Eric Carle
(Calendar at bottom of post)
• Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, Eric Carle moved with his parents back to their native Germany when he was six years old.
• Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also
wrote, and more than 132 million copies of his books have sold around the world.
• The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature—
an interest shared by most small children.
• Eric Carle has two grown-up children, a son and a daughter. He divides his time between the
Florida Keys and the hills of North Carolina.
(Use the BIO sheet for more information. At bottom of post)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? 1967, written by Bill Martin, Jr.
lobster for an advertisement, author Bill Martin, Jr. requested Carle illustrate this book. Carle gladly
accepted as he wanted children to know the joy that can be found in books. Here he used
commercial tissue papers which could be found in forty shades.
1,2,3, to the Zoo, 1968
Carle submitted this wordless book to editor, Ann Beneduce, for publishing and was pleasantly
surprised to receive a contract. This launched the beginning of Carle's career as an illustrator of children's picture books as well as a long working relationship with his editor. After discovering that commercial tissues fade in the sun, Carle began to personalize plain white archival tissue papers with rich colors and texture.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 1969
suggests that he use a caterpillar which might be a more appealing insect. After bouncing ideas back
and forth with Ann, Carle exclaims "butterfly!" and this classic story is born. With over 41 million
copies sold since 1969 this book has been translated into more than sixty-two languages.
Pancakes, Pancakes!, 1970; re-illustrated 1990
flour from the miller, milk from the cow, etc. His mother shows him how to cook and flip them, and
hungry Jack knows what to do with them next.
The Tiny Seed, 1970; re-illustrated 1987
enormous sunflower, which then produces more seeds in its turn. Can anyone tell me what color you
get from mixing red and yellow? What colors do you think Carle used to create the flower? That's the
beauty of his work. It can be duplicated by children!
Eric Carle Bio
Eric Carle is an American illustrator and author. He is famous for writing and illustrating children’s books, many about animals. He was born in 1929, and when he was little, his family moved to Germany. He moved back to the US when he was grown up, and he has a son, and a daughter.
Eric Carle’s first book was published when he was 38 years old. He loves animals, and most of his books are about animals. Some of his most famous books are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 1 2 3 to the Zoo, and Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See? . He started the first museum in the United States that is filled with nothing but art from children’s picture books. Eric Carle makes most of his illustrations with collage. Collage is when the artist tears or cuts paper into pieces and glues it down to make a picture. This is a self portrait Eric made of himself using collage.
The way he paints the papers gives them lots of texture. Texture is what something feels like - is it smooth or rough, is it soft or hard? An artist can draw or paint textures on a picture to show fur, or feathers, or scales, or whatever he wants.
Look at his picture of a bear.
Can you see all the texture on the animals? The squiggles and the stripes? Would the picture look different if the artist had just used a solid color? What did he do to make the background look more interesting?
Eric Carle makes his animals and bugs stand out from the page by using lots of contrast. Contrast is when things look very different from each other, so you can see them very easily. Eric Carle does that by making the animal and the background different colors. His books often use a white background, like he does in this picture of a cat. 
Sometimes Eric Carle uses color in the background, like he does in this picture of the Grouchy Ladybug.
For our project today, we will try to use texture and contrast to make our collage pictures stand out and look more interesting.
Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program
Eric Carle Project
Presenters, first thing, please sign onto the Art Lit cart sign-out sheet on the wall. That way we know where the art carts are at any time. Presenters should only be coming in at a time they have officially signed up for. Next, please check the Art Lit cart for the supplies you will need. If they are not all there, we should have more on the counter, ready to take. You may wish to take one of the tall cardboard drying racks with you to class to bring back the artwork in. (If the rack is still full of another class’s work, but it is dry, please look at the teacher’s name on the back, and put it in the folder for that class.)
Also make sure you have the presentation folder. Inside should be: the project instructions, the instruction sheet to show on the overhead, the artist bio/presentation, samples of the artist’s work, and the samples of this project.
Desk protector sheets (30)
9x12 sheets of tag board (30)
Bag of tissue paper strips (1)
Bag of pencils (30)
Plastic boxes of crayons
Bag of black sharpie pens (30)
box of bug stencils
empty bowls to use for tissue strips
Flat end, stiff paint brushes (30)
Dixie cups (15)
Jug of watered down glue (1)
Pencil sharpener (1)
In the classroom, ask the teacher if it is best to set up the kids’ places for them, or hand out supplies and have them set it up. Each student starts out with a desk cover sheet, a sheet of tag board, a pencil, a sharpie, and crayons, either their own or Art Lit crayons. (Since we have 8 boxes of crayons, and we need to have 2 carts of supplies at once, each cart will only have 4. Kids can use their own crayons in class, and the Art Lit crayons can be for kids who don’t have any.) Figure out how you will hand out the stencils to the kids who want each one. They will have to take turns. (There may be 2 copies of several.) For Kindergarten, presenters may wish to draw the stencils on the papers in pencil in advance, and hand them to the kids to go over in Sharpie.
Put a very small amount of watered glue in each dixie cup. A half inch or less is probably enough. Hang onto them until it is time to collage. Put a handful of tissue paper pieces in each bowl for table groups to share.
The Project
(Things you might want to say to the kids are in purple.) Try to think of questions to ask the kids as you go along. Present the artist to the kids and show his work. Then show them the samples of our project.
We will be making a collage of a bug. You will draw a background for your bug, and it can be sitting on whatever you want. You are the author and the illustrator, just like Eric Carle. Try to think of a story for your bug. Is it daytime or nighttime? What is your bug doing? What is he sitting on?
You can draw your own bug, or you can use a stencil. (Show them the choices.) If you want to draw your own, it should be a large, simple shape, so you can fill it in with collage.
Have the kids start by writing their names AND their teacher’s name in pencil on the back of their paper. Then they either use a bug stencil or draw their own bug with pencil. If students need a pencil sharpened during the project, please do it for them. Once they have a good pencil outline, they go over it in black sharpie. Remember to put in the eyes.
Next they will color the background with crayon. Make sure the little ones understand not to color inside the bug shape. They don’t have to color it all in, or make it solid. It can be however they like.
Once they are finished with the backgrounds, collect the sharpies, the pencils, the stencils, and the crayons. Hand out the bowls of tissue paper strips, a cup of glue for each pair of students, and a paint brush to each student.
Instruct the kids to think about what colors they want to use for their bug before they start. Point out that if they use the same colors as the background, the bug will blend in, and if they use different colors, the bug will stand out. Instruct them to try to tear the paper into small pieces to fit the shapes on their bug. They should use the brush to put a bit of glue on a small part of the bug at a time, cover that part with tissue paper, and then put down more glue. They should overlap colors of tissue paper to make the bug look very solid. When they are done applying paper bits, they should go over the whole bug with a thin coat of glue. Not too much.
You might say:
Now that you have your background done, try to use colors for your bug that will contrast with the background, colors that are different so the bug will stand out from the background. Think about how you want your bug to look before you start gluing. Do you want to use one color on the legs and another color on the body? Do you want to make the bug’s body look like stripes or spots? After you think about how you want it to look, start by brushing just a little bit of glue onto part of your bug. Then tear little bits of tissue paper to fill in the part with glue. Then put glue on more of the bug. Try to put lots of tissue paper on your bug so it is all filled up. It will look good if the paper overlaps. The paper on top will stick if you brush just a little bit of glue on top of it.
Afterwards
Have students return all the unused tissue paper scraps to the bag to be used by other classes. If there is leftover tag board, keep it clean to be used later. Please keep the stencils as flat as possible to make them least. If one gets torn, please let Laura Cox know so she can replace it.
Please count the items before you leave the room (brushes, sharpies, bowls of crayons, and regular pencils), and ask kids to look for missing items. We have almost no money to replace missing supplies.
Once the projects are dry, they can go into the folder with your teacher’s name on it. Folders will be on the counter. We may need the artwork for display during the year, so we don’t want to leave it in teachers’ rooms, because they may send it home. We will get all the kids’ artwork back to their teachers before the end of the year to go home with them.
Wash the paint brushes well so the glue does not dry on them, and put them back in the brush container. Try to leave the supplies on the cart as ready as possible for the next presenter.
Thank you!
September 2017
