice, lectures, demonstrations, and 11” X 14” project time.
Fauvism Landscape in Mixed Media
We have taught this unit using various materials such as acrylic paints, oil pastels or whatever we have on hand! We usually save this for the last project of the year due to time constraints based on the number of days left in the school year. Also, we can use the opportunity to go outside and create art!
Students create a Fauvist-inspired landscape by diving into the vibrant world of the beloved art movement, Fauvism. In this engaging unit, students will study influential artists like Henri Matisse and learn to use bold, arbitrary colors and expressive mark-making techniques to create their own stunning landscapes using tempera paint overlapped by chalk pastels.
The entire unit takes 7 days or less from start to finish, including a Fauvism lecture, a step-by-step demonstration, and the creation of their project. This project can be a good size of 12″x 18″ and still meet the time restraints.
Glass Still Life in White Charcoal on Black Paper
This project is impressive yet super quick and easy! At first glance, it may seem challenging, but once you teach students how to create glass using white charcoal on black paper, they master it quickly. The results are amazing!
Designed to span 8 classroom days, this unit plan introduces students to observational drawing from a photograph. They will be guided through the necessary steps to create a stunning Glass Still Life.
The final project, created on a small 9″ x 6″ piece of paper, can be completed quickly and is perfect for a bulletin board display or the annual art show.
For more information on still lifes, check out our blog: Setting up for Observation Drawing – Art Teacher Fusion
Abstract Watercolor Painting- Organic Connections
This short and sweet five-day project, packed with watercolor techniques and experiments, is the perfect quick and easy activity that students will want to do again and again!
Students will create a unique 10″x10″ abstract painting using a mix of media and techniques such as pen, watercolor, colored pencil, wet-into-wet, salt resist, line patterns, and more. It’s an excellent way to build watercolor painting confidence and introduce a variety of approaches all in one project! Plus, the project demo includes making bookmarks—a perfect teacher hack!
For more on watercolor check out our blog: Watercolor Bootcamp: “Unlock the Secrets to Mastering Watercolor in Just 5 Easy Lessons!” – Art Teacher Fusion
POP Art Posters in Marker with Colored Pencil Accents
If you’re looking for a project that stands out in an art show, this is it! It’s bold, it’s grand, and students absolutely love it! The project involves students recreating a pop art masterpiece using markers, sharpies, and colored pencils—materials they have access to throughout the year. The variety in sizes makes it visually appealing when displayed, as it doesn’t look like the same project repeated. The largest size is 20” x 22″, and we cut the paper down for students with smaller works. Students draw out the image on a 2″ grid, making it easier to scale up the original image. We conduct this project as a semester-long side activity (Read more on Early Finishers → Here), so I can’t specify the exact number of class periods it takes to complete. However, students are thoroughly engaged and it’s all they want to work on! If focused, they can easily finish it in a few days.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
We hope our ideas sparked your creativity and provided some inspiration. For even more exciting project ideas, be sure to explore our Art 1 Curriculum!