Using mixedmedia to convey a message

The junior high group took on a different kind of a project in November. I had them create a 3D collage. They first created their own background papers using colored pencils. My direction was that they needed four different sizes of paper one to include a shape. 

They were assigned to one of three groups of the traits that they are currently using this year at school. The traits were compassion respect and responsibility. We used pages of quotes from the program for them to be able to select something to put on their largest piece of paper. 

When they were done with the text and designs, they affixed it to the blue background so that it had a 3-D appearance. Lastly we frame them and put them on the wall in the lobby.

Learning pastels

When I told the kids we were going to begin our drawing with crayons they were not too pleased with me. I drew along with them and drew this rooster. Once they had all of the elements of the rooster drawn then we took out the pastels and began to add color. I worked with them on different ways to spread the color and blend it. We have not previously used oil pastels and the color is fabulous. The roosters were done by the third grade class.

The fourth and fifth grade class were told that they could draw what they wanted to draw for this project and then experiment with using the oil pastels. Subjects ranged from a picture of themselves to penguins and tanks. A couple of them added lots of stars or other design elements. We used both oil and alcohol to promote blending of the pastels. The still think that the alcohol works better for blending.

Paper sculpture projects let students learn new skills

Combining paper and sculpture is a favorite of mine and some of the projects are ones that I have done before so know what will generally work but there are always surprises.

 I assume that kindergartners know what a tree looks like but judging from the pictures they made, the view from their height may influence their ideas. We used long paper strips from the shredder, colored paper shred, and colored paper punch to let them create a fall tree. I had an example and even drew one on the board but they do their own thing. Every tree has a trunk and branches but wow what a variety!

The 1st and 2nd graders did twisted paper bag trees. This one takes some measuring skill, cutting practice and mastering twisting 2 paper strands together before they get to the "fun" part of putting the leaves on the trees. The 1st grade ones are on display in the school lobby.






 The 2nd grade got really excited to find white tissue in the bag I brought and created many trees with snow on their fall leaves. 

The 3rd grade 3-D fish did not get photographed and made a rapid trip home. 

I tried out a challenging project on the 4th-5th class to replicate a sculpture of the type by Louise Nevelson, noted 20th century artist who used found objects in her sculptures. They had to measure the sides and draw lines to create their own boxes. This seems to create no small amount of confusion on what is 1/2" on the ruler. Everyone got a box done then created an item to fit inside the box that was personal for them. I showed my bicycle example and her found examples. After each student completed his 2" piece they were all mounted on a large piece of tag board and the resulting sculpture is on display in the school lobby. 
  

Learning calligraphy and Eid Mubarak

As part of the plan this year during Islamic art month grades 2nd - 8th practiced on creating calligraphy. We started with just simple lines and the direction of the pen but tracing a design gave us the best results. Most of the kids had never used the 2 dimensional pens so it was a bit hard for some. We will keep working on this skill every month until the pens totally give out. The 1st and Kindergarten used a wax resist then painted their letters in. They were excited to making a special message. 

Our last  project was to make sheep for the party on the last day of school. The 3rd grade shows off the design. 

Creating pictures of mosques

 The 4th-5th grade classes used an example of a multi-turreted mosque and drew their own then incorporated a variety of lines and other designs into each section. 

Lastly they used their choice of markers or colored pencils to complete the designs. 

The Kindergarten and 1st grade painted their pictures using metallic tempera and created a pretty great set of pictures too. 

Doing the basics in September

September is a good time to hit some of the basics and see how well and comfortably the students draw. I also get to assess how well they work with basic supplies like glue and scissors at all grade levels.  Most of the grades did a name based project and  projects using types of lines to create designs. The 3rd grade spirals were a lot of fun and quite popular.  The  kindergarten names went well with the paper plate faces and hand prints from the week before. Lots of the artwork made it onto the walls in the hall or the classrooms. 

We also did projects identifying textures and shaping them which is very popular. students brought items from home to add to my offerings to have a "touch table" then used the items to create the designs. The picture at left is from the 2nd grade class.






The 4-5 grade did an interpretive mixed media picture using yarns, tissue and drawing based on the story of Moby Dick. Great depictions of whales with its blow hole and other detail of a wily whale that had survived many hunts. One of the students added the boat and little speech bubbles. 

Our lines and curves drawing day turned out so much better than the examples I brought. 2nd grade did scarecrow complete with crows and  the 3rd grade is abstract blocks. 




This year our 6-8th grade students are all participating in art instead of signing up for an optional group after school  I had them draw the Spanish buildings then paint them in watercolors. Watercolors are a bit of a challenge to get just the right amount of wet into everything but by the end they did a great job and some went on to do a 2nd picture. 

Art mini-camp photo slideshows

Art Mini- camp slideshow Summer is in full swing and camp has kids busy painting and using clay and other art mediums. Thought that it would be simpler to share the weblink as we post each day's pictures over the 8 weeks of camp in June and July.

I am excited to be offering a 3 day mini-art camp as part of the summer program at the school this year. We will be taking students from age 5-13 in a series of camps that let the students have a real hands on experience with art materials and science from a slightly different perspective. It also gives me the chance to help raise funds for the school science lab. See the list at the side bar for details.

 Painting and clay projects

Interpreting the Lorax

 The Lorax movie and book are very popular with the 1st grade so we planned a project to tell a part of the story. This combines drawing and using a variety of materials. Students had fuzzy balls for the lorax's hair and beard, cardboard for the tree stump, and feathers for the truffula trees. Some wrote messages. Others got more modern and made the lorax a girl. Interesting telling of the tale and comments on protecting trees.

Drawing emotions with color

 The day before class a picture "the scream" sold at auction. I shared this picture with the students in the 2nd and 3rd grade for discussion. They were not very impressed with the picture as a favorite type of artwork.
Next they were to do a drawing of a person expressing emotion using the drawing and color.One pair of students did opposite emotions.   It took a bit of discussion but they got the concept and did a great job on these. When we tried it last year early in the 2nd grade it was not such a success as it seemed the concept was too abstract for them.

Earth month projects begin with spaceships and cute caterpillars

 All of the classes have studied space and planets during the last few weeks so to kick off a month of projects made from recycled, reused or re-purposed items the 1st and 2nd grades created spaceships. They were given paper towel tubes, tp tubes, paper egg cups, egg cartons, streamers, ribbons, and scrap paper. It was up to them how to craft their space ship. There were quite a variety produced and each is different (copied ideas aside.) The 2nd grade wanted to fly theirs, the 1st grade wanted to wear them.  Interesting wing arrangements and quite a few have pilots or passengers.
The kindergarten got to do another critter--this time a caterpillar. We used water bottle, donated paper cut into strips, & old gift wrap. The kids made their own eyes, mouths and noses were left-over bits of tissue paper. We did add colored chenille stems for antena.

Kindergarten has patriotic themes

 We have had some fun with the patriotic themes in February creating flags, Liberty statues, and stick puppets of Lincoln and Washington for president's day. The kids are getting pretty good at following more complicated directions and filling in the blanks. They were able to do alternating stripes for the flags and most breezed through the stars. Those that had a bit of trouble still managed some pretty good stars. They were concerned that the examples did not have faces and put faces on all the puppets and the liberty lady. She even has her torch. 

2nd grade paints landscapes

This was a project that we really looked forward to doing. This class likes to paint and draw so having them do a landscape painting was a natural. I brought in a few that I had painted as examples. We discussed what kind of elements would be in a landscape and began. They used 1/2 sheets of stiff cardboard for their paintings. Each drew the landscape then painted them learning how to make clouds more fluffy, making waterfalls with a bit of movement, painting birds, and making a foggy sky. I think they did a remarkable job on them.

3rd grade Makes ecosystems

 This is a project that we have done before and it works well. We used smaller groups this year and did more projects which seemed to work better. The project starts with naming the ecosystems and choosing the one they want to create. We used plastic vegetable containers about 4"x8" and around 4-5" tall. The students created all the elements of the system on the lid so when closed it was like a small diorama. They created animals and other elements using clay and construction paper. Each is labeled as to the system and what elements are comprised within it. Some are quite detailed, others take a bit of imagination to confirm the elements within. 

more clay creations

We are spending the month of January working with clay. Sometimes this medium really lends itself to integrating into the lessons as with the plant parts for the kindergarten. Each student got a 3x5" note card as a base and a ball of salt clay. We discussed plant parts and drew a plant on the board then they were off. Each was to include all the parts on their plant remembering to include roots and seeds. They are pretty good at the proportions on these. When the plants were completed we used washable markers to color them with pretty great results.

The 1st grade created a 3D map with most of the correct elements. We had a discussion of which would be on a map and which would not. The volcanoes, train tracks, roads and rivers would. Trees might although not in as great of detail as some of the trees acquired. People and animals would not appear. They completed the project by giving it some color using water color boxes. It was a bit messy but turned out well. This is a different clay than we used in the past made with cornstarch as I was given a 50# bag of it.

The 2nd grade is studying landmarks so we created replicas of several of them using the soda/cornstarch clay, chenille stems and toothpicks. We determined that Mt. Rushmore was going to be too hard to create but Natural bridge, Washington's monument and a few others fit the bill. The monuments never had such color before though!

Lastly the 3rd grade got to add a bit of color to their vertebrates from last week using watercolors. They were really great creations and the color was just what they needed. 

Creativity with clay abounds

This was a great day for mushing and mashing to start off the new year. Every class did clay projects and did very well with them.   The kindergarten class made animals using salt clay and chenille stem pieces. They are quite detailed for  5 year olds with no example to follow except their imaginations. 

The 1st grade helped make their own salt clay then was free to create any item using the clay. Lots of  nests, snakes and a good bit of clay play before the end of the period. It was interesting to have them participate in the clay making. The dough made up pretty well and captured their interest as it went from solid to liquid to a soft solid. Nice science type project. 

The 2nd grade learned how to create faces in clay by pinching and using the palette knives and brush handles. We used a cornstarch/baking soda clay that looks really pretty and dries way too fast. We used little cups to dip our fingers into to work the clay and came up with some pretty great president face replicas.

  The 3rd grade created vertebrates and invertabrates. No photos this time but fantastic alligators, snakes, flying squirrels and more. This is a great medium for all of them as it is forgiving and allows for a great deal of creativity.