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Live Drawing

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Turn your guests into pen and ink illustrations on the spot.

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Event Vendor

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Sarah is available as a Teaching Artist
through Tuolumne County Arts programs
and live virtual art lessons.

SARAH SPRING is a professional illustrator and art teacher based in Sonora, California.

Since 2005, Sarah has taught visual arts classes to K-8th grade students at several local grade schools. She has been awarded several Arts in Schools grants and STEAM grants to teach drawing and painting in schools. Sarah has been teaching ceramics classes to middle school grades in Tuolumne County schools since 2006. In addition, Sarah was Director for three summer arts camps, serving nearly 150 children annually since 2008.

With over 18 years of experience teaching visual arts to grade school students, Sarah has worked with credentialed teachers to ensure that all of her art lessons meet and exceed California State Art Standards. Sarah has worked with over 15 teachers in seven schools including Jamestown Elementary, Chinese Camp Elementary, Soulsbyville Elementary, Columbia Elementary, Belleview School, Sonora Elementary, and San Andreas Elementary.

Social Emotional Learning (S.E.L.)

S.E.L. is self-expression with professional training behind it. Students will learn structured techniques and art foundations so they may confidently explore art materials and art subjects.

Relationship building

Self-awareness

Responsible decision making

Social awareness

Self-management

Social Justice

Lessons go beyond the art confines of traditional, realistic oil paintings created by typical master artists. Students see themselves in the presented artists and connect to the artwork with their own life experiences. In striving to exhibit social justice and equity with art, these lessons feature under-represented artists, under-represented art forms, and help rectify the art world’s bias.

STEAM

STEAM art lessons demonstrate the natural integration of art into the sciences and mathematics. Experimentation and a defined operation of skills help bring the left and right sides of the brain together to create harmonious art.

Creating, Presenting, Responding, Connecting

The Enduring Understanding is clearly articulated at the beginning of each lesson. Students create in every lesson and respond to work from different artists. These lessons connect artists and their art to students by encouraging student artworks to reflect their own memories, culture, and everyday lives.

Art history, artist background, relatable interest points (how art helped them survive and thrive through adversity), examples of artist work, and a project lesson.

Art Lessons

The most popular lessons are in bold. All lessons can be modified to serve your student(s) best.

Artist, Appropriate Grades	Lesson Description
Faith Ringgold Grades K-3	Learn the history of the story quilt and all about the inventor, Faith Ringgold. Students will tell their own story by creating an illustration of a dream or happy memory.
Frida Kahlo Grades 1-4	Students will learn all about Frida Kahlo, an amazing female artist from Mexico, famous for her surrealistic painting style. Create a self-portrait with a dream-like theme in bright, bold colors.
Jacob Lawrence Grades 5-8	Students will learn about Jacob Lawrence and his high-contrast style featuring everyday working people. Students will create artwork with bold colors and simplistic shapes while learning about drawing figures in motion.
Diego Rivera Grades 6-8	Diego Rivera is famous for his use of smooth, curved lines and mural work. In this lesson, students will create their own artwork of people enjoying a favorite activity. Figure drawing is broken down into simple steps that help enforce foundational drawing skills.
LeRoy Neiman Grades 4-8	Students will draw people in motion! LeRoy Neiman invented sports fine art and students will use this idea to create their own sports artwork. Students will practice gesture drawing to find form and then expand on their idea while drawing a person in an active pose.
Hun Liu Grades 3-5	Play with colors! Students will study why and how to use contrasting, primary, and analogous colors. Create an art piece with a definite color theme using color selection techniques to highlight the subject.
Jaune Quick-to-see Smith Grades 5-8	Students will tell a story with an outdoor theme using the narrative drawing methods of Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-see Smith.
Alma Thomas Grades 4-6	Students will create an art piece inspired by the freeing colors of Alma Thomas’ dot artwork. In this lesson, students will focus on different color groups and how to use them: complementary, analogous, monochromatic, triadic, square, and tetradic.
Clementine Hunter Grades 1-4	Drawing from memory without visual reference is difficult for most artists. In this lesson, students will pull from their own memories to create an artwork featuring a piece of daily life or an important event using Hunter’s signature bright colors.
Lois Mailou Jones Grades 4-6	Inspired by African tribal masks and bright Haitian colors, students will use the Elements of Art to create 2D or 3D masks. 2D masks will be drawn in compilation with other designs in a collage format.
Takashi Murakami Grades 5-8	Embrace the strange combination of traditional fine art and modern “low art”. Takashi Murakami, a contemporary artist from Tokyo, blends ancient Japanese painting styles with the “lower arts” of commercial and cartoon artwork.

Rosa Bonheur Grades 3-8	Students will learn a simple method of drawing animals using geometric shapes. Several animals will be drawn in various poses in what artists call a “study” to best absorb this technique. Rosa Bonheur, an animal lover, was a bit of a rebel when it came to gaining access to the field in order to draw studies of animals in the wild.
Paula Scher Grades 5-8	Paula Scher is a modern master of logos. In this lesson, students will take ideas, themes, colors, and hobbies that most interest them in order to create a personal logo to express best who they are.
Laurel Burch Grades K-4	Color, line, pattern, and simplicity are common motifs in Laurel Burch’s work. Students will create a repeating pattern of stylized animals using the Elements of Art.
Wayne Thiebaud Grades K-8	Students will learn about the pop art movement and different methods of using color to indicate shadow and form. In this lesson, students will use the Elements of Art: line, shape, color, and form to create pop art in the style of Wayne Thiebaud.
Beatrix Potter Grades 2-5	Beatrix Potter is famous for her visual storytelling and personification of animals. Students will create a story piece using memories from their lives using only animal figures in their scene. Simple, geometric shapes are used to create animals, and students will emphasize background details.
Georgia O’Keeffe Grades 3-8	Students will learn studio techniques used for drawing still life art. A combination of macro art and naturalism will be used in each still life. O’Keeffe fused zoomed-in images of flowers and cattle skulls to depict nature.
Janet Fish Grades 5-8	In this lesson, students will learn about American realist painter Janet Fish. Students will learn to interpret negative space and the translucence of glass in a studio-style still life.
Marc Chagall Grades 1-8	Marc Chagall is a master artist of surrealism. Students will learn about the dream-like qualities of surrealism and use color and form to create art pieces based on a dream they have had.
Eric Karle Grades K-4	Requires 2 sessions: Create collage animals in the style of Eric Karle, a famous children’s author. First, students will paint several “animal skins” using the Elements of Art. Then, students will create animal artwork pieces using their own paintings.

Comic Art Grades 5-8	Requires 2 or more sessions: Students will create a short comic strip using the basics of wireframes and proper proportions. Learn to think like a director and utilize staging, frames, settings, and character development.
Journaling in Comics Grades 6-8	Requires 3 or more sessions: Learn the basics of drawing characters in proportion using wireframe techniques. Tell a story through the emotions and body language of a character. Students will dramatize slice-of-life moments in a comic format.
Self Portraits Grades 1-8	In this lesson, students will learn the foundation techniques of drawing portraits. Proper facial proportions and helpful tips and tricks will be covered. Students will create a portrait of themselves using a mirror or a portrait of another student.
Chinese Brush Painting Grades 1-8	Pandas, bamboo, and monkeys are favorite subjects for Chinese brush painting. Students will learn Chinese characters, the proper grip of a Chinese brush, and several basic brush strokes. Students will create several art pieces and sign them with a special “chop”.
Swedish Dala Horses Grades K-4	Dala Horses, or Dalahasten, are a Swedish cultural icon. Students will learn about the stylized horse figure, the Dalarna region of Sweden and create symmetrical folk designs. This lesson is great for the winter holidays but is a symbol of the country year-round.
Dia de los Muertos Grades K-8	Students will learn about the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, and its integration into the Californian culture. Students will create sugar skull designs and work with line, shape, texture, and symmetry.
Iznik Tiles Grades 4-8	Iznik tiles are colorful and patterned Turkish ceramic tiles. Students will learn about Turkish folk art and traditional motifs such as tulips and birds heavily featured in Turkish art. Students will use proper rotational symmetry to create paper tiles of their own.
Science of Watercolor Grades K-8	Requires 3 or more sessions: Students will experiment with watercolor paints and household items to create and observe the reactions and results. Students will then use the papers created to make a piece of art.
Student Chalk Mural Project Grades 1-8	Students learn the beauty of impermanence by creating chalk art murals in public spaces. This project can be done nearly anywhere and teaches the art of relinquishing control. Students enjoy the design aspects of this mural project almost as much as the execution of the piece.
Student Collaborative Mural Project Grades 4-8	Requires several sessions based on subject and size: Students learn foundational drawing techniques to design and paint a collaborative artwork.
Ceramics Grades K-12	Students learn ceramic hand-building skills along with the process of clay to ceramics. Each student will form, glaze, and take home their own piece of ceramic artwork. Past classes have created 3D cupcakes, animal sculptures, small bowls, coil pots, and sculpture whistles. Sarah has been teaching hand-building and pottery wheel techniques since 2006. Material fee: $10 per piece (includes clay and glazes used).