Starry Night Revisited

In this project students (grade 5-6) have more freedom when introduced to art history. The students are to make their own representation of a city either fantasy or some where they have visited.
Cut out swirls and various shapes out of tissue paper to represent the movement of the wind and the structure of the stars found in our own "Starry Night," these shapes are then glued to a black sheet of construction paper. Making sure to cover the whole paper, since you won't know how much of the background will be seen through the building in the foreground.
After a little drying time the paper is then covered with a gel medium to protect the tissue paper with drawing on it. When the medium is dry you can now make marks using oil pastels and metallic sharps, to give the piece more flow and continuity.
On the back side of another sheet of black construction paper draw out your city scape. Carefully cut out the building and on the reverse side color in windows and outline the building for definition using a metallic sharpie. The buildings then get glue to the down over the sky. Van Gogh is a great artist for students to relate to, since he didn't really fit into one particular group and like most of us he was just misunderstood.