Fifth Grade Double Self-Portraits and Third Grade Cityscapes!

Fifth grade just completed their mixed media self-portrait unit inspired by the artist Chuck Close!  We call these double self-portraits because they drew themselves and created value using their finger prints and black ink!  They learned about the artist Chuck Close and his various art processes for creating realistic portraits and then incorporated them into their artwork.  This unit taught so many skills and art vocabulary such as drawing correct facial proportions, color value, using a ruler, painting pattern, contrast, and oil pastel techniques.  The students and I really enjoyed this art smart jam packed unit!  Take a look at these beauties!

 

Here are some that are hanging in the main hallway at school! :)

Next up! Third grade learns about the big ol' city!  First we discussed the different characteristics between a cityscape and a landscape.  Then we explored America's top 10 cityscapes to get an idea of what cityscapes look like around our country.  This was a great geography lesson as well because students had to name what state each city was in.  They did a fabulous job!  Then it came time to create their own cityscape.  Students drew their cityscape on a foam printing plate and then cut along the top edge.  For the background, students learned about cool and warm colors and the horizon line.  We define the horizon line as the line where the sky meets the land.  After the students drew their horizon line, they used cool and warm color schemes to paint above and below the horizon line using watercolors.  Next, we learned about the art process of printmaking, inked our cityscape printing plate, and printed the first print above the horizon line and a ghost print on the bottom of the horizon line.  A ghost print is when you re-print the plate without re-inking it so that it has a faded look.  These two prints represent the cityscape above the horizon line and the reflection of the city in the water below the horizon line.  These turned out so beautiful!  You can see some of them below and in the front office when you visit school!

Second Grade Giuseppi Arcimboldo Inspired Self-Portraits

Second graders just finished a self-portrait collage lesson where we discovered the artist Giuseppi Arcimboldo.  Arcimboldo was known for his painted portraits of people made up of objects such as books, flowers, vegetables, and other plants.  We began our exploration of the artist through playing a game with the Smart board where the students could practice the concept of collaging a human portrait using various vegetables.  Then, the students were on their way cutting images from family and garden magazines to use in their portrait collage.  They turned out to be so unique! It was a funny lesson that had us all giggling all throughout art class!

Here is a look of some that are on display in the main hallway! They sure are getting a lot of attention from the teachers here at BES.... everyone thinks they are so creative!

Fourth Grade Takes A Turn With Gelatin Prints!

Our big idea for the month of October is Environment. For fourth grade, we are learning how our environment can inspire our art as well as be used to create our art. We had a fabulous time making prints using the gelatin printmaking method. The students loved it so much that they wanted to know how they could do it at home! So here is what you need: A box of Knox unflavored gelatin (you can get it from any grocery store), a baking pan to hold the gelatin, water based printing ink (you can get from Hobby Lobby or any craft store), a brayer to roll the ink (any craft store), aluminum foil to roll the ink out, and lots of soft foliage like leaves to use in the printing process.

Step 1: Prep your gelatine printing plate by placing 2 cups of water in a pot and 4 packets of gelatin powder (4 tbsp). Heat water up to dissolve the gelatin and stir consistantly so it doesnt burn to the bottom! Once the water is hot, pour it into your baking pan and place in the frige to harden for at least 12 hours.

Step 2: roll out your ink first on the foil and then roll ink onto the gelatin until the ink on the gelatin is opaque.

Step 3: Lay your leaves onto the inked gelatin plate. Yarn works great too!

Step 4: Place paper over the leaves and gently rub the back of the paper. You are trying to pick up all of the ink around the leaves to create your negative print. Pull your negative print.

Step 5: Blot any extra ink not picked up from the negative print and then carefully peel away the leaves from the gelatin.

Step 6: Lay a second peice of paper down on the gelatin to create your positive print.

Step 7: Do steps 1-6 again and again!! Have fun!

Here are some that are now on display in the main hallway! They look so beautiful and it was such a fun way to teach negative and positive space to fourth grade! I hope that you have fun doing these at home :)

Teachers Make Art, Too!!!

Yes... it's TRUE! I love having the teachers come in some afternoons to decompress and have fun with art! The day doesn't always end for us when the students leave so it is important for us to take some time to sharpen the saw through getting creative. Fourth grade will be doing a lesson on positive and negative space by creating gelatin prints using elements of nature (leaves, flowers, vines, etc.). So I invited the teachers to come try out the process after school yesterday. Here is what we did! :)

 

 

I am so excited to do these with fourth grade this Thursday and Friday!

Fourth Grade Wire Self-Portraits

Fourth grade just completed their first art piece of the year... how exciting! We started off the unit discussing the artist Alexander Calder and his wire portraits. We then discussed the idea of a continuous contour drawing, a line drawing where the drawing tool is never lifted from the paper, and how the wire portraits use continuous contour lines. We practiced creating continuous contour line drawings of our self-portraits using the paint program on the smart board! So FUN!

Next, the students began using the wire medium to start their abstract self-portraits.

This project was so fun! Using wire as an art medium was unique to the students and myself and it could not have gone any better! Come check out the display of some of the wire portraits in the art display case at school.

Kinders Paint!

Last week the Kindergarteners had their first painting experience in the art room! This is always exciting for both the students and myself. I was very impressed! There were no major spills, messes, or mixed up paints in the paint cups! HUGE deal here because this shows me that they are ready for all of the messy fun to be had in the art room at school. The project they are working on is their self-portraits. They start by tracing a head shape, painting it and a neck by choosing and using the right skin tone for their self-portrait, and then using other colors to paint their background and shirt.

This week we went over what we began last week. The kinders had such a good memory and were able to tell me what a "self-portrait" was in their own words. This week we talked about our hair and facial features such as our eyes, nose, and mouths. I showed them how to use the art materials such as oil pastels, glue, and scissors to create facial features and hair for the self-portraits. Below are some of the artworks in progress. I can't wait to see them completed next Monday when we create shape patterns in the background! 

*If your student has not brought in their art shirt yet, please do this ASAP so that they are ready for the art room each week. Thank you!!*

Back At It!

Today was my last day of introducing students to all of the new routines in the art room. This means that everyone in the whole school has had their first art class of the school year! The first art class is a good time to go over introductions and expectations but it is also important to get them started on creating artwork. As I have mentioned before, I love doing collaborative art the first week to show the students how important they all are individually and what awesome things they can get accomplished when they all work together.

"Meet Our Colorful Students"

For this lesson, 2nd through 5th grades created self-portraits. The catch was that they had to use the color of the table they chose to sit at for the year. So people who sat at purple table used purple markers, purple crayons, and purple colored pencils and so on. We discussed what a self-portrait was and then got started on a little color theory. Second and third grades learned about color value. Their challenge was to experiment with the different drawing materials at their table to make both dark and light values of their color. Grades four and five took it a step further and learned about analogous color schemes. Analogous colors are colors that are neighbors on the  color wheel. Ex. Purple and red, green and blue, etc. They had to start with the color of the table they sat at and then they could choose one analogous color to go to and finish their self-portrait. These analogous color schemes helped the large mural transition from one color to the next. Ex. Green, green and blue, blue. This was an awesome lesson because it introduced new concepts while also reviewing art vocabulary that I knew some of them had already learned last year.

Kindergarteners and first graders also have to use the color of the table they sat at, however, they did line drawings. For first graders, this was an awesome review of different lines that we discussed last year. For kindergarteners, it helped me to see what they already knew about color and lines and determine each students' fine motor skill development.

I worked with a few students after school putting this mural all together. I am so thrilled at how it looks and can't wait to hear about the students reactions when they go to school tomorrow to see it for the first time all together. It sure has a "WOW" factor to it!! Parents please come by to see it in person!

*Special "THANK YOU" to the blog Elementary Art Fun for this awesome first week lesson idea!*

http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/back%20to%20school