MORE Pirate Portraits

So not only did I do Pirate Portraits with Second Grade, but also with First and KINDERGARTEN. WHAT?! Portraits with Kinders. I have not done it before, usually we start in First. But this year I was feeling feisty, so I gave it a try. 

Our theme was Self Portrait Pirates.

First the First Graders. 

 We ALWAYS do a practice and learn, like artists. Then we use the practice to help on the project so we don't have to draw lines all over the faces. Here you can see the side by side. 

I still can't believe how good these are!! 

Now the KINDERGARTENERS. 

They had done a few drawings of people in their classroom lessons, which I think helps. For the first time portrait project, the results aren't too bad. 

It's a New Year! Which means learning about 'New Artists' and making New Art!!

First Grade has started the new year off learning about Georgia O'Keeffe. Her flowers that are as big as giants, making people feel as if they are tiny little bugs. I was inspired by Painted Paper, but tried to put my own spin of things. 

Stay tuned for the finished results. 

Fifth Grade is starting the year by learning about Andy Warhol. We are taking his 4 square layout and using it to creating some amazing Pirate Ships.

We will be adding Analogous Color Schemes...I can't wait to see how these turn out. 

Second Grade are making some marvelous Monochromatic Fish.

After a little practice of mixing Values and talking about Tints and Shades, we put our new skills to work with these fabulous fish.

December Already

Where has the year gone? I can't believe it's already December and we ONLY have 10 school days left until the winter break! Well... we have been pretty busy creating lots of great artwork! Here is a highlight reel of all the good stuff! 

1st Grade made their Mondrian Animals. A favorite of mine that is must every year. 

2nd Grade made Warm and Cool Landscapes. We talk balance and about the warm and cool colors then divided our paper with each color family. 

3rd Grade made Pirate Ship Seascapes. First we painted and tried to show a little texture. Then did a collage pirate ship on the high seas. 

4th Grade made MineCraft Pirates. I did MineCraft Self Portraits last year. This year gave them a pirate twist to go along with our school theme. 

Mondrian Animals

This is one of my all time favorite lessons, first grade Mondrian Animals! This wonderful lesson comes curiosity of "Arts and Activities", and I adapted it a bit. Students are first introduced to the work of Piet Mondrian, with the geometric shapes and primary colors. Then they draw an animal of their choosing, inside they fill it with squares and rectangles, but don't make it look like a checker board. 

Next time we paint after reviewing the primary colors (red, yellow and blue). It is really hard for them not to mix, because they learned in Kindergarten that the primary colors mix and make new colors. So I remind them not to mix and that we will mix in a our next lesson. This lesson is a great warm up to painting for the year and talking about craftsmanship. 

Last we cut out out animal and glue it onto a black background and fill the space with shapes. The arrangements were very abstract and varied this year.

PIGasso and MOOtisse

One of my favorite kind of lessons to teach are the ones where students learn about famous artists. A great way to introduce children (especially primary aged Kindergarten thru 2nd Graders) to artists is with the aide of a book. "When Pigasso met Mootisse" by Nina Laden, is a wonderful book to introduce kids to artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. 

After we read the book we talk about the real artists and their styles. Picasso is a cubist, he likes straight lines and geometric shapes. Matisse is a fauve, he likes color and organic shapes. We compare and contrast the two styles and the students decide which style they like best. Then they draw either a portrait of Mootisse or Pigasso. Whoever they choose, they then draw that character using that artists' style.

 After we drew the character then we start adding color with oil pastel.

In some classes we started with the background first. Watercolor paint and I tried to stress choosing a color scheme of warm or cool. (Some get it more than others.)

Excellent results!! Looks like Pigasso was more popular this year!

Warm Fish in a Cool Ocean

 1st Grade is learning about color families! After a talk about colors and the things they make of think of. We started with the backgrounds, using only our Cool Colors (Blue, Green, Violet) we painted water lines, seaweed and perhaps some coral. The next week we created our sea creatures (because the ocean is full of more then just fish and these first graders wanted to show the variety of different animals:) Our sea creatures we made with Warm Colors (Orange, Yellow, Red and Pink) using oil pastels. After a quick talk about planning and balance we finally we cut and pasted those creatures onto our backgrounds. And the results are...

FABULOUS! 

Ndebele Houses

It was so much fun creating this 3D works of art with 1st Grade! After talking about and showing them some pictures of the Ndebele people of Africa and their beautifully colorful, patterned houses, we started to create out own. First we started with black paint to create patterns with lines or shapes. Then in our next meeting we added color with crayons or markers, still keeping patterns in mind. After all that we took those 2D flat piece of paper and transformed it into a 3D artwork! This is a great lesson to do with the students so they can learn about Form, especially  if you don't have clay and a kiln at your school. Check them out!