Hidden Safari

For our next art lesson, our class created hidden pictures of animals that may be seen on a safari. This lesson would work well for first or second graders, but it could be adapted for any age/grade. College students love it too! First, we made "magic glasses" to help us see the animals. We used a template to cut a glasses shape from red construction paper. We cut out a hole in the middle of the glasses and covered the hole with a transparent red film. Elmer's glue was used to attach the film to the construction paper.

Then, we set aside the glasses we had made and practiced drawing animals. We used upside down drawing. With this technique, we just turned a picture of an animal upside down and focused on the lines we saw to draw the animal. First and second graders would not use the upside down drawing technique. They could be creative when drawing animals.

After we had practiced for a few minutes, we began our hidden animal drawings. We each chose an animal that we may see on a safari. I chose a rhinoceros. On a white piece of drawing paper, we used light blue colored pencil to draw the animal we had chosen. Again we used the upside down drawing technique. When the animal was complete, we used warm colors to draw repeated shapes on top of the image. I used yellow, orange, and red to mask my drawing. Then we created a border for our drawings out of colored construction paper.

The rhinoceros in my artwork is very difficult to see when looking at the piece. This is why the "magic glasses" are needed. By putting on the glasses, the warm colors seem to disappear, and the blue colored pencil stands out. This allows the viewer to see the hidden animal. We also created three clues to help the viewer guess the animal hidden in the picture. For my rhinoceros, the clues included the following: 1. This animal has horns. 2. This animal is large and dangerous. and 3. This animal is gray.

As an extension activity for this lesson, students could create a collage of either warm colors or cool colors. They could be provided with magazines, scissors, and glue to cut out pictures/color swatches of warm or cool colors (their choice) and paste them together on a single piece of paper to create a collage. They could then label the colors and display the collages in the room.