SaharaTulip: 3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value

March is Women's History Month and to celebrate I introduced my students to Pop Art painter Tamara de Lempicka.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

I volunteer teach art every two weeks at my daughter's 3rd grade class and we are taking the year getting to know the 7 elements of art. Go to the bottom of this post for all our lessons so far. While learning the elements, I also teach them about a new artist for inspiration.

Tamara de Lempicka is a Polish artist who was born in 1898 as Maria Górska. She would grow up to spend her teen summers at her grandmother's home on the French Riviera. It was there that she was introduced to the great Italian master painters.

Life at home was unstable, so she went on to marry young and eventually moved to Paris because of the Russian Revolution. It was there she became a full time artist and did portraits for aristocrats and notable professionals of her time. This is a painting she did of Dr. and Madam Boucard in 1929.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

Tamara de Lempicka also had a daughter, Kizette, who she loved to paint. She even won a major award in France for this one of Kizette on a Balcony in 1927.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

She later remarried and moved to Hollywood, California. She became friends with famous actors and went to a lot of parties. Tamara de Lempicka became known as “The first woman artist to be a glamour star"

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

While I was showing them all of Tamara de Lempicka's artwork, I was taking the time to show the shadows and light in the fabrics she painted to give the illusion of it flowing in the wind. This painting, called Blue Woman with a Guitar that she painted in 1929, is a perfect example of value.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

Value deals with the lightness or darkness of a color. Since we see objects and understand objects because of how dark or light they are, value is incredible important to art.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

I made sure to tell them all that if they were interested in any form of 3D design, even creating computer games, value is what is needed to determine if the viewer can really get the illusion that it's not a flat image.

To try to duplicate what Tamara de Lempicka does in her artwork, we tried to make our own hands look 3D.

I started by having the kids tracing out their hands lightly on a piece of paper with pencil.

The students were then told to create a curved line inside the hand outline. They were then told to place down two fingers so they know how far up the next curved line went, and so forth.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

After the curved lines where placed inside the hand, straight lines need to connect the hand to the paper border on either side.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

Once all the lines were drawn, the kids could use charcoal or color pencils. A great tip is to pick one color first. Then once that is all colored in, do the next color. Darken the area where the curved lines meets the straight line first, then get lighter the closer you get to the border. This creates a shadow which gives it a 3D effect. Then the inside of the hand would be colored in the same way, but the opposite direction: dark at the lines, lighter as it gets into the center.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

Here are a few of the master's at work.

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Tamara de Lempicka and Value by A Crafty Arab

The kids loved learning about value and Tamara de Lempicka. As always, I'm so impressed with how much they love to learn.

To see more more of our lessons from this year, visit

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Yayoi Kusama and Space

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Embellished Faces Inspired by Marita Dingus

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Celebrating Black History Month with Marita Dingus

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Contrast Colors in African Dancers

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Kinetic Kites (Part 2)

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Secondary Colors with Calder

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Color with Mondrian

3rd Grade Art Lesson: Lines

To see more lessons plans for different grades, visit
Crafty Arab Art Lessons

Be sure to join us in two weeks!