3rd Grade Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

These students experienced flowers O'Keefe style! They were give a choice from many flower photographs as to which one they wanted to reproduce in a larger than life format. After doing some practice drawings, paying attention to shape and detail, they were ready to put it on their final sheet. Then we used layers of drybrush painting to fill in the composition followed by oil pastel embellishments. The results were fabulous! Enjoy!

Continuing Patterns

This was a fun little project for Middle School students that I picked up at Conference. I did it with my third grade students. The idea is to glue a small square of pattern paper (1x1") into the middle of a larger piece of paper. The larger piece can be whatever size desired, depending on how long the project needs to last. This project was done on 6"x6" black paper as it was a one day project.

Whats the point? Well, this one takes some thought. The goal is to continue the pattern from the small square out to the edges of the big square. The trick is, the student doesn't have all of the pattern revieled in the small square so they have to figure it out OR develope a pattern that fits. Sometimes the pattern grows and evolves as it moves to the edges utilizing a lot of problem solving and decision making skills.

First grade Portraits starting to Emerge

This is one of my favorite projects. Perhaps, that is why it is done on almost a annual basis. I really love seeing how this little guys express themselves when learning about PORTRAIT. First we discuss PORTRAIT. What is it? What does the artist want us to see? Then we learn about putting the face together, where the features go, and how big they are compared to each other - perspective. After a couple of practice drawings, we start on the final sheet. The next step is to begin filling in color with oil pastels. I usually have them layer a couple of colors, such as orange and a "skin" color, to give our faces some warmth. Then we move onto clothing, making sure to mix at least two similar colors, finally we get to the hair. We discuss that hair is not one big piece, but many different strands that are different colors. I demonstrate how we can create the look of strans by laying lines of different color, then they create hair. To top it off, we fill in a background that could deal which seasons, events, or even different artists styles. The result is some truly amazing work!

Rough Weather Ahead!!!

This class of 3rd grade students experienced rough seas as they painted seascapes depicting stormey skies and large waves. We talked about weather and how skies look when storms are approaching.
First, we took white, turquoise, and violet tempera and painted a stormy sky onto the manila paper, using white first, then, while wet, we slowly applied turquoise and violet, to create stormy clouds. I did allow them to use A LITTLE black, but only after a demonstration showing how little was really needed.
Then, we used violet, blue,turquoise, and white to work in the water. We reviewed "horizon line" and talked about how the waves would form peeks. They should paint the water using brush strokes that immulated rough waves. The last thing we did was add a small jut of land, far in the distance. Some chose to put in lighthouses and ships. Overall, we had some real weather brewing!

Beautiful Painted landscapes

These are some beautiful landscapes that were created by our 3rd grade students as they learned about deep depth. To understand how to create an illusion is not an easy task, but these students did it quite well. In this class, the students learned about landscape, then chose photographs of the landscapes as inspiration for their paintings. It was not required to copy the image exactly. In fact, it was encouraged that they combine ideas from different pictures or just use a part of the image and then "imagine" the rest. The layering technique was similar to the techniques listed in the above entry. There was a little more detail added after the sky, however.

To be honest, this was a real stretch for me as I have been more "controlling", to an extent, in my last 23 years, by doing a little more leading and not as much facilitating as I did in this project. In order to really get these students to make personal decisions and choice, I left the type of landscape up to them as well as how they would paint it with the techniques they had in their arsenals. The results were quite varied showing different skill levels. Overall, I think the lesson was successful and most of the students were happy with their work.

Awesome 5th grade Photographers

Our 5th grade students never cease to amaze me with their photographic "eye." We talk about the difference between taking photographs to create memories and to create an artistic composition. The classes have had assignments such as TEXTURE, STILL LIFE, "HANDS", and EMPHASIS. In all, the focus has been on how to compose the image to best communicate an idea. Students have learned about simple manipulation of the images with color and cropping. This project seemes to rank right up there at the top of the favorite 5th grade art assignments!

2nd grade Working on "Cool" colors.

Actually, they are working on warm colors too! And emphasis. We have been talking about how color can make the viewer feel and why an artist might use a warm or cool color scheme. Our new vocabulary word is......ANALOGOUS - colors related to each other, located next to each other on the color wheel!