Miss Arty Pants

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Tree of Life

All School Art--The Tree of Life

Last year at the beginning of the year, I had my kids make a "get to know you" handelier (chandelier made of hands) with symbolism and construction paper--and it continues to hang in my classroom this year--I just loved doing that activity with so many grade levels. So I wanted to start the year off with something similar, yet totally different. The result was inspired by Gustav Klimt's tree of life and whichever art teachers' photos popped up when I googled "kid art Tree of Life."

I teach 4th-8th Grade Art and I only see each middle school level for one trimester, so this was done with 4th, 5th and 8th grades but could be done with any age. Each student learned to use a safety compass (I love that they don't leave a hole in your paper and that your pencil won't fall out on you) and drew a circle. I gave a circle size/measurement to the older kids and told the younger ones (4th and 5th graders) to make as big of a circle as they could on the paper I provided. After looking at Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life, we talked about its symbolism and his style of art making. I encouraged the kids to be inspired by his use of pattern and rhythm while drawing/coloring on their circle, but plenty of kids wanted to draw pictures that symbolized their own interests and that was fine by me. I constructed a large tree (trunk and branches) from brown butcher/craft paper and hung it up in the school cafeteria along with all of the students' circles.

To the right of our tree there is a summary of what we did as well as a copy of Gustav Klimt's work.

Beginning of the Year Display Case

We got a display case! A real, live display case!

Huge shout out to Home and School and Joe Pollpeter for getting us a display case! I can finally show off the kiddos' 3D artwork in the building! To kick off the school year I used it to make a display showing off all of the subjects and their possibilities. I kind of rushed taking the photos (imagine that...rushing around at the beginning of the school year) so they are not outstanding by any means, but they get the point across!

Bragging rights:

Beginning of the School Year Display Case

Full view of the display case

Saint Francis of Assisi School String Art

Monday, June 2, 2014

End of the Year Art!

The end of the school year always comes in at a rapid pace and is full of nonstop crazy...so naturally, I embrace it and come up with lessons that are easy but entertaining so that the kids don't check out early. So this blog post will be with minimal instructions on what I did and consist of mostly photos.

4th Grade End of the Year Projects

One day lesson: transform a toilet paper roll into anything you want!

One Day Lesson: Summer Shades (still with 4th grade): Use tracers to cut out sunglasses and some white shades. Students drew summer scenes or anything else they wanted on them. Hot glue a popsicle stick on the side and you've got some sweet shades!

8th Grade:

Sculpturades--no photos but this is just like pictionary except we use play dough sculptures. Divide the kids up into teams and having them use play dough to get their team to guess what they are making. They LOVE this game! I wrote down a series of words in advance for them to build/guess and each team made the same sculpture at the same time to keep it fair.

Continuous Drawing: start with a sketchook and give an instruction for the kids to draw something (e.g. draw a character) and then trade sketchbooks with someone else and draw the next instruction. We get some crazy images which keeps it fun and the kids interested!

Draw a Character

Add something in the background

Add another item in the background

Add something in the character's hand (if no hands, add an accessory)

You can include as many or as few instructions as you want. In the end, this is what I got!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Texture Drawing

Altering the Texture of an Everyday Object

After making our clay boxes (lesson found here) the 8th graders went back to drawing. This time we talked about texture and how it can be rendered. I reminded them of the sphere they drew before we did portraiture and how it was all about the way you shaded the object. Texture is no exception. We talked about how it is all in the shading and edges when drawing/rendering texture. I gave the students a printout of various textures and asked that they practice by replicating a few of them (the handout had 10 textures on it and they got to choose which ones they replicated).

I know that something like this can be a hard task for an 8th grader (or for anyone!), so I wanted to break it down a little bit simpler for them so that they weren't completely overwhelmed by the texture handout. I suggested that they approach their replicas in steps. I also reminded them that these were my suggestions, and if they felt more comfortable approachign them differently, they were more than welcome to. First, they should simply layout basic (and major) outlines of the shapes/textures and try to match the location of them in the box. Examples of this step:

Texture Drawing Middle School Art Practice

Then I suggested that add the darkest shadows. I find it easier to start dark and get lighter as opposed to starting with the highlights. I encouraged them to pay attention to the direction and placement of the shadows to maintain a more realistic quality to their drawings. Again, I reminded them that this is merely my suggestion of how to approach their renderings. My example of that step:

I recommended that they then work from the shadows into their middle grays which will eventually lead into their highlights. I warned them that they would not turn out perfect and I did not expect them to! I think that is the most important thing to remind them of since they were just learning this skill and they are in 8th grade. My examples of this progression:

Once they had some practice under their belt, I asked them to create one drawn texture of their own. Those who had an easier time replicating texture were encouraged to use colored pencil as their challenge. And the other students were continuing their practice. Free choice examples:

After we had practiced our techniques and decided which textures were felt most comfortable with and/or were interested by, we took our drawings to the next level. I asked that each student select an "everyday object" and to alter its texture. I reminded them that they needed to take their texture off of their edges and pay attention to the shape of the object and imagining how the texture would lay/grow on that surface. To remind them of this, I kept this memo on my dry erase board while they worked:

I had the students run their ideas by me first so that they didn't choose anything too easy or too hard. I vetoed the smartphone as I thought its shape was too easy and suggested that we avoid the use of snakeskin due to time constraints and my fear of that student's future frustrations. Similar to our practice drawings, I suggested that students start with basic outlines before adding their shading. I asked that they maintain some features of the object so that we did not lose its identity all together but wanted them to cover the majority of its surface with the texture of their choice. The results were magnificent! I had my students write a reflection on art at the end of the year and many students oohed and ahhed about their texture drawings and how they had no idea they could draw like that and how cool it would look.

Starting with a basic outline

Newly textured with some key details remaining

You are now entering the "My students are talented!" Gallery:

Themed Clay Boxes

EXTRA! EXTRA! 8th Grade Finally Works with Clay!

Middle School Clay Slab Themed Boxes Art Lesson

My 8th graders haven't worked with slabs before so I thought this would be a good opportunity. The lesson is pretty simple and self explanatory, so I'll lay out the basics. The students were asked to sketch out a plan for a themed box. The theme needed to be portrayed in some way, shape or form on all sides of the box plus it required a topper (gotta practice those slip and scoring skills). This meant that some of my students planned on adding attachments to their sides and others painted or carved into them while all of them had to create a 3D topper to attach to the lid. Once the sketches were done, they made templates from posterboard (most of the students planned on cubes, so this step was easy). I taught them how to make a slab. As I tend to do with middle school, I made them an instructional video and did a class demonstration. It is hard for all of them to gather around a table and watch me, so the video helps with that part and the live demo helps clarify anything they were confused about in the video.

They each made their necessary slabs and once they were leather hard, we slipped and scored them together (as a hollow form, we cut the lids off later) plus any other attachments we needed and carved what needed to be carved. We cut the lids to have uneven edges with Exacto knives so that the lid wouldn't just slide right off but it also had to be removable. Once bisqued, they had the choice of painting their box with acrylics and adding a gloss, or they could glaze it. And as I always say...they came out great! I absolutely love the work that these kids do! I tried to get a couple of angles on a few of these, so you could see how their themes panned out:

Important caption to the bird box--this student's box was caving in while she attached her slabs and instead of giving up, she altered her plan and made something creative and beautiful! Love when that happens!