Friday, March 30, 2012

Relief, Rubbings, Resist!


This second grade lesson is a new one for us this year, and I would like to thank
Room 9: Art! for the great lesson idea.  We constructed relief architecture facades using scrap matboard and cardboard, then used them as printing plates for crayon relief rubbings, with a final wash of watercolor resist over the top.  The two pieces have different looks - the relief is graphic and sharp, while the resist is atmospheric and soft.  The kids really enjoyed it!















Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Warm and Cool Dino silhouettes, Kindergarten



Each year, my kindergarten classes learn about art from prehistoric times. We imagined what it would have been like to live in the days of the dinosaur, and how artists would have created landscapes - it was fun to imagine together what the world may have looked like during these early days. I added a new lesson to the unit this year after admiring a similar project over at That Artist Woman blog.  I love the dino silhouettes against the colorful backgrounds, and I made a few changes to the lesson to make it a good fit for my kindergarteners, such as using chalk pastel.  We started by adding chalk pastel stripes to our construction paper - one piece with warm and the other cool.  I wish my camera wasn't a "dinosaur" and could catch the glowing beauty of the blended chalk.  We cut a sun and some reflections from the warm piece, with the cool background representing sky and water.


Next, we cut a large and small palm tree from a black sheet after discussing what type of environment dinosaurs liked.  We also cut a large and small dinosaur and placed them on the page to show depth of space.  Students drew their own dinos, and cutting them was quite a challenge, but I really like the personality they have when free drawn. I am not against the use of templates (a real hot button issue in certain circles : ) ), and I know the cutting would have been much easier if we had used them, but I just thought we'd give it a shot and I think they turned out really fun and cute.  My kindergarteners are pretty advanced this year, I must say. We did look at a few step-by-step "how to draw" sheets to help us choose which shapes to combine to make the dinosaurs we liked best. I think this lesson is a keeper!

a poster I salvaged from a giveaway pile, eons ago : )
                                     












Monday, March 26, 2012

Perspective drawing in 4th grade


Here are the results of our one-point perspective lesson - we used a vanishing point to create the illusion of depth of space.  Our self-portraits enhance the visual feeling of "near and far."








Thursday, March 22, 2012

a new first grade favorite!



First graders are completing their stamp print/collage "Street Scenes."  We made vehicles with the collage technique, and colorful backgrounds by printing different objects.
Thank you to the art teacher who posted this example on Artsonia , and also to the person who posted it on Pinterest where I came across it. This was one of my favorite results from this year - can't wait to hang them up!

stamp printing bubble wrap and making roads from toy truck tire tracks



a limo!