Pirate Portraits

2nd Grade is finishing up their Pirate Portraits. 

I try to do a portrait lesson every year with my kids starting in 1st grade. I try to come up with different themes so it's not just the same self portrait every year. This year our school theme is pirate which is GRRREAT for portraits and as you can tell we are doing all sorts of pirate ship and ocean themed projects this year. (Stay tuned for kindergarten and 1st grade pirate ship seascapes.) 

So...this being the second year this class of students have done portraits, I am really happy to see them progress and develop as artsits. 

First, we talked about the difference between symmetry and asymmetry. Because pirates might not have the same symmetry like our faces' do, because of scars or eye patches. When starting we painted the face and neck with some skin tone paints. Then drew the face, hair and shirts with oil pastels.

 Finally we drew a bit more to create a background and setting. Then finished up with some watercolor paints. I always run out of blue, so we got creative with our sky's and ocean's.

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. 

Crazy Concentric Lines

2nd Grade learned about Concentric Line to begin the school year. I thought this might be a bit of a challenge, but turns out they were up for it! I love my smART Artists!! 

We started by drawing three shapes in the middle of our paper. Close to each other perhaps even overlapping a bit. Then I taught them what a concentric line was and how to make it so it goes around all their shapes. Echoing the side and curve of each of their shapes, they were to grow these concentric lines until it was over flowing from their paper. Next we choose three colors to create a pattern.

 (I was pretty impressed on how their coloring skills have improved. :)

Last we added line and shape patterns to fill in the shapes. 

All and all a good lesson to start the year!

Clay Fish and Pinch Pots

2nd Grade just finished their clay fish. These slab fish are a great way to teach student how to attach clay. These are honestly some of the better clay fish I have seen from students in the recent years. And of course when using clay we are learning about form and the difference between 2-D and 3-D objects. 

Because storage is an issue I load the kiln as soon as I finish a class.
And let the clay dry there before firing.

After the clay transforms in the kiln we talk about the science behind the change. Then we start painting. I gave the students an assortment of paint colors including metallic. Students had to choose a color scheme with 4 colors of less. The results were amazing!!

The gold paint was a big hit!!


Kindergarten Pinch Pots 
 Every Kindergarten student everywhere, makes a pinch pot.
It can be the base for so many different clay lessons.
Here are some pictures of some amazing pinch pot construction by one Kindergarten class.

Flower Mandalas

What a great lesson to help students to think about balance! First I introduced Mandalas and their different cultural significance. We discussed the different kinds of balance mandalas have including radial and symmetrical balance. After talking about the different lines, shapes and other Elements of Art we could see, we made a science connection to flowers.We used the mandalas for the center of our flowers. I could not be more amazed at the different patterns some students came up with for their artwork!

 After we designed our mandalas then we added petals and a stem to create the flower with crayons. Then we used watercolor to finish by adding a sky and ground. Students were thinking art smart by choosing some different colors for their sky besides blue, such as violet for night or orange and red for a sunset.

These pictures are from a second grade class. But this lesson can be done with students all the way up to fifth. And it is great for a one day project with older students you just don't make the flower connection. A big thank you to Adventures of an Art Teacher for this idea! 

BUGS!!!

Well... I must have gotten a bad batch of clay or something, because more students then usual had blow-outs with their clay fish. But I didn't want any student to miss out of having a sculpture to take home. So we created insects from things we found outside. The next thing I know the room is infested with these creepy crawlies!!