Putting everything in PERSPECTIVE

Grades 3-5 have been trying different perspective techniques in their artwork to creat the illusion of space. These are lessons I return to again and again because they offer some personal choices and connections for the students while giving them technical experience.

Let's start with third grade - they researched and selected a bird whose habitat is here in our state of Georgia. We drew the birds in great detail because they were in the foreground of the picture, and then to create an atmospheric perspective we used watercolor and the wet on wet technique to create a blurry, out of focus background, much like a photographer might do.

Fourth grade made drawings called "shape explosions" which help them practice connecting shapes to a vanishing point using a straight edge.

Fifth grade went a step beyond and made drawings using two vanishing points on a horizon line, called two-point perspective.

5th grade mask sculptures

Fifth graders took a dive into some ancient cultures by studying masks, which have been used in cultures around the world. People of Ancient Greece, Egypt, Asia, and the Americas created masks from natural materials for reasons like celebrations, storytelling, and memorials. Some masks were made to be worn, while others were symbolic.

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After looking at a variety of examples, students sketched ideas for human and animal masks using realistic and abstract styles. They selected a design and began work with 3D materials which we saved, like cardboard, marker caps, small boxes, and other doodads. We used liquid glue, string, and tape for most of our attaching, and I manned the hot glue gun for stubborn pieces. The kids were very creative in their designs and had a lot of fun using the wide variety of materials.

My example:

 Our supplies:

Gelli print snowflakes, 5th grade

"Snowflakes in a Rainbow" would be a great way to describe the effects of our 3-layered gelli prints. This was our very first time trying the gelli plates for printmaking, and we learned lots for the future. It is a tradition to cut paper snowflakes in my art room during the final days of the year, and we used those as our stencils for printing. We used Blick brand mixing acrylics in primary yellow, blue, and magenta on white sulphite paper. Here are some of our colorful results!

Clay cells in 5th grade

Fifth graders learn about the parts of a cell in science class, and if you think about it, a cell is very similar to abstract and nonobjective art - it is made up of shapes, lines, colors, and textures. We used clay techniques like slab, coil, modeling, adding, and subtracting clay. Students chose a plant or animal cell to illustrate on paper, then we created our clay cells that were glazed as a final step. I use Lizella clay, Crystaltex snow fire glaze, and Blick essentials gloss glazes.

This lesson was inspired by the work of @lasd_arts on Instagram.