Night Sky Painting

Examples of Student Work:






Objective: Students will look at and discuss a variety of artistic representations of the night sky, and compare the artworks to scientific representations of the constellations and stars; and paint their own representation of the night sky.

Section 1:
Draw a star and explain what it looks like, compare common representations of 5 & 6 point stars.
A. Do Now On paper provided, draw a star. Share drawings, discuss similarities and differences. Why do they draw it they way they did? Where have they seen stars like these? Is this what stars really look like from earth? Why do people draw them with points at the edges instead of spheres? Why does that happen? Has anyone ever see a star twinkle?
B. Explain that stars are actually spheres of gas, and appear to have rays or points because we are looking at them from a great distance, through the filtering of the atmosphere.
C. Compare night sky paintings by van Gogh, Munch, Matisse and Miro.
D. Summarize how have artists made choices in how to show stars?


Night Sky Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse and Joan Miro










Section 2: Study real stars in photos from observatories and satellites.







A. You are an artist who is researching the night sky for inspiration for a painting. After looking at how artists in the past have depicted stars, you are here to collect visual data about actual stars that scientists have gathered in four catgories: COLOR, SHAPES, IMAGE, INFORMATION. You must spend some time at both websites below in order to complete your research.
B. Go to each of the websites below, following the instructions for each to find the visuals, in order to make list what you see into the 4 different categories on your sheet. Look at as much as possible on your way through the galaxies!
(Click on underlined words to go to the Internet sites)
C. The Stars page at NASA KIDS Space & Beyond has many different sections. Visit About Stars, What are Stars? and the Stars & Nebulae Gallery while at this website.
D.The Hubble Site is a wealth of information about the skies above us. Click on the Gallery to view pictures.




Section 3: Create a painting of the night sky, incorporating ideas from the art & science studied.









A. Guided Practice Demo of painting techniques, color wheels and value charts: Wet brush, dry brush, how to keep a point on the brush, primary and secondary colors. Have students mix together a secondary color, and then create tints and shades with it on a value chart. Discuss different ways to create shades, and how to mix black and white with color.
B. Independent Practice: Create color wheels and value charts using the Xeroxes.
C. Guided Practice Review and discuss the art and images of stars, focus on the artist choices. How will they choose to show stars in a night sky? Do they want to see some land, or only the sky? Review variety of painting techniques and how they can affect the painting. Plan the painting first by sketching with a pencil, and then begin painting.
D. Independent Practice Begin painting by planning sketch, then painting.