OPtical Illusion

4th grade ended the year by learning about Op Art. Op Art is artwork that creates the illusion of depth or movement on a flat 2-Dimensional surface. We learned from the blog Create Art With Me which has a great lesson plan and directions. Instead of using marker we painted to create our lines before cutting and arranging our movement. The results were mixed, but really they varied on how well students were following directions.

 After we painted our papers we measured 1/2" stripes on the back of the paper, 24 in total, numbering them. Then during the first class I had them cut them ALL out at once. This was a mistake, they should cut as the go.

 Starting with stripe #12 and working backwards towards #1, stripes overlap slightly on the left side of the paper, and they will start to curve.

 Then you begin the second half with stripe #13 and going to #24, overlapping on the right side and curving the opposite direction.

I love the color choices!

Summer Camps

Well it's hard to believe that Summer is right around the corner (15 days school days left). And if you have an art smart kid then I'm sure your trying to find them an art camp. I found a great website that has a number of different camps you can check out all on one site:
http://fun4firstcoastkids.com/Summer-Camps/Art-Camps/ 

I recommend MOCA Jax and The Cummer for the museum feel. I have heard great things about "Children's Art Classes". And if you are wondering where to find Mrs. Myers this summer,  I'll be at The Cultural Center in Ponte Vedra. The weeks of June 15-19; June 22-26 and July 27-31. Though I will be doing the 4 and 5 year old group.  

I hope you all have a very colorful summer!! 

(But stay tuned because there is still more artwork to come from this school year.)

Comic Book Art

3rd Grade Artists learned about Pop Art and artist Roy Litchenstein. 

First we talked about Onomatopoeia words, which are words that sound like their action. Then students picked a word and started to paint using bright colors to show emphasis. When the word was finished we started on the background by collageing an action bubble with newspaper. Once everything was cut and pasted, oil pastels were used to add a bit more detail and even more action. And I'm so sorry I can't find the blog to which inspired me, but thank you!

Kinder Farms

Kindergarten was inspired by the artwork of Grant Wood and created their own farm landscape.

I love to use Grant Wood as a way to introduce Kinder to landscapes and how to show Space. Grant Wood has clear overlapping hills and uses size as a way to show objects in the distance. These are all very easy ways for younger students to understand space on a flat surface. 

First we started by drawing those overlapping hills. Then we used oil pastels to draw objects such as trees, houses and crops to our farm. Last we used watercolor to fill in the sky and ground. 

Here are a few landscapes from this year: 

Awesome Artists

It's that time of year were I have the difficult task of selecting 6 pieces of artwork from the entire school that will go on display at our local library. This is wonderful way to showcase our student artists from all around the district. Here are this year selections.

 1st Grade: Kendall's O'Keeffe Flower

 5th Grade: Ava's Picasso Cat

 4th Grade: Kiersten's Dictionary Page Artwork

 3rd Grade: Ryan's Abstract Shape Animal

 Kindergarten: Miles' Grant Wood Farm Landscape

4th Grade: Reef's Windmill Landscape

I am so proud of all these awesome artists!!!

Tigers

In Kindergarten thru Second grade Art Club we made some terrific tigers! Inspired by artist Henri Rousseau and his wonderful jungle paintings. First we made a tiger from clay then we created our own tiger hidden in the jungle picture.

I found a great pinch pot technique on how to make the tigers, I adapted it from a lesson I saw on Deep Space Sparkle.

 

 

The tiger collages turned out great! After we painted our tigers we cut them out and glued them onto a green paper to look like they are in the jungle. I encouraged students to add leaves and other jungle animals to hide in their picture like Rousseau.

Windmill Landscapes

4th grade learned about Monochromatic. And how Monochromatic doesn't really mean "one color", but it has array of values. After a day where we just practiced mixing values, we talked about one point perspective and drew a field with lines all going to one point. On that point we added a windmill, I showed examples of the tulip fields in The Netherlands to help inspire them. What inspired me was a post on afaithfulattempt.blogspot.com . The results turned out amazing, I know I will picking one of these for our district show this year!