Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists: February 2016

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Paper sculpture buildings

Kindergarteners have spent a couple of sessions lately looking at examples of architecture and drawing buildings using combined shapes. Next, we turned these flat designs into 3-D designs with paper folding techniques - some were demonstrated by me, and others they figured out by trial, error, and success! They love this lesson, every time. Our art show company, Artome, donates mat board inserts to the art room and they make perfect bases.

Scholastic Teacher ARTicle & Artsonia update

So happy to be included in this month's Scholastic Teacher magazine! Kindergarten art, inspired by Alma Thomas, is the topic. The link to the original blog post is here: http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2013/08/colors-and-shapes-in-nature-kdg.html

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Sneak peek of Free heART Friday!

Sooooo... I've been planning this big art hunt for the Friday before Valentine's Day. Silly me didn't check the calendar and as it turns out we have a teacher workday! No worries - we will just do it on Thursday and pretend :).

Here are a few previews of some of the art "drops" classes have been working on...

Lidded pinch pots, 2nd grade

This lesson was inspired by a post from handmadecharlotte.com - I just loved the little nose handles and faces painted on the lids! After pinching our pots and texturizing the sides, we turned them upside down on a slab and cut a slightly larger round lid. We scored and slipped the clay to attach the nose/ handle. A coat of tempera paint was the finishing touch after firing.

These will be wonderful to hold small treasures.

Side view:

Kindergarten Valentines 2016

Stamp printing gadgets with tempera paint was the first step in creating these joyous valentines.

The next step was cutting them out, gluing to a background, and adding lines to represent the "love or energy" coming out. We can only feel love, but how do we think it may look if we could see it coming from our hearts? Expressive lines!

Happy hearts day!

Inspiring Artist Quotes

"I always loved art teachers because they were so bizarre. They were like the homeless people of the faculty -- all disheveled, wearing smocks, covered in paint, always digging through the garbage, looking for bottles and egg cartons and things." -Ted Alexandro

"Give me a museum and I'll fill it." - Pablo Picasso

"If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint." - Edward Hopper

"Creativity takes courage." - Henri Matisse

"One eye sees, the other feels." - Paul Klee

"I paint life as I would like it to be." - Norman Rockwell

"The way to get started is to stop talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs, but all I have done before the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy-five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create: a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign myself 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing' (Gakyo-rojin)" - Katsushika Hokusai

"Word Wall"

Elements of Design:
Line -a path made by a moving point
Shape - an area defined by its outline, geometric or organic
Form - a three-dimensional shape
Value - the lightness or darkness of an object
Color - hues on a spectrum; we use a color wheel made of primary, secondary, and intermediate colors
Texture - the way something feels or appears to feel
Space - the illusion of depth in an artwork

Figure - a body form or shape

Composition - an arrangement of lines, shapes, colors, etc. on a surface

Craftsmanship - using materials correctly and taking care in the production of a piece of art so that it is neatly presented

Studio - a room or space where an artist produces and stores work

Portfolio - a collection of work, or the container that holds the collection

Positive Space - the shape or object that is the focus

Negative space - the area around the positive space; also "leftover" space or background

Media - materials used to make art. Most of our art in the classroom is one, or a combination of, the following:

Drawing: pencil, ink, pastel, chalk, charcoal

Painting: tempera or watercolor

Printmaking: creating multiple images by transferring ink from a stamp or plate

Collage: shapes that are cut and pasted to a surface

Sculpture: clay, metal, cardboard, or other 3-D materials

Textiles: stitchery or weaving

Technology: photography, computer art

Styles of art -

Realistic: objects look as they do in real life

Abstract: objects are based on real-life, but are changed artistically

Nonobjective: a design; no recognizable objects are found other than lines, shapes, colors, etc.

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