"Headless" Self-Portraits

Preview of Art 2's Headless Self Portraits

For this year's drawing quarter, I wanted the students to focus on creating a self portrait.  However, instead of creating another frontal view drawing of their faces, I wanted the students to create a more abstracted idea of a self portrait. 

For this project we were focusing on the element of art-value and the principle of design-emphasis.

The students were required to bring in 2 objects that represented themselves and their personalities; they must be able to interact with these objects in order for a photo to be taken of the students and their objects.  

We had a range of objects brought in everywhere from soccer balls to polished rocks found during a family trip, the students were very eager to get started.  

Last year the students use a grid to help them draw their portraits, this year I wanted the students to try to see the correct proportions without the assistance of a grid or guidelines.  

Here are some sneak peaks at what our students have been working on. 

The students are about halfway through this project.
One of their 2 objects will be colored in to create emphasis.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

2nd Grade's 

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

In second grade we have been studying the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh.  More specifically for this project we have been looking at his paintings of sunflowers.  We began with a class discussion on the different colors and shapes we saw in his paintings. The list our classes came up with is below.  

Yellow             Circles

Red                  Rectangles 

Orange            Squares

Green              Ovals

Brown             Triangles

                        Crescent or Moon Shapes

Once we determined what shapes were needed to create our flowers, the students began to participate in a directed drawing.  

We started out by using our hand to get us the size and shape needed for the centers of our sunflowers.  The students were to have two sunflowers on our drawings (1 full flower and half a sunflower).  They were then to use triangles, crescents, ovals, and circles to create the petals for their sunflowers.  Then they used a long skinny rectangles to create the stems for their sunflowers.

The students were able to get such vibrate colors and great texture!!!

Positive Profile Portraits

5th Grade Positive Profile Portraits

In fifth grade one of the topics covered in Health class is a positive self-image. In trying to make that cross-curriculum jump, I wanted the fifth grade students to create Positive Profile Portraits.

They started out by choosing 10 positive character traits they felt matched their personalities. As the students were writing their 10 character traits and their definitions I called the students up to have the outline of their profiles traced.  After their outlines were traced, the students wrote their name and their 10 selected character traits on the outline of their profile (first in pencil, then again in marker).

Top 2 faces are pencil only outlines, bottom 2 are completed outlines in marker.
Top center piece are student examples of watercolor practice.

We are painting in our Positive Profile Portraits using watercolors in Analogous color scheme combinations.  The students practiced creating even washes and dark color outlines in watercolor before they could begin to paint their portraits.
The students are painting their portraits using 3 colors. The lightest color will be their background color, the mid-tone will become the base for their face, and their darkest color will become a bold outline to emphasize the profile of their faces.

More student examples to come!!

Small Medium & Large Shapes

Shapes and Shape Bugs

After being introduced to the Art Room rules and procedures, the first two projects I like to do are based around basic shapes and sizes.  With these projects I am introducing the Kindergarteners to basic concepts that we will not only be using and re-visting throughout this school year, as the students continue to venture down their artistic paths.

The first part of the project involved a group game where the students help to sort out a variety of shapes into the correct size categories.

Our Sorting Game-The students were able to walk up to the
SMART Board and drag the different shapes into the correct categories.

Part 2 of our Small, Medium, and Large project series involved the students picking from a pile of shapes on their tables.  These piles were made up of small, medium, and large triangles, squares, and rectangles.  The students had to select a small, medium, and large shape from the pile and then glue those 3 shapes down in order of smallest to largest.

The final stage of our Small, Medium, and Large lesson had students create a Shape Bug using small, medium, and large shapes.  We viewed a PowerPoint, that showed the students how our Shape Bug was created. The students drew along with the slides as our Shape Bug started out as a medium circle and grew to 4 medium circles with small shapes attached to it.

Here are some examples of the great Shape Bugs the students created.

Tech Art Stage Types

STAGE TYPES

& 

STAGE LINGO

This year's Tech Theatre class is focusing a great deal on theatre theory, as well as designing concepts for our upcoming school drama production.

One of the first topics the students learned about were the variety of stages and performance areas there are to act on.  

The 4 types of stages we learned about.

The students took notes off a Powerpoint and viewed a youtube video hosted by Krista Price that described the different types and uses for the performance spaces. 

(if interested in viewing the video copy the link below into your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L99g_Wg5Gh8&list=TLl6H9vFFaaSS-BPBIruvXWTeqkeuIyX5w

Today we went over the basic theatre terms and acting areas.

Rigging 

Batten

GOBO

Scrim

Cyclorama (CYC)

Taveler 

We have covered a lot this week and all this information will help the students design their floorplans next week.

Color Pencil Technique

Art Majors Experimenting w/ Color Pencils

The students' (both Art 2's and Art 3's) next project involves using color pencils to create points of emphasis or contrast in their drawings.  

There are 8 color pencil techniques the students tried out today.

1.Pressure Variations

2.Stippling

3.Cross Hatching

4.Layering

5.Pencil Tip Side

6.Color Changer

7.Impressed Line

8.Pencil Resist

For more information about Color Pencil techniques or if you want to try these techniques out on your own, check out the Crayola Website for full descriptions and steps.

Paste the link below into your URL bar and enjoy!

http://www.crayola.com/things-to-do/how-to-landing/colored-pencils.aspx 

5th Grade Collaboration Art

Semi-Circle Art

At the beginning of the year I like to do a collaboration artwork that allows me to asses each students' skill level, their ability to follow directions, and how well the students work together to create art work.

For this collaboration art project each student worked on an individual piece that was then combined with the artwork of others in the class.

The students were given a semi-circle template to decorate.  

The directions on the template told them write their names; to fill the space around their names using patterns and symbols that represented what each student did over the summer; and once they drew their designs in pencil to use marker to color in their art work.

Check out the beautiful collaboration artwork below and look for your student's artwork.

4 examples of students who did a great job at filling the space
and working with the markers.

Top Row is Mrs. Harris' Class
Middle Row is Mrs. Herron's Class
Bottom Row is Mrs. Fox's Class

If you get a chance to stop by our school, their lovely artwork is hanging above their lockers.