Group Grid Drawing

Break it down...

I teach each middle school grade level for one trimester and as my time with 7th grade was winding down, I realized I hadn't taught "value" yet and I hadn't done any realistic drawing.  But as I mentioned, my time with them was coming to a close so I had to act fast.  I had originally planned on having each student complete a grid drawing assignment so I decided to adapt that lesson to fit my last two days of class with this group of kids.

Student-made Value Scale

I started by teaching the meaning of "value" in art and clarified that it had nothing to do with the price of artwork.  After a short discussion each student made a small value scale showing 9 variations of grey in their sketchbook.  I then introduced them to the concept of using a grid to replicate an image (whether it is on the same scale or larger...or even smaller).  We focused on figuring out and matching spacial relationships, placement and value.  We went from images gridded into 1" squares to drawing them onto 4" squares.  Earlier in the week, I took a photo of our school principle and vice principle and did the 1" grid for the kids, I also cut up the photos and numbered the backs of each square.  Each student completed at least 2 squares and found  where their drawing was to go on my large grid.  They didn't know who or what they were drawing but they loved trying to guess the entire time (and I refused to tell them if they were right or wrong).  As the pieces were getting glued onto the larger grid, they had it figured out!  But a lot of them were being hard on themselves since the results weren't realistic.  I reminded them that 75 different people were trying their best to replicate small squares onto large ones, and they weren't going to come out perfect.  And the fact that they knew who the images were, showed how well they actually did.  Even though, they aren't the most realistic portraits, I am very pleased with how hard they worked on matching spaces with simple shapes, line and value!

A few of the squares "went missing" at the end of the last day, so Mrs. Raes is left slightly unfinished

The False Mirror

Rene Magritte is Very Neat

image found on wikipaintings.org

Our Day of the Dead skull printmaking took us two class periods to get through in order for everyone to make their two prints, so similarly to the Mona Lisa activity, I introduced my students to Rene Magritte's The False Mirror.  I then proposed that each student work on drawing an eye and draw an imaginary scene or something that they often think about, in place of the iris.  I left each table with a few guides to help them with drawing the eyes and remind them of their task. I think this helped the students maintain their independence from me while waiting to print.

Each student made an Rene Magritte inspired drawing while waiting to print; if they had already printed, then they had the whole class period to work!  I gave them oil pastels for this lesson and encouraged them to color boldly and/or to layer colors for different effects.  I love seeing their imaginations at work!

Modern Day Mona Lisa

Multitasking and Mona

Mona Lisa image found and used from Wikipedia

While I did printmaking with my fourth graders, I also had them working on a drawing with the Mona Lisa.  I had set up one table for printmaking which I manned the entire time, so I wanted the other students to have an activity that was 1)worthwhile 2)something they could do independently and 3)something they would enjoy.  This Mona Lisa lesson was perfect!  

The original paper, my pencil example and my colored in example

I started the class off by telling them that only four people could be printing their Day of the Dead skulls at a time with me and that everyone else would need to be at their tables working until it was their turn to print and after printing, you would return to this activity.  I then presented them with a little art history (via PowerPoint) about the Mona Lisa and her maker, Leonardo Da Vinci.  I focused on fun facts about her theft, Picasso's wrongful arrest, and the many attempts at her destruction (acid, rocks and tea cups?!).  We also talked about Leonardo Da Vinci as an artist and an inventor with many great ideas (the kids loved seeing his flying machine sketches).  Then I asked the students, "Since Mona Lisa has lead such an adventurous life, what kind of day would you treat her to if she was alive?"  The kids had all kinds of ideas as to what they would do with the Mona Lisa!  I showed them my examples and gave them a photo copy that had a coloring page version of the Mona Lisa printed on it and set them to work to draw their day with the Mona Lisa.  They had such great ideas!  And it was the perfect independent activity to keep them busy while I helped kids with printmaking!

A few AMAZING results
top row: making art, playing soccer, doing gymnastics
bottom row: karate, offering of tea joke, playing piano

Day of the Dead Dioramas

I started introducing the lesson showing a slideshow of various Day of the Dead dioramas and we talked about what we saw.  We discussed what an assemblage piece can look like but I stressed that the possibilities were endless.  I explained what our process would be and left it very open ended.  Students were allowed to partner up into groups or work alone.  Each student (regardless if they worked alone or in a group) needed to create at least one skeleton from clay, everyone needed a theme and to include various details (requirements varied based on how many students worked on each diorama) keeping in with the Day of the Dead theme.  All words were supposed to be in Spanish and there were to be various three-dimensional elements from mixed media.

We started making our skeletons out of air dry clay (I would use model magic in the future) so they would have time to dry before we painted them and we could work on our boxes while we had to wait that out.  The 7th graders are a bit big to gather around one small table for a demonstration, so I've started making these demo videos to play for them...it's so much easier for them to see this on the projector.  This video is simply about forming a skeleton shape from clay and how to give them facial expressions

Last but not least, as I promised in my previous post here, these are a few of the photos from our 7th Grade Day of the Dead Dioramas.    The photos don't do them justice!  The students did a great job transforming their boxes into dioramas!

Percy Jackson Scene

View of the skeletons in the Percy Jackson scene

Wedding

Love Beach

The Proposal (with fountain that actually holds water and drips down from each tier)

Mariachi Band

'Mi Taco Es Su Taco' Taco Truck

The Civil War with Abraham Lincoln

Evel Knievel

Dancers

Cardinals Game

Zoo

Leisurely Reading with Owl in the Tree 

Stained Glass Windows

The Art of Stained Glass...kind of

I started talking with my fourth graders about the characteristics of stained glass.  They were able to make a pretty extensive list describing what it tends to look like and how they would describe it to someone who has never seen stained glass windows.  I teach at a Catholic school, so we also talked about the religious elements that can be used in stained glass and what kinds of subject matter we see portrayed.

I shared a PowerPoint with my students of various examples and the students pointed out all of the things they saw on our list we had made while we went through it.  Once we had a grasp on what it was and all that it entailed, the students brainstormed and idea for their own stained glass artwork.  They sketched out their plans (if you have a class set of dry erase boards, I recommend using those b/c the kids LOVE them--otherwise have them sketch it on some scratch paper).  I encouraged them to break up their backgrounds into smaller pieces, just like stained glass.

We transferred our design onto black construction paper in pencil.  Then we traced over our pencil with glue.  We talked about how the glue will dry clear over the black paper and leave that solder look to our stained glass.  We let the glue dry and used chalk pastels to color them in.  The chalk wipes right off of the glue, so it leaves those areas black.  They look stunning!

Native American Inspired Instruments

(Native American) Music to My Ears

This time I teamed up with one of our amazing music teachers!  She is currently teaching our 7th graders about Native American music.  They are learning about and creating their own Native American inspired chants in her room, and in my room, they created their own instruments to use along with those chants.  We started by talking about the instruments, what they look like and what they how they were traditionally used.  My students then used recycled objects such as paper towel rolls, water bottles, etc to create their objects.  We discussed how we were using recyclables since a big part of the Native American culture was not being wasteful.

The students were asked to incorporate at least four different media, Native American symbolism (they were given a hand out full of symbols) and should resemble the instrument in shape/form and concept.  They had free reign over a variety of art materials and I loved to see the variety of work the kids came up with.  We filled the rain sticks and rattles with rice and did our best to stretch fabric over the homemade drums. Everything came out looking (and sounding) great!

Dia de los Muertos

Day of the Dead Ofrenda

It's that time of year again, time for the skeletons to dance and skulls to be adorned!  Day of the Dead (actually two days) is on November 1st and 2nd, so Mrs. Grabau (K-3 Art) and I have teamed up with Mrs. Buckmiller, our Spanish teacher to create a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda with our students!

An ofrenda is simply an offering table where you can create a colorful display to honor and celebrate the life of dead loved ones.  Traditional decorations include skeletons (known as calacas), skulls (the kids beg to do sugar skulls but I am not ready to take that on), decorative paper flags (papel picado) as well as photos of who the ofrenda is for and some of their favorite foods and/or objects.  Each grade level contributed to the ofrenda and it looks outstanding! 

With my fourth grade students, I created skull prints using scratch foam.  They started by sketching out their skulls in simple shapes and then filling them with decorative lines and shapes as well as addressing the background.  We traced over our sketch with a sheet of foam underneath it to transfer the idea.  Then removed the sheet of paper and traced over it directly on the foam to really make sure the various shapes and lines were indented.  The students got to choose what color of ink they wanted to print with and on what color of paper.  As you can see, they are beautiful and so creative!

My fifth graders created papel picado.  We talked about symmetry and how to cut our symmetrical shapes from paper.  For this particular activity, I gave my students four templates to choose from.  Three of which I drew up based on other ideas I had seen before and one of them was found here but later I also found these ones too.  I divided up the templates into three categories--easy, medium and hard.  I let my students select their own ability level, though when the students who chose 'easy' finished early, I asked them to try a 'medium.'  They simply folded a sheet of paper (their color choice) inside of the template and cut along the lines.  They were all pretty pleased with their work and were surprised at how challenging it was to cut out some of the pieces.  I love how they look all together!

My seventh graders did a couple of things for the ofrenda.  For the entire month of October (and even at the end of September I think), whenever they finished an assignment early, I asked them to paint on some bones.  Though they aren't ordinary bones, they are milk jug bones!  I have seen milk jug skeletons around for quite awhile but had never made one myself.  So I decided that as students finished up early, they would paint on a part of the skeleton in honor of Day of the Dead.  I simply reminded them of the holiday, it's purpose and how it is a bright and colorful holiday.  I encouraged them to layer paints and designs (yes, you are actually supposed to paint on top of someone else's painting this time!) and to play with color.  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!  Once we finished assembling the first one, he was dubbed Senior Huesos (Mr. Bones) and he graced our presence in the art room until the ofrenda was assembled.   We have a few others in the works, but so far Senior Huesos is repping the ofrenda alone.  But I gotta say, Day of the Dead milk jug skeletons are the way to go!

My seventh graders also took on an assignment which satisfied a personal obsession.  They made Day of the Dead dioramas!  My absolute favorite booths at every art festival I attend, are Day of the Dead themed artwork with the boxes filled with elaborate scenes and details!  I just adore the tiny scenes and all of the colors melding together!  I shared this obsession with my students and some of them even agreed with me about how impressively cool they are.  I showed them a PowerPoint I created about them and we discussed their various qualities of each diorama.  We also discussed assemblage art and how they could use any number of items I had in the classroom as part of their scenes or bring in objects of their own.  The students then chose to work either alone or with a group (no more than 4 per group); however, I reminded them that with a group, I expected more detail and more elaborate scenes than those working alone.  We used air dry clay for our skeletons (in the future I will use model magic, as the air dry clay is brittle--it IS clay--and we keep losing limbs and will need lots of epoxy!) and a random assortment of materials for everything else!  I can't help but smile every time I think about this project.  While they aren't quite finished yet, they are simply amazing!  I will be sure to post photos as soon as they finish!