Amazing Art

8th Grade Shading

From 8th Shading

What is shading and why do artist do it? Without the contrast of darks and lights we do not perceive form created on a two-dimensional surface. Simple enough - you can think of it as science, art, math or magic... how neat is it to create the illusion of depth and space on a flat surface?We learned about 6 techniques for creating space when drawing with pencil:
accent line
smudge
scumble
hatching/cross-hatching
stipple
tonal
We also looked at the characteristics of each technique and when it would be appropriate to use it. For instance, when drawing marshmallows you would want to use 'smudge' because it creates a smooth edge.

From 8th Shading

For a still-life of blocks you would use hatching or cross-hatching.

From 8th Shading

Good shading comes down to practice - it is a skill just like scales or dribbling. It is all about controlling the tool you are using.See some examples of student work.

Flexible Love

Not your Reader's Digest Christmas Tree

I remember when people used to make tabletop Christmas trees out of folded Reader's Digest magazines.  If you are feeling nostalgic, you can find the directions here.  Now artists are not only creating books as art, but using books as art.  Section 8A was able to take a break from their ATCs and look at the work of Australian artist Nicholas Jones.  Visit his website.

Click to see examples of the 8th grade sculptures.  

Susan Jensen is another book sculptor, as is Zito Bedat.         

4th Grade - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

   

Reading clues section by section of a larger picture, making predictions each time a little more is revealed....

...until you see the whole picture.

The photos are from Carmen Lomas Garza's painting 'La Feria en Reynosa'.  Ms. Garza paints from childhood memories - traditions and celebrations.  

We also looked at 'Pull Boys' by Grandma Moses:

These are all examples of personal narratives - stories about a special time.  By showing a little bit of 'La Feria en Reynosa' at a time, we learned how important supporting details are in telling the whole story.  By concentrating on one small part of the painting we can write about the sensory images - the sizzling of the meat on the grill, the crackling fire, the smell of fresh bread....

We will start drawing and writing our personal narratives next week in class.

3rd Grade - Painted Ladies

We read the book "Oh Were They Ever Happy" by Peter Spier. In the book the Noonan children decide to paint their house while their parents are gone for the day. After drawing thier own homes, we looked at examples of 'painted ladies' - Victorian buildings built during Queen Victoria's time, painted in three or more contrasting colors. The colors are used to bring out the decorative ruffles and flourishes.

The students were able to design their own painted ladies for watercolors.

Click to see student examples.

Watch the Nippon commercial from Maylasia and the Sony Bravia commercial made in Scotland. How did they do that? Color your world!

6th Grade Texture

The 6th graders have been practicing line drawings - using a tool to make a mark on the paper. 

We also looked at how artists use lines:

edge and outline

expressive line

implied line

texture and pattern

We spent the next two class periods practicing drawing controlled lines and using lines to create patterns, and patterns to create texture.

                 

Click to see some student examples.

5th Grade - Slits and Strips

The 5th graders are starting samplers for paper weaving (like an example on a bedside table at Riverside at the Farnsley Moremen Landing) , starting with a simple Over/Under and changing variables... right now that means the width of the slits and the strips.  If the students feel comfortable enough they may accept the challenge to try both a twill and herringbone weave.

 twill                          herringbone

Did you know that the Jacquard Loom is a distant ancestor of 20th-century computers?  The Jacquard mechanism, the first practical application of punch-cards (binary system), had significance beyond the textile industry.  It offered solutions to problems faced by 19th-century inventors of computing machines and can be considered a distant ancestor of 20th-century computers.

8th grade challenge

Our version of a 'quickfire' or 'short cut challenge'... create a paper landscape that includes a fence, an animal and a tree.

Click to see some student examples.

Some of the artists examples we looked at include:

Richard Sweeney

Jen Stark

Peter Callesen

Nishimura

Laura Cooperman

Su Blackwell

           

5th Grade - Paintings of objects

Wow - the 5th graders have done a great job painting the still life set up in the art room. A still life gives the artist a chance to study a subject and offers a great way to practice observation and drawing skills. The still life was set up to look for line, texture and form. The students were able to change the color of an object in their final painting.

Click on the link to see some more student examples.

4th grade landscapes - watercolor techniques

Playing with paint on paper to create different effects. Techniques we are experimenting with include:

wet on wet,wet on dry and dry brush

8th Paper Sculptures

Task: with a sheet of heavy-weight drawing paper and a pair of scissors, create a sculpture. This opens up a great discussion on what does the term 'sculpture' mean. A collaborative definition leads us to 'a 3-dimensional artwork created by molding hard or plastic material.'
What makes paper plastic? All the ways you can manipulate it:

• cutting
• creasing/scoring/folding
• curling
• tearing
• piercing
• weaving
• winding
• wrinkling/crumpling
• layering
• joining
• modeling
• casting
• decoration
• combining with other media

click on the link to see student samples.

Some more fun with color...3rd grade

Are you familiar with the song 'Colors' by Kira Willey?  "I am green today, I chirp with joy like the cricket's song".  You may know it as the music in the Dell commercial.

What color are you?

If you could only have 3 colors...

...to paint a beautiful flower garden, what three colors would you ask for?  Pink, turquoise, green, orchid... those were some of the answers. After listing some student choices on the board, the students were able to vote for the ones they wanted.  Strategy among the tables led the students to the grouping of red, yellow and blue.  The primary colors.  After some fun with food coloring and water - we made a color wheel on the board and in our sketchbooks.

Check back next week when we experiment with color mixing.

Pictures Tell a Story

The fourth graders spent some time thinking about places they have been and starting a landscape sketch in their sketchbook. Thinking of a landscape in the simplest of terms as 'an expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view' they drew a place special to them. The next drawing is to zoom in and capture themselves in the scene.
Vocabulary included landscape, background, foreground and midground. Next week we will look at examples from other artists.

Use of Tools and Materials

The 5th grade is starting the year by covering some rules and procedures for painting.

• How to use a brush
• The parts of a brush
• Cleaning the brush (Why is this important? Watch the video to find out.)
• Using the paints (make sure you keep them neat for the next person)

They are using the classroom still-life to practice drawing. Then they will use their sketch as a map for their painting.

Video:

Young Sloppy Brush by Fugleflicks

First Full Day of School

First full day - Thursday classes.
The 8th graders are working on still-life drawings. A still-life is set up in the art room and it is almost overwhelming... so to help the students zoom in we began working with viewfinders and composition.

Other drawing tips:
Sighting - using points of reference on the viewfinder and using their pencils for angles.
Proportional reasoning - again using the viewfinder and establishing quadrants, looking for relationships between size, forms and placement.Drawing the negative space - sometimes we bring too much previous knowledge to the task. We all know that the seat of a stool is round, so when we add perspective to the drawing we have to fight the urge to draw what we know instead of what we see. Sometimes it is easier to draw the space around a teapot than to draw a teapot.

The 6th graders started with lines on paper. After looking at each other's paper, the students were able to generate a 'line dictionary' based on the examples they saw in the drawings. The list described types of line (curvy, zigzag, thick, thin...), orientations/directions (horizontal, vertical, perpendicular, intersecting) meaning (sad, happy, soft, shy) and representational (a butterfly, a marching band, clapping.) More next week.