Where in the World?

 
Brittney Buechele & Claire McNally 
Overview: 
● 7th Grade Elective 
● Four-Five day lesson 
● Students will create their own fantasy worlds with the use of watercolors and 
black sharpies inspired by Instagram artist Heikala.  

Central Focus:  
In this lesson, students will explore concepts of fantasy/dreamscapes in response to the 
themes and images discussed within the contemporary artist Heikala’s fantasy 
watercolor paintings. They will use sharpie, watercolor, and white crayons to create their 
own unique surreal fantasy landscapes, while demonstrating understanding of 
surrealism, wax resist, and showing depth in a picture plane through the use of 
foreground, middle ground, background. 

Big Idea: 
● Fantasy/Surrealism 
 
Objectives: 
● SWBAT explore surrealism by examining artworks by Heikala and by 
creating their own fantasy landscapes.  
● SWBAT create a fantasy landscape using watercolor and wax resist 
techniques.  
● SWBAT demonstrate their understanding of showing depth in a picture 
plane by creating a landscape that includes elements in the foreground, 
middle ground, and background. 
 
Vocab: 
● Surrealism:​ An art movement founded in Paris in 1924 that was concerned 
with irrational elements in art, aimed to create art that was a direct result 
of the unconscious mind. 
● Landscape​:​ An artwork representing a scene usually from nature, but can 

 
 
 Where in the World? 
Brittney Buechele & Claire McNally 
also be representative of an imagined place. 
● Distortion: ​A twisting of a shape or form into something different than its 
normal appearance. 
● Foreground:​ of a composition is the visual plane that appears closest to 
the viewer  
● Background:​ is the plane in a composition perceived furthest from the 
viewer 
● Middleground:​ is the visual plane located between both the foreground 
and background.  
 
 

Materials: 
● Watercolor paper (9”  ● Paint brushes  ● Black sharpie 
x 12”) 

● Watercolors  ● White poster   

crayons 

 
Day-to-Day Plan: 
Day 1: 
● Begin class by introducing Surrealism through a 
powerpoint presentation. Powerpoint includes definitions 
of all vocabulary words, objectives, artist examples, 
discussion questions, expectations for the day, and brief 
description of the artmaking project.  
● Teacher demonstration that covers watercolor 
techniques and wax resist.  
● Students will then work individually on a brainstorming 
worksheet (see below) and, once completed, begin 
sketching out ideas in their sketchbooks. (Some students 
may miss this lesson due to a school field trip). 
Day 2: 
● Reintroduce the lesson on surrealism and discuss what 
we accomplished last class.   
● Give expectations for the day and continue working on 
sketches and brainstorming ideas.  
● Start on final projects (most students will complete the 
outline with pencil, and then the lining with sharpie. 
students will move onto watercolor only after the outline 
is finished)  
Day 3: 
● Recap the artist and the lesson objective.  
● Students will continue working on final projects and should have started to paint 
with watercolor by this point. Students are expected to work until the end of class.   
Day 4: 

 
 
 Where in the World? 
Brittney Buechele & Claire McNally 
● Teachers will open the lesson by stating the classes expectations for the day and 
what they have done so far. Students are expected to finish their watercolor 
projects. Class will end with students completing an artist statement about their 
finished projects. 
 
Standards: 
New Jersey: 
● 1.1 The Creative Process: 1.1.8.D.1-​ Art is a universal language. Visual communication 
through art crosses 
● 1.3 Performance: 1.3.8.D.1-​ The creation of art is driven by the principles of balance, 
harmony, unity, emphasis, proportion, and rhythm/movement. 
● 1.4 Aesthetic Responses & Critique Methodologies: 1.4.8.A.6- ​Awareness of basic 
elements of style and design in dance, music, theatre, and visual art inform the 
creation of criteria for judging originality.  
National Visual Standards: 
● VA:Cr1.2.8a-​ Collaboratively shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present 
day life using a Contemporary practice of art and design. 
 
 
Student Work