Hidden Safari

Today in class we made an art project called "Hidden Safari". Before you begin, you will want to decide on an animal to draw. Pick an animal that you would see if you were to go on a safari. I chose an elephant for mine. If you would like a reference picture, print an outline of your animal out. 

To begin the activity, take your picture outline and turn in upside down. Now begin drawing your picture upside down, just like the outline in front of you. You heard me right, upside down! This will help you to better focus on the lines rather than the whole picture. You will want to draw the picture with a sky blue colored pencil and press lightly. You do not want your lines to be dark. 

Once you have finished drawing your picture, get 3 warm colored crayons. You will use these to create the design that will hide your animal. Start with the yellow. Make any type of design you want, I chose triangles, and have them cover your entire paper. Then move onto orange with a different patter. Then finally do the same with the red. You will want to press harder with the crayons than you did with the colored pencil. 

Now your animal is completely hidden so you will need to make glasses to find it! Use a piece of construction paper to make a superhero mask with the eye spots open. Take a piece of red film/plastic and place over the eye area. Glue it onto your construction paper. Don't put a lot of glue or it will squish all over your face when you use the glasses. Now look at your animal! Do you see it? You can also use a piece of card stock to write 3 clues about your animal. Don't forget to place it on a larger piece of construction paper to frame your work! 

An extension activity would be to carry this over into science. This would be a great lesson to do when talking to students about animals who are camouflaged. Animals use camouflage to hid and protect themselves from others and you could explain how the art animals are hidden too.