Update on the Art Room and a Wedding!

That's right folks! I got married! Sorry sorry for the lapse in posting that has been going on for awhile. But I just got bogged down in trying to move and then finish planning the wedding and then actually get married! All while only taking a two day break from teaching all my little angels how to make art!

So here's an engagement pic for you all :) Awwww!

And here's an update on what's been happening in the art room!

Kindergarten students are learning about shapes and using them to help draw pictures. We just finished a series of observational drawings using block towers to inspire us. Now they have started on drawing faces using simple shapes. It's been a ton of fun!

1st Grade students have been painting away. We're making a 3-D color wheel! All we have are stacks of painted plates. More to come soon hopefully!

2nd Grade has been working on drawing self-portraits using a picture reference. We've been focusing on using basic shapes to help us start drawings and using symmetry to give us clues for drawing our faces. I have used this project before, but it works well, helping the students to be good observers.

3rd Grade students finished a Landscape project, using two different landscapes. We then cut them up and attached them to an accordion paper. This allows the viewer to see two different Landscapes depending on how they stand when they view the piece. Now students have begun a fruit drawing, They will be painting them next week using Complementary Colors.

4th Grade students finished their Contour Line Self- Portraits and are now working on a Pop Art piece using Grumpy Cat and Analogous Colors. I've also done this project before, but it's a good one.

And lastly, 5th Grade students finished up their shaded crayons, and are beginning on a painting using Aerial Perspective to show depth.

Art Room at the Beginning of the Year.

So we've really dug into the first couple of weeks of the year and the kids are already working hard to complete their first art projects. It's a time that's full of experiments, both on the part of the students and their artwork and for me as a teacher. I'm learning the personalities of the students and the classes and deciding what will work with each one. It's a stressful time, but also exciting!
I'm especially proud of the 4th and 5th graders who have started the year learning about, and creating projects using some tough stuff. Shading and contour lines. With the 4th graders, we're even trying Continuous Contour Lines! Here's what they've accomplished so far:

4th grade is working on Contour Lines, We learned about how to draw using Contour Lines. We chatted about going slowly, following the line with our eyes as if we were ants crawling, going along the outline, and even trying not the lift our pens! (Check out the video I used to show this, I didn't use it all, but it was neat for them to see) Then we practiced doing a Contour Line drawing of our hands. They were frustrated that their hands didn't 'look right', but it was a good exercise in slowing down and taking our time.

In our next class, I showed them our finished project, which is taking a picture of each student and placing a transparency sheet on top of it so that students can use a Sharpie marker to trace the contours of their face. We also worked on colorful backgrounds to accompany the transparencies when it's all done. Next week we will attach the two and mount it on black paper. I'm excited for this project because it's easy, but they learn a lot and it looks cool! (Inspiration for this project comes from here)

Next, the 5th graders, who have been learning all about shading. We discussed what shading is and why we use it. We came to the general conclusion that we use shading to make objects that are on a 2-D surface appear to be 3-D and realistic. We practiced a bit and then dove right into using oil pastels to shade crayons on black paper. (we traced the crayons the day before we started using oil pastels.) So far so good, although nice and messy so watch out! (inspiration for this project can be found here)

Lines, Lines, and More Lines!!

All the grades begin the year talking about line. When talking about fundamental elements of creating art, line is about as basic as you can get! The lessons on line range in difficulty from just making single strips on line (Kindergarten), to using line to create a paper sculpture with one-point perspective (4th Grade). For this post, I wanted to highlight the second grade project. We talked about contour line and making that line continuous. We made it into a game where we tried so hard not to pick up our markers! At first kids were being silly, but after we practiced a couple of times, it was amazing to see what students observed and were able to draw! I have such good observers in second grade! To warm up we practiced drawing items in the classroom using continuous contour lines.

Then we went outside and did two drawings of three different plants also using continuous contour lines. Students chose their favorite of the two drawings.

 

After students made a selection, I drew two circles on their work in interesting places; one large and one small. We talked about coloring in those circles because they were our special 'color circles'. The colors of the plants and the backgrounds were only visible in those circles. The students were allowed to use whatever colors they wanted and some of the pieces are quite colorful. We spent some time talking about using colored pencils and how going over an area more than one time would give them a nice dark color.

 

 

 

 

Finally I had students tell me how to crop their picture. I cut off those areas using the paper cutter (I cut not the students!). This was a beginning of thinking about composition for them (we'll come back to that later) Overall I think it turned out well and I'm excited that the kids are already establishing good observation skills this early in the year. It's definitely something they will be using all year in art!