Meaningful Art: Watercolor Caterpillars

I recently got my Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars in the mail. (By the way, if you haven't done this, you should. For the cost of Shipping and Handling you get 4 caterpillars for your classroom. But I digress...) I decided to connect Science and Art and have my students use watercolors to paint caterpillars. Since they had done so well with the art project last week I was feeling pretty confident that my students would produce some excellent work.

I decided I wanted to give them a little structure and have them stretch themselves by copying the style of Eric Carle of the famed The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I showed them several examples of his work, asking them to observe his use of color. Once we determined his style of blending many shades of a color, I showed them the cover of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Students then went to their desks where they had watercolors and a black and white caterpillar printed on cardstock. I was a little nervous that my students would try to do a direct copy of the cover, but I told them that using his style didn't mean they had to copy. My students were more than happy to choose and mix their own colors. I think it helped that they weren't painting a black and white copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

The Original

My students' creations