HALLOWEEN in Art Class.....

In art class, we've finished one Halloween project and started on another.  The first is one of my favorites; "Abstract Jacks" and it's a great way for them to learn shading and how to draw 3D......
They started by drawing their Jack o'lanterns BIG and included the directional lines of the pumpkin skin.....

 Then we used water to remove some of the paint creating highlights....

 And more paint to create shadows.....

And filled the inside with black for contrast.....

 For our second project, they wrote "Boo ya'll" in bubble letters and cursive and finished them with many, many Halloween-ish illustrations.  We'll be doing more on these today plus beginning Sarcophagi Cats!

I'm off to visit all my bloggity friends!
xx
Stephanie
I'll be back soon to share my garden done up for Halloween.....

What's been going on in art class.....

 Hello again, yep it's me, still alive and kickin'!  I wanted to poke my head in and share wat we've been doing in art class.  We just finished another month's session and so, I have two finished projects to share with ya'll.
I've been alternating the kinds of projects I'm doing- first we discuss what they want to do and I create a project around that while choosing an art skill to emphasize.  For this month, they wanted to do something on Mythical creatures, so I had them create a creature of their choice and design an environment for it.  The paper I gave them was broken up into comic book panels and we were focused on telling a story with pictures. 

And here's how they turned out- VERY cool, I think!

 Leila did a fairy......

 and Colson chose a dragon.....

Then for the "me" project, I chose to focus on art history that was also a nod to their LOVE of gold!  We did swirly trees and concentric circles and a brief study on Gustave Klimt and his style.  I love this project, have done it many times and no matter what, it always turns out gorgeous!

I guess you can tell I like gold too?

And voila!  A masterpiece!

I think that's more than enough from me for one day!  I have been doing my own painting (a little ;)) plus cooking for the Farmer's Market and I have fall flowers waiting to go in te ground...I can't believe it's October!  And you know what tat means?  The next art projects will be Halloween- oh yeah!

xx for now,

Stephanie

Matisse: Room wth a View

For our second project in art class, the kiddos and I talked about Henri Matisse and how he often chose to do paintings featuring many patterns in a room centering on a window and the view from it.  Maybe we'll do another Matisse inspired project- play with collage like he did too....maybe even pretend to be bedridden?  For this project, I had the students explore drawing several patterns and choose 2-3 to create their rooms with.  Also, both girls love cats, so I encouraged them to include a feline in their work as well.  These projects usually require two 1 1/2 hour classes to complete so they can apply a variety of thought and techniques to create really amazing work.

The first week was all about planning their art and then laying in the patterns with oil pastel.  It was important that they get this done the first day so they could do the water color portion the second week and have time to allow it to dry!

  The second week was a race to get finished on time- we even had to skip our wiggle break!  

We'll have an extra long one this week- maybe!

 

 And here's the finished results!

Happy September by the way- I'll be back soon!
xx
Stephanie

A little peek into what we've been doing in art class......

We're actually rounding up on the fourth week of classes, and to be truthful, I feel lucky to even have pictures to share.  That's how scattered I've felt lately!  But I did take pictures, and I actually have a moment to share them with you guys!
We started this project by drawing butterflies onto card stock and them tracing them in rows- which I then masked off into strips...

 

 Then they chose two colors next to each other on the color wheel and 

proceeded to paint fragments of their butterflies....

 

 pulling the tape off and remasking until it was all painted

finishing them off with a border using a tint of one of their colors to frame the quote, "If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies!"

NOTE: I plan to have Colson go back over her letters so they show

 

That's all for today- gotta get ready for class!

See ya'll soon,

xx

Stephanie

Art Class- Enter the SQUIDS!

A few years ago, my son, Garrett won a series of squid hats at Six Flags and they are now mounted on each of his headboard posts- FUN!  Anyway, he loves peeking in art class and visiting from time to time.  Last week, he surprised them with his squids, which of course they had to try on and KEEP on for the remainder of of our class.  So the end result was some pretty fun and funny snaps from class...while they were drawing a foxglove from the garden.

To begin our Mother's Day project; we started with blind contour sketches in their art journals, 

then regular contour drawings- 

And then once they were confident that they had mastered 

this incredibly difficult subject; it was time to draw it again- large!

 Once they finished their drawings, we cut tracing paper for them to make a copy.  

We'll end up with two very beautiful finished pieces- one with my color specifications 

and one with their own!

Tomorrow when it's time for class, we'll transfer the tracings and then begin adding color...can't wait!

Have a wonderful day! 

Stephanie

New Projects with my Students....

So, this is how my project "It's Positively Negative" turned out.  You may remember that the object of this lesson was to study Negative Space, or the space found around objects......in this case; everything that is not white.
Can you believe the girl who did it is only in third grade?  This is why I like semi-private classes!  The older kids inspire the younger ones and everyone works to surpass their best!

Here's one from a fifth grader....

And my second grader who missed a class and had to rush a bit to catch up- it still turned out great!

We did these by coloring pre-drawn sketches on canvas paper with oil pastels and then adding linseed oil to blend them.  For our next project; I let them choose any subject they wanted and render it with a palette of crushed oil pastels and linseed oil......when we use the oil pastels this way on canvas paper, they become translucent- VERY cool technique!

bird at sunset....

unicorn with blues, metallic gold and neutrals

 

instead of water, we used odor free mineral spirits

a combo of "catch up time" and "free art"

 Where I once had "mini-projects" to fill the gaps between our main work, I now have good paper prepped for the kids to work on ongoing "free art" so there's always something for them to work on 

without waiting for everyone to finish!

and just because it's "free art", doesn't mean it's not of excellent quality!

 

So, there's your update on what going on in art class!  To see all of our projects, click HERE

Have a wonderful day!

Stephanie

It's Positively Negative- New Project in my Art Class....

One of the hardest concepts for me when I was studying was the idea of "negative space" -how could you draw something that wasn't there?  And why would you want to?   The answer to that question took me a loooong time to understand, but I now know that by correctly depicting the space around things, you end up enhancing the subject you're trying to represent.  Anyway, I took my students on a journey to study negative space and explore a new technique this week.  We're creating silhouettes of birds and trees, but instead of the traditional black shadows, these silhouettes will be in white!   I had them  draw birds and tree branches and then outline the space around; aka negative space....tough concept, but they came through with flying colors!

 Once they outlined their birds and trees, they filled the space with flowers and then colored it in so the only white o their papers would be the birds and trees.  Now for the new technique; we used linseed oil to transform the oil pastels into paint!  Much like watercolor pencils, except it's oil instead of water!  This was actually the first kind of painting that I enjoyed as a kid!

Next week, they'll finish their background areas and color their birds and trees a bit but only using whites and greys to keep the silhouette feel to the piece- I'm pretty sure these are going to be amazing!