fbpx
ted harrison inspired landscape and polar bear art project for kids

Ted Harrison Inspired Landscape & Polar Bear

K

45

Min

Take your kiddos on a trip to Canada’s northern territory to explore my favorite artist, Ted Harrison and draw a friendly polar bear.

Ted Harrison (1926-2015) hailed from the UK but lived in the Yukon Territories for many years. He became one of Canada’s favorite painters for his colorful paintings of life in the Canada’s north.

ted harrison inspired landscape and polar bear art project for kids artist feature

This project combines the bright colors Harrison is known for (bright blue, fuchsia, orange and turquoise) and a very easy drawing of a polar bear.

Watch the full video tutorial here:

Click the yellow button below to DOWNLOAD the drawing handout for the Polar Bear as well as this months January Freebie Pack lessons. Add your name and email and we’ll send it straight to you! (NOTE: We recommend downloading the freebie using Chrome or Safari)

Click here to subscribe

What You’ll Need:

  • 12″ x 9″ watercolor paper
  • 12″ x 9″ White drawing paper
  • Black oil pastel or Black waterproof marker
  • Liquid watercolor paints in turquoise, purple, orange, blue, pink
  • Scissors and glue

Step One: Painting the Ted Harrison Background

ted harrison inspired polar bear art project for kids using pan watercolors

Start by drawing the lines for the mountains and hills. Use an oil pastel for younger students (so that the watercolor doesn’t bleed together) to draw one line about 2″ from the bottom. This is the first snow line.

Place pastel or crayon on one side of the paper and draw another line, this time connecting to the first line.

Draw 2-3 more lines and finally add 2-3 mountain ridges.

Timing Tip: Painting the background first gives you the chance to finish the entire project in one sitting.

Step Two: Painting the background

ted harrison inspired polar bear art project for kids using pan watercolors to create a landscape

Dip paint brush in liquid watercolor paint and paint each section a different color.

Have some fun with the sky. Here are some questions to encourage a child to consider what he may like:

How would you paint the northern lights?

What kind of patterns do you see in the sky?

Imagine if the sky was filled with lines. What colors would they be? Would they be curvy or straight?

Step Three: Drawing the Polar Bear

ted harrison inspired polar bear art project for kids using pan watercolors

Print out or refer to the drawing handout for the simple steps.

Start in the middle of the paper. Draw an oval and fill it in with the marker. Draw the mouth. Draw an oval shape around the mouth. Draw two dots for the eyes.

Place marker on the bottom edge of the paper and draw a hill over the nose area. That’s the body! Now draw two big bear arms.

Step Four: Putting it all together

ted harrison inspired polar bear art project for kids using pan watercolors

Cut out the bear and place it on the dry (or almost dry) watercolor background. Glue in place.

Tip: If the background isn’t fully dry, the paint will leech into the bear paper. This is actually a pretty cool effect so if this happens to your student’s art, celebrate it!

ted harrison inspired polar bear art project for kids using pan watercolors

Click the button below to DOWNLOAD the January Freebie Pack. Add your name and email and we’ll send it to you!

Click here to subscribe
Polar Bear art project for kids

Leave a Reply to oyinkan iyalekan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

  • sharon maybaum

    Wonderful lesson, easy to follow directions, amazing result! Thank you Patty for all of your hard work! I am a retired teacher but still follow you because I think you are such a valuable resource.

  • Laura L Laws

    We are studying Polar Bears next week and I had on my to do list to find a polar bear art lesson! Serendiptiy! Thank you!

  • Eddie Masongo

    Wow it an amazing art lesson and I like the way you made it with an amazing colors combination that attracted my intention.
    Thank you.

  • Iris Vorst

    I love the Polar Bear!

  • Janet Riggio

    DSS keeps me organized. I have taught for 30 years and have many resources. Too Many! DSS anchors and reminds me and simplifies what I already know.

    Thanks

  • Maylene Medina

    Love all your lesson plans and my kiddos love them too.

  • Lavinia Smith-Lewis

    Hello Team Deep Space Sparkle,
    Thank you for these amazing helpful resources. I really do appreciate them especially
    as we are behind you in Australia and have schools still open but barely.
    I teach art in my in studio here in my little beach community helping children who are not very surf orientated or sporty etc and I really enjoy it and humbled by they what they produce.
    Thank you again
    Cheers
    Lavinia Smith-Lewis.

  • Phil

    Fun!

  • Cecilia Zou

    I love it!!!

  • Martine

    I absolutely LOVE your art projects! I teach PreK, and everyone passing by our bulletin board is always amazed by what 4-year-olds can do! We did the Ted Harrison polar bear this past winter and it turned out amazing! I wish I could attach a picture to show you. I had just (finally!) been able to get some liquid watercolors, and the colors of the kids’ landscapes were so vibrant! They also sprinkled some salt while still wet to get that frosty, glittery look. The kids were so proud of themselves! Even my principal was impressed! Lol! Oh, and we also did the tropical Santa flamingos for Christmas and they were so FUN! Again, thanks so much for sharing all these wonderful art projects! You’re always my go-to when I’m looking for something new to create with my kiddos! 🙂

    • Hannah

      Dear Martine,

      Thank you so much for taking the time to write us 💖 Those are some of our favorite projects too! The magic of liquid watercolors! It’s really something that kids get inspired by. We’re so happy that you are sharing these projects with your own students and have seen results. It makes me so happy to hear art teachers in PreK and kindergarten are able to train these young artists, it’s a truly creative age.

      I hope you are safe and well,

      Hannah (Team Sparkle)

  • Kathy

    I love this lesson plan for polar bears. I am not sure if it is just because it is past January now but the download button doesn’t work for me. Or it could be my computer blocking it maybe. Not sure.

    • Sarah

      The download button doesn’t work.

      • Team Sparkle

        Hi Sarah,

        We’re working on it!! Check back shortly to try again 🙂

        -Hannah

  • Cozmic Nova

    Amazing 😀
    the bear is so cute and i love the idea of the project…

  • Christina Scruggs

    I love the idea of this lesson. I tried it with my 1st graders and it was too hard for them. I don’t know why but they could not get the drawing of the landscape and mountains to fill their papers. Kept drawing way too small even after we tried several times. I was discouraged at the end of class. Will do something different! Christina Scruggs

    • Patty

      Teaching art is not always easy. And it also depends on what you expect. This project is designed as a step-by-step to get little artists a sense for composition and size. These are the building blocks of drawing.
      Are your students following a guided drawing? If not, I’d give that a go. One thing I liked to do when teaching little ones how to draw is to start with a directed line drawing and then allow the kids to paint with their choice of colors or even materials.
      Often times, we offer a handout but its really for the teacher to use and not necessarily for kids.
      Hope this helps!

  • Jessica

    Some of your links don’t seem to be working. When I click the “click to download” January freebie pack, nothing seems to happen. I also clicked the button to join the waitlist for the Sparkler’s Club, and nothing happened.

    • Bethany

      Hi Jessisa. I’m sorry you’re having problems with our links. If you still haven’t had any luck getting the freebie pack or joining our waitlist please contact us at support@deepspacesparkle.com and we can work with you to help solve these problems.

  • Umaiya Sultana

    I am in fourth grade, and I will try to do this with my first grader little brother.

  • Amy Z

    Hi there, Thank you so much for this! My home school group is learning about Canadian artists and we are planning to do this project in January. But the download button on the polar bear drawing is not working. Would it be possible for you send me the pdf? Thank you! Amy

    • Bethany

      Hi Amy! If you are having trouble with the download please reach out to Shannon at support@deepspacesparkle.com and she can help you out!

  • Marie Keeley

    Looking forward to trying this lesson!

  • Kathy

    The download button does not work.

    • ttguu

      my 8 year old loves it

  • Andrea

    I couldn’t get the download button to work. 🙁

    • Bethany

      Hi Andrea! Please reach out to support@deepspacesparkle.com for help!

  • oyinkan iyalekan

    cool

  • Magdalena

    Thank you for your beautiful resources.

  • rechenmacher irene

    Thanks for the free material

  • Maria Cecilia

    Amazing, good job!

  • Connie

    We are studying Canada as part of ECC from MFW homeschool. This is just the perfect simple project for my 10 year old son. Thanks!

  • Seema+Shahzad

    Amazing lesson! Thanks.

  • Sarah Ajima

    thanks – looks wonderful!

  • Lily Motola

    Love it!!!!

  • D. Martens

    Looking forward to doing this with my group! Thank you for a great lesson outline!

  • Bonnie S Vergon

    I discovered you long ago and it is so fun to see you still rocking the best art lessons for teacher! I always know my students are going to learn about art and create something special when I use your wonderful lessons. So appreciate all you do to make your website, blog, instruction and amazing art such a great experience to use!

  • Hope

    Hello, love the resource but the download doesn’t seem to be working today. Thank you!

    • Bethany

      Hi Hope! Thanks so much for your interest in our lessons. I just tested the link and everything is working on our end. If you scroll down you should see a blue box with a yellow box the says CLICK TO DOWNLOAD. When you add your name and email we will send the lesson directly to your inbox. Are you using the Firefox browser? We’ve noticed that Firefox doesn’t work as well on our website so you should try Safari or Chrome. Enjoy.

  • tiarani@mac.com

    THIS IS GOOD FOR PRIMARY , THIS MONTH WE LEARN ABOUT NORTH AMERICA.
    THANK YOU SO MUCH, PATTY ,
    YOU ARE AWESOME

  • Lorie Hawkes

    I love this lesson! I taught it last year and added a short lesson about the northern lights, and had the students paint the sky like the aurora borealis.

  • LB

    Download links are not working.

    • Bethany

      Hi Lori! I’m so happy you found us! Everything is working on our end. If you click the download button and add your email address we will send the lesson directly to your inbox. Be sure to check your Spam or Junk folders to make sure it didn’t end up there. We have found that both the Chrome or Safari browsers work best so be sure to try using one of those. If you still have trouble you can reach out to us at support@deepspacesparkle.com. Enjoy.

  • Teresa Grissom

    The kids loved this lesson and they took their time and did a great job. It only took about 30 minutes though. One boy even did 3 polar bears. He wanted a family. but even he finished way early. We have 55 minute classes.

  • Ramara Merry

    Thank you so much.

  • Jill

    I love your precious ideas! I teach a special needs adult and she loves your projects. Thank you.

Follow Us


In stores 8/21

BUY NOW

The {lesson_title} Lesson is Locked inside of the {bundle_title}

Unlocking this lesson will give you access to the entire bundle and use {points} of your available unlocks.

Are you sure?

No Yes

The {bundle_title} is Locked

Accessing this bundle will use {points} of your available unlocks.

Are you sure?

No Yes

{{error}}

Close

The {lesson_title} Lesson is Locked inside of the {bundle_title}

To unlock this lesson, close this box, then click on the “lock” icon.

Close