Middle School CBC Character Posters

Just a Few of the finished covers and character designs!

Middle School Comic Book Club

The last two weeks of CBC the students have been working to complete their tye-dyed shirts and comic book posters.

A lot of hard work but we still had fun times. 

Color Theory & 1pt. Perspective

Who knew learning how to draw a shape in one point perspective could lead to beautiful works of abstract art?

Concepts Covered:

Low Relief Sculpture

Variety of Color Schemes

1 point Perspective 

This year's 9 week sculpture class has been learning about color schemes and one point perspective. We started off by reviewing primary vs. secondary colors and color mixing.  From there we learned that when we combine colors together into groups, we are creating a color scheme.

Color Schemes we focused on:

Warm   

Cool

Primary   

Secondary

Analogous 

Complementary

screenshot from color scheme powerpoint

We practiced drawing assorted shapes in groups using one point perspective.  

Each group had to use 7-11 shapes

Each group had its own vanishing point and horizon line

Each group was then colored in using a different color scheme

5 groups of shapes= 5 different color schemes

2 student examples of practice pages

Once they created all five groups, the students selected their favorite color scheme.  With their favorite color scheme in mind, they began to raid my magazine drawers for pages and ads that had samples of their needed colors.  The end result...a lot of paper scraps on the floor.
The magazine pages were then cut into strips or circles (the student's choice) to add texture and color to their backgrounds.
Then using cardboard as their "canvas" the students drew their favorite arrangement of shapes in one point perspective.  Cut out the shape arrangement. Then cardboard shapes were painted with colors from their selected color schemes.  

Examples of Cool Color Scheme and Analogous Color Schemes

Example of Primary Color Scheme

Despite all the snow days and the crazy testing schedule the students were able to create beautiful and eye catching works of abstract art.

The classroom mascot and my teacher's exemplar of the project.

Art Room Sinks!

I think after 3 years in this classroom, I have finally figured out a system that works for both myself and my students when it comes to keeping the art room sinks clean!

Everything from the paintbrushes to the paint rags has a place to be...and if the students don't remember hopefully the signs will help...wishful thinking :)

Group Critique Day!

Level 1 Arts Majors

The students are about 1/3rd of the way done with their self-portraits, inspired by Chuck Close and his amazing grids.  

We are working to not only increase our art skills but our art vocabulary too!

When talking about another student's artwork, students were to use their art terms (i.e. shading, value, texture, contrast, line, etc.) to talk the positives that they saw and the areas that could be improved upon with more work.  

All About That Mood Lighting!!!

Level 2 Art Majors

Before we started working on our final still life drawings of the quarter the students had two days to create a few practice drawings with the charcoal.  These practice days are built in to allow the students time to experiment with the new materials and see what techniques they prefer to use when working with this very messy material.

3 still life arrangements were set up with intense dramatic lighting, for all the students to see the shadows and highlights a little easier (their personal still life arrangements will also have a dramatic spot light as well).  

They started by marking in the basic shapes of their still life drawings then began creating detail with the black and white charcoal. 

The glass and ceramic still life.

Mixed Metals Still Life

Themed Still Life- Nautical

2nd Grade Color Wheels

For our second project of the school year second grade is learning about the primary and secondary colors using paint!!!
We had a very exciting class experimenting with mixing our primary (red, yellow, blue) colors to create the 3 secondary colors (orange, green, and purple).  Cleaning our brushes and placing our artwork on a drying rack were also new concepts covered this class.

Scrub! Scrap, Scrap! To clean our brushes.

Who knew box lids made such great paint trays?

Wipping off the extra water in the brush bristols.

PURPLE IS OUR FAVORITE SECONDARY COLOR!

The Elements of Art

The Elements of Art are the basic building blocks to all works of art. 

Every work of art has at least 1 element of art or like we call it in class EofA.  

The students this year created foldables to help them remember the 7 elements of art, their definitions, and some visuals to represent them.  

Paper Sculpture Contest

One Day Lesson!

To wrap up the end of the school year the middle school students participated in a Paper Sculpture contest with a theme of Amusement Park. 

7 Paper Sculpture Techniques were discussed/introduced 

They also viewed some famous paper sculpture artists that can be found at the link below.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/masters-of-paper-art-and-paper-sculptures/

Pablo Picasso's Old Guitarist

Concepts Covered:

Artist introduction- Pablo Picasso 

Art Discussion- Class Critique/Discussion on

 Picasso's Painting "The Old Guitarist"

New Material Introduced- Oil Pastels

Method/Application of Oil Pastel on Paper

Review- Patterns (A/B; ABC; Size; Color Patterns)

1 Point Perspective- Level 1 Art Majors

For our 4th quarter "Design" project, the Level 1 Art Majors are learning all about 1 point perspective.  

We have covered the basics of horizon line, vanishing point, and how to build or create a shape that looks 3-D and goes back in space. 

The students practiced creating numerous different shapes, letters, and objects in 1 Point Perspective.

Van Gogh Sunflowers- Kindergarten Style

I saw this great short, but sweet post on another art teacher blog called ART PROJECT GIRL (the link is shown below).  I thought it was a great one day project for kindergarten that covered some key art concepts and ideas.

http://artprojectgirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/easy-project-you-can-do-tomorrow.html

Concepts Covered:

• Artist Introduction- Vincent Van Gogh
• How to Talk About Artwork (Class Discussion on the shapes and colors we see)
• How to hold a paintbrush
• How to make thick and thin lines using the same paintbrush
• How to outline using paint
• How to create a flower similar to Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Look at these students hard at work!!!!

First we started by making dots.
Then we used our paintbrush to make thick or thin lines.
And lastly we used a small paintbrush to make our black outlines. 

Finished Student Examples to be Posted Soon

Laurel Burch Cats and Dogs

The students in third grade are learning about a new contemporary folk artist.  We learned that folk artists are artists are people that have no formal art training and the artwork they create represents their culture, traditions, or the things they see around them.  

To begin students selected either a cat or dog inspired by Laurel Burch.  

Then using the following directions for assistance, the students drew some practice sketches.

Mural

The upper level art majors were given a wonderful opportunity this year to create a mural and permanently leave their mark on the school for all to see.  

It has been a long process and we are almost finished, the only thing slowing us down at this point is the wall...it took 4 gallons of paint!

Such a nice blue!

Original Design and Color Concepts
The approved design has even more bears one for each academic area.

The students hard at work creating all those bears!
 

THIS MURAL WILL BE FINISHED BY THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR!!!!