Learning About Tessellations and Adding Value to Drawings

M.C Escher is one cool dude and his artwork always amazes students. What's even more exciting for them is to make artwork that is similar to his style. For lower elementary students, that involves making a tessellation.

Students began by talking specifically about tessellations and how each piece fits together so that there is no space in between that is not a part of the design. The kids caught on quick. We even talked about tessellations that can be found in nature to help students connect what they're learning with something they already know. We talked about the different ways to move shapes so that they would fit together perfectly. Shapes can either slide, flip or turn. Then we learned all about M.C. Escher. We spent time looking at his life and a lot of his artwork. I used this video to do that.

Students then set to work using animal tracers that were meant to make tessellations. The students were challenged to work through how the animal fit together by moving the tracer around on the page and trying different ways until they got it right. They had a lot of success with this and were excited when they mastered their tracer. After they filled their page with a  tessellation, the students traced over their pencil line with a marker and then erased their pencil lines.

 

On the second day, I did a demo on how to create value with crayon. We discussed how to make light, medium and dark values with the same crayon just by how hard you pressed down when coloring. Each student was to select one color and 'shade' or create light, medium and dark values on their tessellations. Everyone was very excited about the 3-D effect that this gave their artwork.

Also a little update on one of my side projects. I finished my dragon drawing! Take a look at that beauty!

 

 

Pipenburg Studio Visit and Positive and Negative Space

Remember last post I said that we had Monday and Tuesday off of school for our 'mid winter break'? Well that wasn't quite true. We actually only had Monday off. Tuesday was a professional development day. Luckily the art teachers of the district banded together and decided that instead of sitting through some meetings that usually don't apply to our subject area, we were going to head to an artist's studio for a day of relaxation and rejuvenation centered around making art and being inspired. It was great! We went to Gail and Robert Piepenburg's studio. If you haven't checked them out yet, you should right here. They have some amazing pieces.

We did a small workshop of naked raku firing, which is an interesting process where the slip and glaze that is applied to your piece of art work is called 'sacrificial'. Meaning that it's only there to provide a shield for those areas that you don't want to be blackened by the smoke. Once cooled, the slip and the glaze are chipped off to reveal a white and black finish. It was an interesting technique and we got varied results, unfortunately I don't have pictures of them, but it you check out the Piepenburg's website, you will for sure see some expert examples.

 

 

 

In the art room, third grade students are working on positive and negative space. This is a tricky concept to grasp. So we're breaking it down and just talking about how all the spaces in a piece of artwork are important, even the 'empty' ones. In order to illustrate this concept, we're constructing Notan pieces. We used this video here to introduce the concept. Then we made ours a little bit differently by putting the smaller paper to the side instead of in the middle. We used scissors and... Exacto knives.... gasp! There were strict rules but the kids were great and we only had minor mishaps.

DIY and Some Art Projects

Since we don't have a whole lotta school this week, (some of you have the whole week off, I only have Monday and Tuesday!) I thought I would post some projects that I've been working on. They are all in progress... The first project I want to share is a felting project! I have been sitting around with some felt and needles for some time now and haven't settled on a project. I have also been wanting to use this image in a project somewhere. I did not simply want to recreate a painting or drawing of it .

 

So I had the brilliant idea to use this image and start felting. I recently was going through my closet, getting rid of things I didn't want. I have a yellow sweater that I like the fit of, but the color just is a little off to me. I was almost going to give it away when I thought it would be perfect for this project. Here's where I'm at so far. 

I am going to add the tress branches and the sun/moon behind her, however I want to add color. I love the blue but I'm not sure how it will look with the yellow of the sweater. I will update as I move along. 

I'm also working on some character art for a very dorky game that I play that will remain nameless. I play every Thursday night with my fiance's brother and friends. We have a great time, but the person in charge of character art made my female rogue character look like an Asian waitress. And no disrespect, but that's just not what I had in mind. I want to be a swash buckling, daredevil of a character. Therefore I am working on this colored pencil drawing so I can show all those boys how it's done. I think I've finally pinned down the face (after several redos). Here's where it is currently:

 

Lastly, I had a student ask me on Friday if I could draw anything!? When I answered that I felt pretty confident that given time, I could draw pretty much anything, he disbelieving asked if I could draw a dragon. To prove my point and since I wanted a new project over this long weekend, I told him I would draw a dragon for him. I wanted to make the dragon quite scale-y which I'm now regretting because it's going to take forever and be tedious. Oh well... can't disappoint a student!

 

Thank you for checking them out! It's nice to share on occasion.

Enjoy your mid-winter break all those who get one! Stay warm!

Talking about Form with Kinders

Talking about Form with the younger classes is always a challenge because I requires some vocab that they usually aren't familiar with yet. It's a tough concept to wrap your mind around. In kindergarten last week we look at a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and a clay vase. First we established that they were both pieces of art. Then we searched together for the differences between the two pieces. Let me tell you, those super observant kinders found lots of differences!

 

 

After we talked about the differences, I suggested that there was one HUGE difference that we had not talked about yet. I turned the Mona Lisa over and asked them if there was any art work on the back on the paper. Since it was blank white, they said no of course. We talked about how if it was hanging up and you walked around it, there would only be art to look at in the front, none in the back. Then we talked about the vase. We discussed how if you walked around it, or even looked inside of it (!) that you could still see art. 
I asked the students what type of art they usually made in art class. And of course the answer was flat, one-sided artwork. Then I shared with them that art that you can walk around and has art on all sides is called 3-D Form and that they were going to make a project with Form today!
Now I'm sure you've all seen a variation of this project somewhere on the internet. I originally found it on Pinterest, but I've seen it on other blogs. We created paper sculptures. The kids were given a white piece of tag board and five strips of colored paper (which they chose) and each table had a tape dispenser. I showed them a couple basic folding techniques and how to use the tape dispensers correctly and then basically let them go to town. They had a glorious time and really got creative with their sculptures. What's more important is I'm pretty sure most of them understood the difference between flat artwork and artwork with Form. This was a one day project and I let them take their pieces home that day. I'm sure the classroom teachers appreciated the presence of artwork that couldn't be smushed when it was packing up time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick update

The ceramic pieces are coming out of the kilns and they look great! I just wanted to show some of our finished pieces, since we've been working on these forever! Take a look!

 

 

 

 

Two for One: Printmaking and Symmetry!

There is hope that this week will be a full week! Although I heard we're supposed to get lots of snow tomorrow... we shall see. At least it's not as bitter cold as it has been.

For this post, I wanted to share two concepts that are being learned in art class. The first graders are learning about symmetry and the second graders have learned all about printmaking.
We talked a lot about symmetry in first grade, they did several small projects leading up to our final symmetry project which dealt with insects. I can tell you right now, there were mixed reactions to doing a drawing of an insect but in the end, everyone was into it. We talked about insects and the different parts of it. We looked a diagram similar to this one.

Then we talked about how an insect has symmetry. We folded a large paper in half and drew our own insects. Students were told to draw large and fill the page. They were also told that whatever they drew on one side of the paper had to be drawn on the other side of the paper so that the insect would be symmetrical. Then we painted them using tempera cakes, which I have to say are not my favorite.

 

 

Then the second graders learned about printmaking. We spent a whole class talking about what we thought printmaking was and then we watched a video to support our thoughts.(Printmaking Video)

I also did a demo of how to ink a plexi-glass plate and lay down scraps of soft fabric and such to make the print. Technically these were Monoprints, but we did end up pulling two images; a negative and a positive.

The next class we set up stations at tables. Those who were waiting for their turn helped by putting names on prints and running them to the drying rack. I'm gonna warn you right now, the ink dries fast and we definitely had some issues with that. Some of the prints turned out great and some not so much, but the experience was fun for all involved!