Drawing like Dubuffet (2012)

Fifth graders studied gesture drawing and took turns posing for each other. Then we took it a step further by working in the style of French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet, who created "Raw Art" portraits that represented the personality more than the likeness. We drew a web of gesture lines all over the page, then searched the lines for figures and forms.  Kind of like "backwards figure drawing," you might say! This was lots of fun and brought on much creative storytelling - we also connected to the ELA standard of creating a setting and characters in our work. Original idea found at Kids Artists blog.

Socks with symmetry

First graders read the book A Pair of Socks by Stuart Murphy and illustrated by the iconic Lois Ehlert - it is a story about finding a matching pair. We learned how to create a matching pair of socks by folding our paper before cutting - a great trick for creating symmetry. We also talked about line, shape, and pattern.

Matisse's "room with a view"



Matisse's Interior with Egyptian Curtain

Second graders continued the theme of "-ishful thinking" as we examined the colorful window view paintings of Henri Matisse. We spent a few minutes imagining and visualizing window views before we dove right in to the tempera paint, reviewing tints, shades and color mixing right on our painting papers. Day 2 involved adding the oil pastel details - we learned how using different media gets different looks. Beauties!