Shape Cows with Patterns

Hi all!  I feel like it's been forever since I've posted!  With everything going on lately, it's been very difficult to find time...plus, my internet has been down at home!  With that being said, I have A LOT of stuff to share with you.

The first thing I'll share is what my kindergartners just finished up.  We did shape cows and practiced our patterns.  This was a project that I did last year with them as well.  The one little change I made was to have them use black crayons instead of black Sharpie to outline everything, in part to reinforce the wax resist technique and also because I'm running out of Sharpies this year!  I also had them make their patterns in black instead of allowing them to use colored crayons...just to change it up a bit.

Again, this is one of those projects that aligns with the Common Core Math standards...the one where kindergartners are supposed to be able to identify shapes.  I didn't know this, but apparently they don't do patterns anymore in kindergarten!  Patterns are supposed to be learned in Pre-K now, so this was also a good review of patterns.

I must apologize for the photographs of these.  They are very wrinkly because my students started these with a substitute, who grabbed the wrong paper.  If you ever want to know what watercolor paint looks like on cheap, 60 lb. drawing paper, here it is!

Currently, my students are participating in the Common Core Listening & Learning strand about weather and the seasons, so our current project in the works right now is a spring project.  Students are drawing themselves under an umbrella, and then we will be blowing blue paint with straws to make the rain!  Hopefully I'll be able to share those finished projects next week! :)

Studio Art: Cubist Superheroes!

I am SOOOOO excited to share these paintings!  My Studio students did an AMAZING job on these and I'm so happy with them!  Everyone really tried their hardest, and even if they didn't necessarily do a full cubist representation of their superhero, they definitely put a lot of time and effort into these paintings!

I have shared this project on the SmARTteacher website so you can head over there to find the note page I used for Picasso, the rubric and objectives for these paintings, and my powerpoint that I created and used (though it is in PDF format because it's so large I couldn't upload it to the website).  I also shared some progress photos in an earlier post...

But without further ado...here are the finished paintings students have handed in!  Once the rest finish, I'll share those as well in a future post!  Students have spent a total of 10 days on these, from start to finish.  We spent one day discussing Picasso, a day drawing out our superheroes, 1-2 days adding acrylic modeling medium / acrylic coarse pumice medium to create texture on our canvases, 2-3 days painting backgrounds, and 3-4 days painting the superhero itself.

Again, here are what the project guidelines were:

Project Guidelines: 

☐ You must choose a superhero or villain to depict in the cubist style. 

☐ Your painting must depict the subject from at least the waist up. 

☐ The subject needs to take up at least ¾ of your canvas. 

☐ You must use full color and value in your painting. 

☐ You must show knowledge of the cubist style: 

~ Multiple view points 

~ Use of geometric shapes 

☐ You must unify your background with the subject.

I will say that this project was a struggle for some students...the students who like everything to be perfect!  It's ironic...a lot of them were complaining that doing the observational drawings were hard...I figured the cubist paintings would be easier because (a) I let them draw from a picture and (b) they were supposed to break their figures down into geometric shapes... Now, I know the cubism style wouldn't necessarily be easier (it's usually harder to do something simple so well) but I figured they'd be more apt and able to be able to simplify their characters...either way, I still think they did a great job fulfilling the guidelines of the project!

Studio Art: 2-D Media Unit: Painting! (If Picasso Painted Superheroes...)

Last week on Friday, we started the second portion of the 2-D media unit, which happens to be painting.  On Tuesday, we talked about what paint is made of, the three different water based paints versus oil paint, and painting surfaces.  We also started to dive into the art criticism process.

Then, on Tuesday this week, we talked specifically about Picasso and cubism.  I gave students an additional note sheet that had notes for Picasso, as well as the objectives, checklist and rubric for the next project..."What if Picasso painted a superhero?"  Before beginning this, I showed them the Superhero Series by Mike Esparza, which is a direct idea steal from Pinterest.

The students are REALLY enjoying this so far.  Here are the project objectives and the checklist I gave students with their rubric:

Project Objectives: 

By the end of this project, I will be able to… 

1. Describe the characteristics of cubism. 

2. Discuss how life events affected Picasso’s artwork during his three artistic periods. 

3. Create a cubist representation of a super hero using acrylic paint. 

4. Identify the order in which a painting should be constructed in. 

Project Guidelines: 

☐ You must choose a superhero or villain to depict in the cubist style. 

☐ Your painting must depict the subject from at least the waist up. 

☐ The subject needs to take up at least ¾ of your canvas. 

☐ You must use full color and value in your painting. 

☐ You must show knowledge of the cubist style: 

~ Multiple view points 

~ Use of geometric shapes 

☐ You must unify your background with the subject.

What's ironic is that the students were starting to complain at the drawing assignments because they were having to draw realistically and use lots of value...now they're complaining that it's too hard to try and intentionally draw their superhero unrealistically!  

So far we are two days into this painting.  On Wednesday students had to draw out their superhero.  Some struggled, and some did quite well.  I encouraged them to simply break down their figure into basic shapes, and then to move body parts to be where they aren't...turn an eye ball sideways, put an eye in the middle of the forehead, put the mouth on the side of the mouth, etc.  I also pushed the idea of the multiple view points, which is a little bit harder of a concept for them to grasp, I think.

I then also introduced the students to acrylic gel medium, which was new to them and actually new to me.  Last year, when I was grading post-assessments with another fellow art teacher, one of the projects she did used these gel mediums to give texture, and I loved it!  I bought a large jar of the modeling paste and then three each of the coarse pumice and fine pumice gels.

We applied the gel medium using paint knives...

My painting is on the left.  I gave students a demonstration today on how to paint by blending colors on the canvas instead of in their paint palette.  A few students started painting their backgrounds today.

This was just a quick preview of these projects...tomorrow I am taking a day off for my 34 week sonogram.  I anticipate that the students will start finishing these up by Wednesday and Thursday next week.

On a side note, the Art 7 students have finished their first tag, but after I hung my brick wall today at the end of the day, I forgot to take a picture of it to share!  That will have to wait until Monday!

2nd Grade Shape Collages

After finishing up with our Chihuly project, my 2nd graders did these shape collages.  I gave them a "quiz".  On the paper, I had them circle all the geometric shapes on the first question.  On the second question, I asked them to circle the organic shapes.  On the back, I had them list the primary and secondary colors.

It seemed amazing to me that after doing a Chihuly project, where we specifically talked about organic shapes, most of the students still couldn't identify an organic vs. a geometric shape on paper!

Either way, after spending so much time on these collages, they know the difference now!  We spent a total of about 4 days...plus another catch up day for those who were absent.  Two days for the geometric collage, two days for the organic collage.  The inspiration for these collages can be found on Mr. Hall's blog.

For these collages, we talked a lot about having a variety of shapes in different sizes.  Even though these are abstract, we talked about having a good composition: don't put all the same shapes next to each other, don't put the same color next to each other, have a variety of sizes and shapes, etc.