Snow globe art

Each of the Wednesday classed created snowglobes this week using a great deal of imagination and a bit of plastic. (pictures from top 2nd, 1st, 3rd)

The 1st and 2nd grade used recycled yogurt/jello cups and paper bases. The 3rd grade used larger clear drink cups and recycled CDs for bases. They drew scenes and colored them, glued the scenes to the bases and added plastic snow.

The 2nd grade was able to use clay to make 3D figures for their globes. 1st grade used wadded tissue paper to make the snowmen 3D.

This project was able to bring out the creativity even in some of the most reluctant art participants. It also created a bit of OH, WOW from many as the base was attached to the top.

After school group completes Vincent's boats

Amid the hustle of working on the history fair board, the after school art group was able to complete their watercolor painting of Vincent Van Gogh's boats on the beach. They spent 3 weeks on this to get it from a blank sheet of paper to the completed painting. They learned how to mix the paints to the right wetness for each stage of the painting. They created white space by not painting it. They learned a variety of techniques to get the paint onto the paper. Truely impressive!

1st & 2nd Grades do multi-media numbers

The students were told to select their favorite number from 3-9 (my example was 7) and to draw it very large on the paper. They were then to divide the page from the number to the edge 5 or more times and use at least 3 media to make the picture. I supplied tissue paper, construction paper, cut-up old bookmarks, crayons and markers.

They show a lot of imagination and creativity. Some did 3D with the number behind a "secret door", rays coming off the sides of the page, and curry haired #8.

It was fun to find the numbers and hear about how they did their number. The 1st graders are at the top left, the second grade at the bottom right.

Vincent's boats are getting color afterschool

This week we started putting color on the boats and finishing the detail on this painting. We hope to be done next week. The students learned how to mix different concentrations of color and how to put 2 colors side by side without them mixing. We did not use a resist but painted wet-on-dry with great results. Some of the students will refine their masts next week as a few lost proportion in the drawings.

4th grade takles water color technique

We took a step back this week to work on technique before finishing the water color picture. Water colors are not an intuitive medium and need a bit of practice to see how they work. The students were to work step by step and use 3-4 colors wet-in-wet and wet-to-dry. They discovered that water on the paper creates a barrier between wet and dry paper, tipping the paper helps colors to run into one another and make new colors, the water does the work if you let it, putting more water next to a color will cause it to move. All in all it was a good lesson and one that turned out well.

Candles for the Kindergarten

This seemed a challenging project but everyone was able to complete it and proudly display their candles. We started discussing heat and light and were able to handle a battery candle to see that there was "cool" light. We were unable to observe the electric "candlelight" for more than a few seconds as it blew its bulb.
The project is made from TP tubes and tissue paper. The students had to cut the top 1" with scissors vertically then fold down all the flaps. We then used glue stick to glue down the flaps making the top of the candle. While one of the helpers cut wicks from black paper the students folded yellow tissue paper to make the flame. We glued that over the wick leav
ing a little at the bottom for "feet" and added a red center to our flame from another piece of tissue. We flattened the feet out and attached the wick to the top of the candle and had our "Oh wow" moment.
Lots of smiles on this one. We ran out of time to decorate the outside of the candle but a couple of students nabbed a strand of tissue paper and had it wrapped around in a flash!

2nd grade learns how watercolors work

It was hard and scary to let the paper do the painting but for the kids who let themselves go, it was an OH, WOW moment. We started with painting with water to wet the page. Almost no one got the paper wet enough the first time. We did a simple landscape with a tree, sky, sun and some ground. Quite a few of them really let the water and paper do the work and had great results. We did not get to use other elements like salt today butr we will.

3rd grade completes prayer rugs

At long last the 3rd grade was able to complete their prayer rugs complete with tassles. Each student worked hard designing the pattern, marking it onto the surfaces, painting the design, then making tassles and sewing them on. They did a remarkable job on this from start to finish and wanted to celebrate by immediately putting them into use. You can see the tassles in the bottom right of the picture.

1st grade does fractions and art to make a picture

The first grade spent this week creating art from Ed Emberley's Picture pie: a cut and paste drawing book while reviewing their fractions. We did 6-8 of the figures from the book using 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 circles in a variety of colors. The class then could create their own picture from one of the examples or using their imaginations. What a great result we got. Several took a look at other pages and found pictures we had not made. Some needed to cut the pie pieces into smaller slivers to achieve thier picture. We are glad the Wells Branch Library has great books for us to use in class.

Monday art includes lots of color

The kindergarten started the day with the books 7 blind mice and "Mouse Paint" learning about colors and mixing colors. They colored the white mice's ears, tails, and feet in the primary colors then made rainbows coming out of the mice's paint brushes. It was a fun project.

The 4th grade created the warm hands in a geometic cool figure. Distinguishing the warm and cool colors was hard until we decided that if the hand was " alive" and therefore "warm" that the colors would be red, orange and yellow. It was easier to do the cool colors as the ones that might be water or grass.

Art to celebrate Georgia O'keeffe's birthday

The 2nd and 3rd graders did a complicated floral project to celebrate Georgia O'Keeffe's birthday and learn a little about the artist and her life. The students folded the paper then marked it to cut out the petals. A few had mishaps but all were able to get the flowers cut with a little help. We talked about vibrant colors and LARGE art that was her specialty. We used colored pencils and markers then added 3-D centers with bright colored tissue paper wads. The students were pretty creative and everyone wanted to show off the flowers they made. This is a great project to work on manual dexterity and learn about color intensity.

1st Grade makes clay and pinecone turkeys

It was not very messy and everyone was able to do these turkeys with just a little help. We used pinecones that had opened just a little but still had pointy ends for the head. First we made the feathery tails from a paper plate and drew our own feathers and colored them. Using the homemade clay in brown, yellow and red we created the head, comb, beak and goblers and pressed them on. We glued the tail to the body, some needed a bit of a splint or cushion between the tail and cone to seat them. Of course most of the students have not seen live turkeys but these are a pretty good representation anyway.

2nd & 3rd grade create Veteran's day multimedia pictures

November 11th is Veteran's Day so we used one of the Picturing America prints, Childe Hassam's Allies Day May 1917, to create multimedia pictures and to expand our knowlege of history a bit too. 


The students were told to look at the print and then do their picture from the perspective of being at the parade--what are they seeing, what are they hearing, is there confetti falling, are there crowds of people, etc. The picture was done in colored pencils with construction paper confetti.


We learned when Veteran's day and Memorial day began. We found out which president was in office then. We identified most of the flags in the print. We talked about people throwing confetti (shreds of paper) down onto the parades in times past. They did a great job interpreting the day.

Vincent's Sunflowers are done!

The 4th grade and after school art class both completed their paintings this week of Vincent Van Gogh's three sunflowers. It was a challenging painting for us but they really turned out quite good. We decided that the dark green background was too dull and learned to use artist medium with the paint to make a multicolored background. The wooden table also got some dressing in some of the paintings with checked or colored table cloths appearing.

The after school group will do another painting from Van Gogh but switch to watercolors in the next couple of weeks. I hope the 4th grade found a modern art painting they liked to follow up their trip to the Blanton. We may have to take a look at some of Picasso's work next week.

Kindergarten paints a neighborhood

"Imagine that you are riding on a bird and flying high above the ground" the instructions began. "What do you see looking down on your neighborhood?" The students closed their eyes (briefly) then hands waived wildly as each wanted to say what he or she had "seen." Students donned their painting shirts and aprons (borrowed from the pre-school) and fingerpainted the things they saw on special paper with tempera paints. They did a large road with a crossroad, a stream and a pond, trees and areas of dirt--dirt intreagued them! Trees without trunks were a hard concept though.

The second week we again imagined being high above the ground and pointing out the buildings we saw and the other things we thought were in the neighborhood. Each drew these on a sheet of paper, colored the drawings with markers, cut the sections out with scissors and glued them to the painting from last week. They even remembered the fire station and the movie theater as buildings they might have on the "map."

After school art class tackles VanGogh's sunflowers

It is taking a bit longer than we thought but the results are well worth the time. We are using one of Vincent Van Gogh's many sunflower paintings as our subject on a small canvas. First the students drew or transfered a drawing to the canvas--they learned how to make graphite transfers--many prefered to draw freehand. Next we painted the emerald green pot and began the sunflowers and their leaves. Some have chosen the traditional wood table as a base others are putting their own mark on the painting by changing to a tablecloth. We expect to complete them next week and smudge in a background behind the flowers. You can see a copy of the painting in the background. Each student has their own brush pack and is taking care of cleaning and replacing the brushes in addition to setting up their own paint palette and keeping up with wash water. This is really a great group. I am looking forward to the boats on the shore painting next.

3rd grade creates their own painted prayer rugs

This class is getting lots of opportunity to combine art with other subjects. We reviewed a wide variety of prayer rugs last week using the computer projector--taking note of designs, colors, borders and learning about fringe. The students started a sketch to guide them on the project. Towels are a bit of a challenge to paint on but the price and size were right so we gratefully started on them. Each student has redrawn parts of their design in colored chalk then using fabric medium and acrylic paint they started the designs. It will take several weeks to complete the rug but it looks like it will be worth it. The students were impressed by the detail on some of the very old rugs we found pictures to share.

Fall art projects at the school

Fall brings to mind the stories of the settlement of the United States and the relationship of the settlers to the  tribes of "americans" in place. Explaining the difference between the expected "indians" and the ones the settlers found did the trick. Explaining the bonnets  the women wore was much harder.
I think they really just wanted to create the people. The paper tube project is a bit of a stretch for the 1st graders but they managed nicely, painting the faces then dressing the rolls and applying yarn hair. The tops of the hats didn't happen but faces were produced and for a 1 hour project that they did with little help--great job.

The second grade has a new task--learning to put things into size perspective as they draw. We talked about how ugly the design would be before we were done which helped a lot! Drawing with light lines will be a challenge but they are doing it--petals were a good match for the centers and a few had time to add color. We had a little time to talk about Vincent VanGogh and his sunflowers. They want to do some of Leonardo Da Vinci's work and a bit of art history about him so we will see how the drawing goes. They did a fine job on this one.

3rd Grade paints from Picturing America

This was the last week of art work for the class on Native Americans. The kids have done medalions with geometric designs and fringed beaded edges and a clay totem. The last project was a watercolor painting of one of the Picturing America prints: George Catlin Painting the Portrait of Mah-to-toh-pa–Mandan. We had a lot of fun with trying to get clouds in the sky and keep the browns thin enough to see the figures on the drawings. One of the students decided that the trees had to have apples. We used watery tempra on card stock and it worked pretty well--spillage aside!
The print can be viewed on the Picturing America site--#6b.http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/ 

Life cylces in Multi-media with 4th grade

We got a little out there but with great results. The students researched the life cycles of their animal then created a circular cycle on a poster. They got to choose the type of items to create the depictions--clay was a popular addition. One group chose to paint their cycle complete with glitter paints and texture. The bunny group did much more detail on the written part than the art but learned to use tracing paper to transfer their drawings.

Catching up on art in Wells Branch

It has really been a busy and productive couple of weeks for the artistic at the Wells Branch Community Library and the classes I teach at the Renaissance Academy. We have been drawing up a storm everywhere and with all ages. I learned to make an awesome claydough in colors for the school that let us make massive totems with the 3rd grade class. This followed last week when they painted and beaded native american medallions. Adults and teens drew and painted the best realistic sunflower (me too although mine is not complete) as a part of the Picturing America activities. 
Kids at the library and at the school painted and embellished an apple tree scene for Johnnie Appleseed's birthday--including the sleeping in the tree--they all had stories about what was going on in their painting. 
Next week foil fish==sounds like fun!

great source of art projects

I just found the best source of art projects for kids of all ages on dickblick.com I subscribe to a newsletter from wetcanvas.com and the blick site is a sponsor. What a wealth of information on both of these sites. I think we may even get a discount through SDP for shopping there. I am going to use a few of the projects I found to beef up my offerings for the summer camp sessions. 

I am already more than half full on all the sessions (10/16) and a month to go before the 1st one begins. I also have a teen volunteer to help out secured. Kind of a "go me" for getting this off the ground!