Watercolor Sampler

In preparation for our Op art paintings, the fourth grade classes worked through a watercolor sampler, trying out 11 of the most common tips, tricks, and techniques they would need to know in order to be successful. This would be a great time to gift watercolor paints and paper to your budding artist!

4th grade - Op Art project

Now that we have learned what Op art is, we are ready to make an Op art of our own!

This artwork involves so many steps that it will take us at least 2 weeks to complete it!

Each student used a practice paper to plan out two images of the same place showing some major change.  It may be a picture of a playground in the summer, and the same playground in the winter.  Or it could be a tree before and after it was split by lightning!  The goal is to have something in both images that can be recognized as the same thing.  We called this the HARDSCAPE.

Once the plans were complete, the students drew out both pictures on white paper.  We are currently in the process of painting them.  Ask your son/daughter how he/she is doing at keeping up with the class.  I encourage students who start to fall behind to come in at recess and work to catch up with the class.

I have a few students who have moved on to the next phase.  Once the paintings are dry, they are chopped into strips, then rearranged in an alternating pattern on a backing paper.  Once that is completed and dry, the artwork will be accordion folded and glued onto a final backing paper.

When completed, the finished piece should be hard to comprehend when looking at it straight on, but will have two artworks that can be seen separately when it is tilted back and forth.

Kindergarten - Week 4

This week the kindergarten students played with modelling clay. This was an open ended art assignment, again. They were encouraged to try everything from animals to alphabet letters. After one item was built, it was smashed to make the next thing the student could imagine.

The point of this assignment is to give the students time to work on fine motor skills. These are the skills that allow a person to hold a pencil and write, tie shoe laces, and to do other skills that require the fingers to work together on small and coordinated efforts. Every time a small child gets a hold on some clay or other malleable material (such as playdoh), he/she will spend a lot of effort trying to force the fingers to work together to make recognizable objects. This pays of in large dividends when the child finds he/she is able to then hold a pencil and force it to move in very precise ways to write letters.

Op Art

The term OP ART is a shortening of a style of art known as Optical Illusion Art.  The definition of Op Art (according to Art Lex) is;

A twentieth century art movement and style in which artists sought to create an impression of movement on the picture surface by means of optical illusion. It is derived from, and is also known as Optical Art and Perceptual Abstraction. 

 Op art falls into two main categories.  The first is ABSTRACT and the other is PERCEPTUAL.

ABSTRACT OP ART

Abstract means an image that does not look like a real world object or image.  For instance, it does not look like a house, a tree, or a person.  Instead, the image is comprised of shapes, lines, and colors.

Blue-Black

Victor Vasarely (French, born Hungary, 1908-1997) was an abstract Op artist.

Blue/Red

1983

Victor Vasarely

Intake

Bridget Riley (British, 1931-)

 

Cataract


 Bridget Riley

Perceptual Op Art

This refers to art that shows some impossibility in perception.  The most famous artist in this category is Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972).

 

Relativity

This is only one of his many Op art works.  I would encourage you to explore the world of Escher by clicking on this link to  The Official M.C. Escher Web Site.  You can also find the link in one of the lists in the right column.

Notice that you can perceive (see) a seeming impossibility.  People going up and down stairs from different perspectives.  This would be impossible on earth due to the force of gravity.

Kindergarten - Week 3

This week I allowed the kindergarten students to paint freely with the watercolor paints. The lesson for the week was 'How to take care of paints'. This might seem like an overly simple lesson, especially if you are one of those blessed parents who allow your children access to art supplies at home.

However, there is a growing number of households who simply do not allow little children to get a hold of any markers or paint for fear of the mess that would be created. I have MANY kindergarten (and even older) students who have never touched a paintbrush before and don't know how to go about using it. It makes me sad to recall the little boy who asked me "What do I do with it?" when I handed him a paintbrush. Or the girl who wanted to know how to get the paint from the tray to the paper.

Because it is a first experience for so many, the only lesson was how to get the color onto the paper, and how to keep the colors in the trays from getting all 'yucky'. I encouraged them to use their imaginations to create the painting. I gave no suggestions, because I would end up with a classroom full of whatever I had said. Please note some of my favorite examples of kindergarten painting. There is a sunset, a soccer game, a pet(?), a tribute to the US Air Force, and a rainbow crowned campfire among others.

3rd grade - composition

Our next 3rd grade project deals with a Principle of Art; COMPOSITION. We discussed the idea that 'Composition' or 'to compose' means to carefully select which parts to put in, and which parts to leave out. A musical composer does this by selecting which notes, rhythms, and harmonies to use, and which to leave out. A letter writer 'composes' the letter by deciding what to write about and what to leave unsaid. An artist or photographer 'composes' by carefully selecting which elements of the image to include in the artwork or photo, and which elements to be left out.

The students chose a reference image and created a 'view finder' to place over the image. Then, each student chose a "zoomed" in part of the original image to turn into their own personal art. In this way, the students are choosing, or 'composing' the elements to be included in the artwork!

Snowflakes!

A couple of Fridays ago, we had finished an assignment and didn't want to start a new one with the weekend looming. We decided, therefore, to have a 'Friday Fun Day'. On 'Friday Fun Day', we simply choose something fun and artsy to do that doesn't require too much pre planning or learning. This time, we made snowflakes! The students really had a blast and made some truly beautiful snowflakes! All of it was done without using pre-designed patterns.

Congratulaitons on artistic excellence!

Congratulations to the artists on the excellence board! These artworks are the best examples of proportion, details, and shading!


And here is the completed example from the front board.

Sra. Luiz's class Still Life Project

Mrs. Hendricks' class Still Life Project

Miss Bowman's class Still Life Project

Mrs. Card's class Still Life Project

Mrs. Larsen's class Still Life Project

4th grade student examples of shading a ball

Here they are! Fabulous examples of shading a ball! Now that we have learned all the separate parts (proportion, details, and shading), I am really looking forward to seeing the still life project completed!

kindergarten - week 2

This week the Kindergarten students drew pictures of themselves! We talked about all the parts that belong on a head, then the students looked at themselves in mirrors while drawing. They all had a ton of fun and the pictures turned out really fantastic!

4th grade - Name Art

Here are some photos of the student name tags, finally! Sorry it has taken so long to post this, I have had a cold all week, so I haven't had the energy for posting.

The name tags turned out really fantastic! Well done, everyone!

Seeing with artist's eyes, aka using the Elements of Art

This week all 4th grade classes will begin their work in the art room. Our drawing lessons will start with a review lesson on seeing the world with 'artist' eyes. An artist sees the world around him/her as an arrangement of basic elements. The Elements of Art are the basic building blocks of reproducing what we see around us.

There are 7 basic Elements;
1. Shape - everything in the world can be simplified into basic starting shapes for sketching the layout of an artwork.
2. Line - can be used to create surface contours, shapes, textures, and more.
3. Color - creates mood and energy in an artwork.
4. Texture - the way something feels when you touch it (real texture), or looks like it would feel if you could touch it (implied texture). It can lend a sense of realism and variety.
5. Value - the scale of light to dark of any given hue. A gray scale is also called a value scale. Value creates mood, contrast, and variety.
6. Space - a feeling of depth. Basics of space are ... size, placement, detail, and overlap.
7. Form - 3D! Creates realism in an artwork.

The trick it to not only recognize and see the elements in the world around us, but to then manipulate them on paper to create a pleasing composition. But more on that later!
For now, practice at home looking for and identifying the Elements of Art around you!

Welcome to a new term!

I would like to welcome the 4th grade classes to the art room!

Today we went over the rules in the art room. There are only 3...

1. Whisper voices. Please keep conversations quiet so that others can concentrate on their art!
2. Listening bodies. It is easier to listen if your body is still and you are looking at the speaker.
3. The GOLDEN RULE! Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

If you fail to follow the rules, you will...

1. receive a warning. This is a freebie.
2. be moved to a new seat in the room. At this point, you will lose some points.
3. be sent to think time. You cannot come back until you have a written plan to fix the problem.

Hairspray fixative for chalk pastel projects

Second grade students are bringing home their portfolios today.  Inside the portfolio, there is a pastel landscape.  Pastels are extremely fun, but also extremely messy.  They will never stop being messy unless you spray a fixative on them.

Artist fixatives are expensive and smelly; but fortunately, there is an alternative!  Spray aerosol hairspray 6-8 inches above the artwork and let it dry!  If there is still chalk coming off on your fingers, spray it again.  The hairspray acts like a glue to hold the chalk in place.  If you don't have any of this type of hairspray in the house, you can find it at the dollar store.  I don't recommend pump hairspray because the droplets coming out are much larger and can leave dark spots all over the artwork.  Aerosol creates an even, fine mist that works very well.