Saturday, March 19, 2011

running hot or cold.

I revisited the work of Joe VW, but this time it was with my 4th graders. I knew they would think his stuff was pretty cool, so an image of his would be a good way to get the kids into working with warm, cool, and complementary colors.
We used the above image as the inspiration for our own waterfall drawings. As with the 3rd grade classes we discussed how movement was created through Joe's use of shape and line. We also talked about what stands out the most in this image. Everybody agreed that it was the waterfall itself, and when asked why that part stood out the students were able to tell me that it was because it was brighter than the rest. 

It's all about contrast. I then talked about how using complementary colors (opposites) in an image can create a lot of emphasis and contrast because those colors clash against one another. Students were able to identify the 3 main sets of opposite colors for me very quickly.

When the students were adding color to their images they had to decide to either use the warm or cool complements on the water and their opposites in the background. They also incorporated tints of colors into their drawings to add more variety to the compositions. 

For this project we used Crayola construction paper crayons. I love working with these things. The colors hold up so well on dark color papers and they are no where near as messy as oil and chalk pastels to use in the classroom.
I would like to thank Joe again for sending us a sharp looking print of his night time smog image. It is displayed in my room next to the students takes on his original. The kids love the image!

The above images were created by students in Ms. Kidwell's class. They are one of my rockstar, super on-task 4th grade classes!


3 comments:

  1. I'm in love with this project! Can't wait to try it out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm in love with this project! Can't wait to try it out!

    ReplyDelete