January Art Blog Update!

Hello artists and families! Enjoy taking a look back at all the amazing work the students created during the month of January!

 

Kindergarten artists completed their Catching Snowflake creations! The students learned all about snowflakes by watching a cool science video. We then practiced drawing six pointed snowflakes and then learned how to print the with found objects! The students used materials like cardboard (straight and folded into a V), marker caps, beads, cookie cutters, etc. As they printed, I walked around the room sprinkling glitter on their wet paint like a glitter fairy to give their artwork some sparkle! Adding the pom-pom at the end of the project was definitely a favorite too! :)

We are now creating CUPCAKES for our next projects! We will be making 2-dimensional cupcake paintings called Color Wheel Mix & Match Cupcakes. We will then be crating 3-dimensional Clay Cupcakes! The students have already had a chance to learn to draw the cupcakes in their sketchbooks and also enjoyed practicing making designs with playdough, in preparation for the clay! :)

Kinder artists printing snowflakes with found objects!

Mrs. Fry's Kindergarten class up on display at Westlawn!

Mrs. Rocky's kindergarten class with their Catching Snowflakes artwork! Getting them all arranged for a picture was no simple task! I suppose the phrase "herding cats" would be a good description, haha!

Kinder artists learned how to draw a cupcake and then practiced making their designs with playdough!

The students practiced making coils, among other clay making methods. Preston's made a nice mustache ;)

Before we make our clay cupcakes we are going to make Color Wheel Mix & Match Cupcakes using the primary and secondary colors! We will go from creating in 2D to creating in 3D! :)

First grade artists finished making their one of a kind Clay Snowmen during the month of January! Throughout the project the students practiced important clay making skills such as: forming pinch pots, attaching clay together with the "4 S's," creating a coil for the neck piece and a tapered coil for the nose. They of course added their own creative twist to their creations by making added features. Some of them got pretty elaborate! Hopefully the artists did in fact do the "4 S's" for each added piece so it all stays together through the firing. After the projects have been bisque fired the students will enjoy painting them!

The first grade artists are now beginning a new artwork, Kimono Self Portraits! We are beginning the artwork by making a background with a cherry blossom tree and a moon. The students learned to draw the trees and also had fun with a masking technique using a cup and watercolor paint to make the glowing moon appear. Soon we will be painting in the tree and using a "blow painting" method to add more branches! :)

Proud first grade artists pose with their Clay Snowman creations :)

Each snow person has a personality of its own! They are all so creative and made with love :)

Mrs. Robert's first grade Clay Snowmen!

As the snowmen dry out and wait to be fired in the kiln, we are starting our next project... Kimono Self Portraits!

Second grade artists completed their Pop Art Paints! A favorite part of the project was adding the air dry clay (Model Magic) for the "paint" coming out of the tube. Some of the clay broke apart so we practiced our creative problem solving and made our mistakes into a "beautiful oops" by adding paint splatters or little squirts of paint. The artwork took a while to complete, but the students had a lot of fun and learned so much making the mixed media artwork... drawing, painting, printmaking, and paper Mache sculpture... wow!

For our next artwork, the second grade artists were going to start their clay projects, but for now we put that on hold as we got a fun opportunity to design shirts for their 2nd grade musical, SQUIRM! The students sketched out a design based on their character, drew up a final draft on a 9X 12 paper, and will now trace their designs with sharpie onto their shirts. We only have a class and a half to paint, so hope it all goes well and comes together! The students are so excited to be making their costumes :)

Check out these awesome paint tube sculptures! hard to believe they started as empty t.p. rolls!

Students had a blast shaping the Model Magic for the "paint!"

All second grade Pop Art Paints on display at Westlawn!

Some close up views of the masterpieces :) They add so much color and cheer to the hallway!

Sketching out our t-shirt designs for the "Squirm" musical! This group of kiddos all chose snakes.

Third grade artists are currently working on their Clay Canopic Jars! They spent a good amount of time planning and practicing before using the clay. They brainstormed and added images of inspiration to a Google Doc, sketched out different views in their sketchbooks, and practiced making features for the head with playdough in preparation for the clay. The students then began the clay making with rolling out a slab of clay that was cut using paper templates. They used a foam cup as a support and wrapped the clay around it to form the cylinder. We reviewed the "4 S's" - score, slip, stick, and smooth in order to attach the base.

We are now onto the designing stage which will involve a lot more creativity, risk taking, and problem solving! The students carved in hieroglyphics (either their name, name of their creature, or a characteristic of one of the two) with a wooden stylus. We will then create a dome shape (upside down pinch pot) that will be attached to a circular base for the head. At that point the students will form and attach additional features that resemble their chosen creature!

3rd grade sketches of Canopic Jar designs!

Students practiced drawing their chosen head from different angles and then gave the playdough a try before starting the clay!

They did a wonderful job, and I cannot wait to see how their final Caly Canopic Jars turn out!

Making the cylinders for the base of our Canopic Jars using clay slabs and a foam cup as the support.

Adding hieroglyphics to personalize the front of their jar.

Canopic Jar bases from Mrs. Anderson's 3rd grade class

Fourth grade artists are having a BLAST with their Paper Mache Puns and Idioms! They are all so clever and artistically appealing! After completing the paper Mache stage, the students started painting. They were encouraged to give attention to craftsmanship and thoughtfully add colors that resemble their chosen subject. Soon, the students will be on to the final stage... embellishing! They can use a variety of art materials, other than paint, to enhance their artwork and give it some more texture. Materials may include: glitter, sand, buttons, googly eyes, feathers, yarn, felt, etc. We'll see what they come up with! We sure have used our fair share of hot glue for the project already!

4th grade artists paper macheing their armatures! As usual, some students loved the paper mache, and other could definitely do without, haha!

Coming together! Students were so creative with coming up with a 3D design for their puns and idioms!

Now the painting process begins!

Mrs. Sherill's class enjoying adding all sorts of colors and details to their paper mache sculptures!

Can you start to identify what their sculptures might be?

Top Left: "Butter-fly" Top Right" "Turtle Sundae"
Bottom Left: "Banana Split" Bottom Right: "Saved By the Bell"

Fifth grade artists are exceeding my expectations (and probably their own) with their linoleum carved relief prints! The quality of the prints and the advanced art methods they have learned are middle or high school level! After completing "test" prints with black ink on white paper and white ink on black paper, the students could use any combination of colors for their final print of four images. They saw many different ways to go about this, including rotating their design to create radial symmetry, flipping their image for bilateral symmetry, printing multiple colors over each other, creating a gradient with the ink, and my personal favorite... reduction prints (carving - printing - carving more - printing with a new color... and repeat). 

After completing our prints, the students signed their work, added them to their Paint Pour Frames. They are FABULOUS! :)

5th grade artists carving their linoleum blocks.

Each student created two test prints (black ink on white paper and white in on black paper) before creating their final print with colors of their choice.

Three awesome printers, and three fantastic owls :)

Check out these AMAZING prints! The kids had so much fun, and they turned out SO GREAT!

Students learned some advanced printing techniques that are often taught in middle or high school. Pictured above is a radial design by turning the block, a reflection design (harder than it looks), and a reduction print (hockey pucks) in which you carve - print, carve - print, etc. 

Some Parkview examples form Mrs. O'Leary's class :) Olivia had so much fun printing, she decided she would also print her design on her smock! How can I be mad at that?! Love the excitement!

Westlawn prints on display in the art room windows!

Some fabulous prints from Mr. Hartling's class at Thorson! All so unique :)

November & December Art Blog Update!

Greetings and HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your new year be filled with new exciting adventures and personal growth, as well as much love, joy, and peace :) I'm blessed to know you and your growing artists.

Speaking of growing artists, let's take a look to see what each grade level has been up to lately...

Kindergarten artists completed their Prehistoric Style Sketchbook Cover Designs at the beginning of December. This was a first time attempt with students and will definitely be something I revisit. It was a great lesson in teaching students basic skills such as hand tracings (for many it was their first time), overlapping, storytelling through observational & imaginative drawing. The students watched a video to learn what prehistoric art is and considered questions like: why and how did the earliest people make art? It was amazing how thoughtful these young artists were with their answers. They had an early realization how valuable art is to us as people... we're creators at our core! After drawing all of our designs with chalk pastels (to closely mimic the materials the cave artists used), we painted a layer of mod podge over our sketchbooks to give it a protective and shiny coat!

Next, the kinder artists moved on to their Catching Snowflakes artwork! This adorable artwork involves so may parts and covers a wide variety of art making skills. We first enjoyed reading the book, "Snowflakes Fall," by Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan and award-winning artist Steven Kellogg. The students then painted a dark night sky with blustery winds. They painted large brush strokes of black and blue and then drew lines into the paint with cue tips or the back of their brush to represent wind. We then started to design the snow gear that the students will be wearing in their self portraits (mittens, a hat, and a jacket). The mittens were the most fun since the students had the challenge of making them symmetrical with their line designs. They were asked to add a minimum of 5 types of line, and 5 oil pastel colors. They then painted in the open areas with tempera cake paints. The sleeves and hat followed using a similar approach to create a matching set. Soon, we will cut, arrange, and glue the pieces together, while also printing snowflakes in the background. Maybe we will actually have snow by the time our artwork is done!

Sharing their artwork with classmates! Students were instructed to share their favorite parts of the cover designs :)

Drawing, mod podging, and having all kinds of fun :)

Painting a huge paper with back and blue paint... what could go wrong?! Haha... They actually did a great job and made a much smaller mess than expected ;)

Check out those awesome one of a kind mitten designs!

We talked about how our paint needed to be watered down so the "bossy" oil pastel could win the battle. The oil pastel says to the paint "don't go here paint, I was here first!"

First grade artists completed their fantastic Scarecrows with David Hockney Inspired Backgrounds! In order to create the scarecrows, the students used paper templates as a guide by gluing them on the back of wallpaper and other specialty papers. The artists were asked to add two accessories beyond their tops and bottoms. It was so fun to see the students get creative with this. There was a wide variety of features added including: purses, hats, skateboards, earrings, and animals to accompany the scarecrows! To finish up our artwork we added designs like straw, a facial expression, pockets, stitches, and more. Of course we completed our artwork by signing and dating it. One first grader used their smartwatch to add every bit of info to their artwork, down to the second (so funny... love it)! 

The first grade artists moved on to snowmen! We very much enjoyed reading the book, "Snowmen at Christmas" which gave us great inspiration for our Snowman Oil Pastel Drawings and soon to be Clay Snowmen! The students enjoyed the draw along that included drawing with oil pastels on back paper (such a neat effect)! This allowed us to show high contrast and think about lights and darks (with the moon being the source of light in our drawings). These quick and adorable creations deserve a frame! :)

To wrap up the month of December the first grade artists got to play with playdough as preparation for our Clay Snowmen! They practiced making pinch pots, coils, and extra features. Soon we will be discovering (or remembering) the difference between playdough and clay when the students start their final artwork! What a fun and educational experience for the students to begin with creating two-dimensional artwork then transition to a three-dimensional artwork out of clay!

Scarecrows in progress :)

Nearly complete! Check out that awesome time stamp in the bottom right ;) The students were asked to add the year, and this student went above and beyond, haha :)

Some Free Choice Art creations when we had time to sneak it in!

Practicing with playdough! Check out how long those coils are... impressive!

Snowmen on display in the art room windows!

Mrs. Carpenter's class showing off their Snowmen Drawings! :)

Second grade artists are nearing the end of their Pop Art Paints and Palettes! The only thing we have yet to do is shape and add the air dry clay for the "paint" coming out of the tubes, glue down the paint tubes, and sign our artwork! While we wait on the model magic to be ordered and shipped we will be pausing our current project to start designing our clay project! More about that in a moment...

Back to the Pop Art Paints and Palettes, this project has taught the students so much! It has included learning about two different Pop artists, Romero Britto and Andy Warhol, designing and creating paint palette relief prints with foam, enjoying the printing process using four different ink colors, constructing a 3-D armature for a "paint tube" out of an empty t.p. roll and masking tape, paper macheing with ooey gooey paper mache paste, painting, naming, and podpoding the paint tubes, and soon forming air dry clay into "paint." Wow! Such a fun project that the students seem to really have enjoyed :)

Our clay project in 2nd grade will be (drum roll please...) Clay Picture Frames! This project was inspired by a clay picture frame that I made as an art student in 3rd grade. My Mom still has mine, my brother's and sisters, on display :) These will be uniquely designed hand crafted frames that involve a variety of clay making techniques! Stay tuned for the next update to learn more about the art making process! See you then!

Paper macheing our paint tubes! I asked the students to make a facial expression to show how they felt about the art making process and slimy (dog drool) like texture!

Such a mix of reactions to the paper mache paste! Haha!

The printmaking process was a HUGE hit with everyone. We would all agree it is super addicting!

Paper mache paint tubes! The students had fun writing the names of the paint colors! :)

Pop Art Paint Palette Prints!

Third grade artists finished up their Holiday Lights Watercolor Paintings just in time for winter break! These are stunning and oh so colorful! Not only were the paintings so much fun for the students to make, but they learned a ton about color theory and coloring mixing using watercolors. The challenge was not just to know which two or three colors mix together to make which color, but project also require that the students know how to use liquid watercolors which can be hard to tame and are not the most forgiving with mistakes. While there are many examples of a "beautiful oops," they are still beautiful works of art made with a lot of time, effort, and love :) Oh, and a favorite part... adding the "string" at the end! The students had a choice between yarn and glitter! I heard more than once that glitter is not allowed at home, so many students were excited to have that as an option (haha)! :)

We are now moving onto CLAY! The students were just introduced to the project, Clay Canopic Jars! We will be connecting their artwork to the Egyptian unit they study in 3rd grade! We took time to look at examples from last year's 3rd graders to see what the students decided to add as their Canopic Jar head. The artists will have a fun challenge of creating their own head for the jar, rather than using one of the four traditional heads (human, baboon, jackal, and falcon)... although those are still options as well. The students were directed to choose a head that has significance to them and represents their personality in some way. We'll see what they come up with!

Students observed two different painting techniques they could use for the background... "exploding colors" and salt, or splatter painting.

Snuck in a class reward when they filled up their class palette. "Free Choice Art" is a popular vote!

More Free Choice Art creations!

Some gift tags and thank you cards were an option for students who finished early with their Holiday Lights Watercolor Paintings.

Fourth grade artists spent a couple of weeks on two different projects. Students at Westlawn painted their Clay Canopic Jars that they created last year (and they turned out SO cool)! NEW Westlawn students who weren't at Westlawn last year had the opportunity to paint anything they wanted with a little guidance and help. Both sets of students were asked to focus on recreating realistic colors and textures with their chosen animal, creature, or object. This proved to be a challenge for many but many students impressed themselves with what they could create when they played around and experimented with different tools and techniques! 

Parkview fourth graders dedicated a couple of weeks to learning two types of contour line drawing (regular contour and blind contour). They practiced in their sketchbooks while following along with an excellent demo video from an artist, and then created two final copies... a regular contour self portrait in which they placed a clean sheet of paper over their printed school photo and traced without picking up their pencil the whole time and the other version was a blind contour self portrait in which they looked at them self in a mirror (or their printed picture) but were not allowed to look at the paper they were drawing on, and also weren't able to pick up their pencil. Both versions turned out awesome! We then took the blind contour portrait and turned it into a monochromatic painting (many tints and shades of one color). Students made value scales with their one chosen color and painted in each a shape a different value of that color. I love them so much!

Now the 4th graders from both Westlawn and Parkview are in the midst of a super fun sculpture project... Paper Mache Puns and Idioms! The students may have mentioned this at home, or even asked to bring in certain materials for their project (which they were welcome to do if I didn't have what they needed). We spent the first class brainstorming and planning out or projects, considering what materials would be needed, what steps would need to be taken to make the artwork, and what the 3D artwork would look like (students made sketches to plan this out). We are now nearing the end of the armature stage in which the students create the underneath structure (skeleton) to support the paper mache. We can't wait to show you the finished products for the next art update! :)

Finishing up the Clay Canopic Jars!

Parkview 4th graders painting their blind contour portraits with a monochromatic color scheme!

Look at those cool looking value scales! :)

Making armatures for the Paper Mache Puns and Idioms!

Lots and lots of masking tape and other random building materials were used in the process!

Fifth grade artists have been busy and taking part in some awesome art making processes! At the end of November they completed their amazing sketchbooks by adding a binding using pipe cleaners. They learned two types of stitching methods (whip and running) and chose one for their binding. The fifth grade artists were then introduced to the art of paint pouring in which they made an Acrylic Paint Poured Frame. These were created by masking a square paper with cardboard, filling up a small plastic cup with layers of watered down acrylic paint, flipping the cup and moving the paint around by tilting the surface and using a  variety of other techniques. Students experimented with dragging the cups, drawing through the paint with a cue tip, scraping through the paint with a textured paint scraper, blowing the paint with a straw, stamping the paint with found objects, and splattering the paper with leftover paint in the cups. Once they saw the love demo of how to do it they were instantly hooked and couldn't wait to do it themselves! The process is similar to glazing pottery in that you don't know exactly how it's going to turn out since there is some mystery involved in how the colors will interact and flow. It is also an art process that is easy to over-do if you over mix the colors. There were a few students that had regrets about this and chose to give it a second try. They turned out just amazing and were so fun and easy to make!

We have now moved on to creating the inside design for the frame which will be 4 repeated linoleum relief prints! The students came up with their own designs and are now in the process of figuring out what parts to carve away. A good quality print will be a balanced design of positive and negative space, have an interesting composition (how they lay out their design and use the space), and include lots of lines to create texture and interest. The linoleum block will also be used for an additional project that students will work on at a later time (Elements of Art Accordion Books). Can't wait to show you their progress in our next art update! :)

Some 5th grade boys showing off their awesome sketchbooks!

The students completed a reflection sheet for their Sketchbook project, which included a self reflection and peer feedback. It also contained a papermaking quiz on the back to test their knowledge of the steps for making paper.

Acrylic paint pour!

Love the action shots!

Manipulating the paint using a variety of methods and materials.

Stunning!

Check out this video link to see the Paint Pour in Action!

Drying time... had to get creative with where to hang them!

Parview 5th graders give it a go!

Now Thorson 5th graders! Absolutely beautiful results and such a fun process!

Practicing lino cutting using the gouges and easy cut linoleum!

A BEAUTIFUL artwork made by one of our talented artists during Free Choice Art one day! :) She experimented with stamping the bristles of the paintbrush for the leaves and petals. Lovely!