Friday, October 30, 2015

Layered Line Landscape

I saw this lesson at
I checked it out and thought this would be a great one day lesson on a day in middle school when we had over 25+ shadows visiting the school. I wanted the prospective students to be able to participate in a lesson. So, we put on hold our regular lessons and did a fun Layered Landscape of Lines. this was a fun lesson because everyone was able to participate. No fail and the results were super. 
Check it out. We used 9 x 12 white drawing paper and assorted colored markers. I bet you can put your spin on this lesson to and have one heck of a finished product.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015

Monster Mash Monsters




Monsters are always fun.
They require 2 things from kids.
1-Imagination
2-Art Supplies
 
First, the kids talked about monsters.
Then, I showed some examples of monsters.
 
Kids drew monsters with pencil.
Kids used oil pastels to outline the monsters.
Kids painted the background with tempera.
Kids painted the monsters.

Some of the art I mounted on black paper.
Some of the art I mounted on white paper.
I think I sent the art back to one class before I had mounted the art of the other class. 
I guess I forgot what color that I had used on the first class.
I think that I like black best.
Spooky!
 

 

 
 
 












 
Cute video for kids below.
Gummy Bear doing the MONSTER !


 
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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Hard Edged Still Life




  1. I had the students look at a still life of assorted bottles.
  2. We then discussed how to draw them on 12 x 18 white drawing paper.
  3. Draw basic shapes first.
  4. They were to draw at-least 5 lines over their still life that was already drawn in pencil.
  5. Those five lines could be vertical, horizontal or diagonal.
  6. Once that was complete, they chose a color to help create the abstract'ish  hard-edged still life.
  7. It was interesting watching them choose which shapes to color in to get some of the bottles to stand out.
  8. We used Mr. Sketch scented markers for this lesson.
Projects turned out pretty cool.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Warming up to Ghosts!


Warm Color Ghosts with First Grade
 
I had a piece of a class for this project, so I chose to do something simple.
We reviewed warm colors.
Kids drew ghosts.
Kids outlined ghosts with black markers.
Kids painted the background with warm colors.
Kids painted the ghost features with warm colors.
 
BOO YAA!
 






 
Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.
What a great song for kids!
 

 
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Monday, October 26, 2015

Silouette Telephone Poles, Jason Messinger Style

 
So, I was on Pinterest the other day and ran across this artist
Jason Messinger has some really cool stuff. Do you know him? If not check him out. I decided to use his art with telephone poles and create and have the kids create a silhouette perspective. 
We discussed Jason's Art, Silhouette and Perspective 
I had the students create a perspective drawing of a telephone pole.
We used pencil to sketch, Sharpie to color in and watercolor for background. These are simple but powerful. Learn more about Jason Messinger below. He is all over the internet. This is just a snip-it of his work. Love his style.
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Jason Messinger Artist Statementhttp://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/j/jasonmessingerart/artist_statement.html  

Jason Messinger creates ceramic art that straddles the cool allure of pure abstraction and the hot recognition of representation. His art explores the fuzzy borders between representation and abstraction, identity and design, meaning and beauty. Sculptures that are abstract in shape but with a figurative sensibility, and tile murals with symbolic imagery that tease the viewer into becoming complicit in their meaning.

The sculptures are solidly present while expressly fluid. They change appearance with the viewers' perspective, transforming in shape and direction. Each face of the work functions like movements of a dance, with unexpected turns. Different perspectives on the work converse with each other, creating a circular narrative of motion and stillness, form and emotion.

The artist approaches ceramic tile with a painter's concerns and a sculptor's experience. The idea of abstraction on the edge of identification permeates the work. Images often hint at language, symbol, map, comic strip, or hieroglyph; but only hint, as the symbols remain undefined, transitional. His multi-tile works are modular, allowing any configuration and sequence of the tiles. The murals exhibit a circular narrative, open-ended to interpretation. The viewer becomes complicit in constructing the meaning. Mounting systems allows one to easily change the position of the tiles, and thus reset the 'narrative'.

The artist's paintings and drawings on paper in ink, pastel, and watercolor, re-imagine the world into patterns and diagrams of movement and color, light and gesture. 
    

Friday, October 23, 2015

A Van Gogh Fail


As most of you know, not all art projects end up being a success.  The paper quilling below was an outright fail for my 6th graders.  If I would have used smaller construction paper, I think we would have seen success.  I allotted 5 days for the project, but the 6th graders were at the end of their grading period at the end of the 5th day.  They had to leave my class for music enrichment for the next 9 weeks.  I tell you, the project was a big fail!
 
 Here is one that almost got finished.
Hopefully, you can tell it is Van Gogh's Starry Night.
 
 
First, give the kids a piece of 9 x 12 sheet of construction paper.  I made the mistake of giving the kids a 12 x 18 sheet.  This was way too big!
 
Then, I cut the strips too small.  I had read to cut them 1cm by 6 cm.  These were way too short.  I suggest 1 cm by 12 cm.  Also, I separated the colors into different crates.  This organization method provided the kids with easy access to strips of their choice.
 
 
Next, I would suggest having a bowl of glue that kids can dip the strips in.  We glued each strip with our bottle of Elmer's and this took forever.  You would choose a strip and then roll it, and then, glue it.  It was so much easier to dip the strip in glue and roll.
 
Here are a few good attempts.
 
 
 
Here is the stack of the unfinished project.
 
 
In hindsight, I would change up several things.
I would use smaller paper. (9x12)
I would use larger strips. (1cm x 12cm)
I would have small bowls of glue for each child to use to dip their strips in.
I would talk and stress the importance of rolling some paper tightly and rolling some paper loosely.
 
Putting an end to this project with a "Seven Nation Army" by Jack White.
 

 
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