Hundertwasser inspired

Hundertwasser inspired second graders created these motifs based on nature. The first step was to create painted paper with found objects (so fun!) then cut up and collage. I encourage them to do an "art paste sandwich" (art paste, paper, art paste) which helps the paper lay flat and mixes the tempera painted paper as you work. I found these fun one inch punches at Michael's a while back, you'll see lots of polka dots popping up in our work recently :)

Picasso Inspired 1St graders

Look closely, do you see a face?! I do!

Loosen up, get those creative juices flowing. Great Picasso warm up silly face drawing activity from Scholastic art submission. Check it out! http://art.scholastic.com/

Following silly face warm up, I did a demo on taking ideas from multiple sketches and creating a final oil pastel drawing on a large sheet of paper. I actually pulled ideas during the demo from their drawings... which was interesting trying to recreate a child's drawing, not as easy as it sounds! ha!

Students created their own 10 x 20 inch Picasso inspired face- then folded. numbered into four parts, and cut! Students kept their own number 1 and...

...dropped 2, 3, and 4 into the boxes. This was challenging for some students (correct number on each piece of the drawing, cutting into four pieces, and dropping it in the correct box.. but we're learning!) Also, some students had trouble detaching themselves from their original drawing. This was a good introduction to collaborative artworks, and well.... sharing!

Students then took turns drawing a mystery facial features from each box to create a new mixed up, jux-ta-posed portrait. I heard a lot of funny comments during this activity such as, " oHhhH! _______, I got your nose!" Once the students arranged their facial parts in an  appealing order, they glued.

Construction paper mosaic tiles for frame.

Then students added more oil pastel- some students were missing a nose, maybe an eye.. good opportunity to "doctor it up!" They loved that.

Next, we watercolored. We used traditional, glitter, and Metallic watercolors. So fun. (we did this step for two days, allowing the watercolor to dry and be layered up adding interesting texture.)

Last step, a Mosaic border... framing all of a specific element of their drawing- very interesting choices as this stage in the project. We focused on patterns.

Love the metallic watercolors!

This is in my top picks for favorite lessons this year, so fun. It took us about 6 class periods.

Paul Klee Inspired

credit:http://www.squidoo.com/paul-klee. Original "Senecio" by Paul Klee

The Kindergartners traced shapes on orange construction paper to create a portrait inspired by Paul Klee's original. We talked about cubism and use of shape and color. First traced in pencil, then outlined in ink. Next, we added oil pastel crayon and chalk. Then, watercolor wash in warm tones... and finally rolled tempera paint (also in warm tones.)

Starry Night Interpretations

Second Grade interpretations of Van Gogh's Starry night. My students really enjoyed this video, Van Gogh Starry Night which we viewed prior to starting the lesson. Day one, we talked about landscapes and sketched a mountain range, and sky scape. Day 2, we went in with oil pastel and outlined and added our own version of "mark making" to create rhythm after learning about Van Gogh's style of painting.  Day 3: We added textured swirls in the sky scape using glitter gel and tiny sequins. We also added a collaged element in the sky (swirls) and the foreground (plants and village buildings.) This lesson took between 4 and 5 class periods to finish, I set up centers in the room to allow my students to work at their own pace. This is something I hope to do more and more of, self directed, self paced, creative experiences.

Houses in Munich

I really enjoy the simplicity, and color choice in this particular drawing.

      

 Collaged "Houses in Munich' inspired by Wassily Kandinsky. The third grade students used oil pastels to achieve similar marks to Kandinsky's oil painted canvas. I demonstrated sketching the drawing out in pencil, then outlining in black oil pastel before adding color, so that some of the black oil pastel would smear into their other colors. Some students really enjoyed this aesthetic, others chose to keep their drawing very neat. To emphasis certain areas of the drawing, they added black construction paper cut into window, door, bridge, and building shapes. Some students just added a portion of black paper to a each building, others covered entire buildings, both good choices! The most challenging part of this drawing for the students was deciding how much collaged paper to add, I left it rather opened ended and followed up when they asked with "well, what do you think? Remember it's your drawing" ...many times. The never ending question!

Artist of the Month

Each month, Swallow Students will be studying a different Artist here in the art room. Some classes will study the artist at length, others may not depending on our unit sequence throughout year. This month we've been busy with Kandinsky!