Monday, September 9, 2013

Making a splash with David Hockney

Students in third grade learned about the artist David Hockney. We focused especially on his California influenced pool paintings from the 60's and 70's. I saw a similar project on the blog "Kids Artists". The students were focusing on line, shape, and color while working on these. We also spent a good bit of time thinking about how our hair and body look different when submerged under water. The kids loved creating the look of weightlessness in their self portrait. Hockney used interesting techniques to create the effect of light shining in on the water of his pool paintings and we tried to recreate that. I love how they all look so much like the child that made them. Great job third graders!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Fifth Grade Optical Illusions

I saw a similar project to this online and decided it would be a successful project for my fifth graders. They had to use a cool color on their hands and a warm color on their background. This project went pretty quickly and was a good first project that everyone was successful with. It was a great reminder about overlapping, as well. They loved looking at different examples of optical illusions each week and I shared some of M.C. Escher's work too. 



Book making fun!

My fourth grade students have been learning about book arts! We have looked at completely handmade books and artists that create altered books.these students are creating books all about themselves like a visual diary.We started with a large manilla envelope and painted interesting textures on both sides. Next, we created a plate for the front cover with their names in ransom note style letters. They are adding color to the pages that will eventually go inside with bleeding art tissue and water to make a tie dye effect. I plan to fold the pages so that each page has a pocket and I will sew them in the books with my sewing machine. In the coming weeks the students will have various assignments for creating the art that will go in the pockets. Stay tuned for more updates on this big project!