Different art projects will help the students to be creative.
Working in black and white forces an artist to concentrate on form and texture rather than color. If you are a middle or high school teacher, using black and white to teach the children will make a change from the usual, and will produce a series of classy-looking artworks that your students will enjoy making.
Cutouts
Give the students a sheet of black construction paper and a sheet of ordinary white paper. Have the students cut random shapes out of the middle of the white paper. Glue the white paper onto the black paper to make an interesting, Henri Matisse style work of art. This will teach the students about abstract art and will also teach them that sometime art is about what you take away, not what you add to a work.
Photography
If you have access to a camera in the class, ask all of the students to take photographs, and then use the accompanying software to change the pictures into black and white. This will provide a new angle on their photographs, as monochrome photography often looks very different from color photography. If you do not have access to a camera, ask the students to bring in a black and white photograph, which you can then use to make a class collage.
Cityscapes
Use an old book with greying pages to cut out the shapes of buildings. Glue these onto construction paper and color in the windows with a black marker. These will look like a cityscape, and the students will be able to make city pictures which look old-fashioned and weathered. Use a long strip of black construction paper and make a city scape which spans the entire length of the room, which you then mount on the wall.
Crayon and Paint
Use wax-based crayons to draw a picture onto a piece of paper. Use white-colored crayons on a white piece of paper. When you have finished with this, paint over the top with a black acrylic paint. The paint will not cover the wax, which will begin to stand out. The students will enjoy making 'secret' paintings, which are only revealed with the addition of black paint. Draw a series of dots, which will look like a night sky when painted over.
