Last, the children drew a horizon line and Mt. This is part of what makes HokusaiвЂ™s woodcut unique. Next the kids drew the stripes inside the break of the wave. Some kids used curly, wavy lines while others preferred a jagged look. We practiced drawing scribbles just below the waves. Once the main lines of the waves are drawn, the children drew the whitecaps. The biggest wave should extend almost to the top of the paper. If you eliminate the fuss of all the whitecaps, the kids can see how the shape of the wave is very simple. Drawing the waves was very easy and intuitive for almost every single child. We drew the first wave first, then added the second wave and finally added the main wave. We started by looking at a poster of HokusaiвЂ™s Great Wave and broke down the painting into the three sections. This drawing is broken up into three sections:

White liquid tempera paint (watered down just a bit).

Black oil pastel, pencils or your choice of mediums.

I wish I added this musical element into my art lessons as it would have been interesting to see what the kids thought. The music and the art was a bit of a mis-match to me as DeBussyвЂ™s music is so ethereal and The Great Wave is so powerful. He happens to be my favorite composer so as I was creating this lesson, I listened to DeBussy.

In fact, as stated in MassenotвЂ™s book, Hokusai was inside by French composer, ClaudeВ Debussy. My goal was to introduce a piece of art that told a story. In the end, I wanted this project to inject color theory and personality. It wasnвЂ™t until I picked up MassenotвЂ™s picture book that lead me down a rabbit hole of JapaneseВ art and wood cuttings. I was hesitant to create an art lesson inspired byВ HokusaiвЂ™s The Great Wave.В As a girl who loves Matisse and Van Gogh, HokusaiвЂ™s colors are rather bland and subdued. Inspired by the book вЂњThe Great Wave: A ChildrenвЂ™s Book Inspired by HokusaiвЂќ by VГ©ronique Massenot and Bruno Pilorget and the painting The Great Wave off Kanazawa by Katsushika Hokusai, my fourth grade kids created the most beautiful paintings.

Colorful wave art