Tuesday, October 15, 2013

a lil' crooked.

This week the 2nd grade classes are continuing their work with line. We are looking at the work of designer Mike Klay of Powerslide Design. Mike makes some pretty darn cool posters, skate decks, and t-shirts. I love the way he plays with natural forms and settings. I like the way he has patterns evolve and change throughout his work.

I share one piece, in particular, with the kids. It's titled "Leaf Dweller".


First, we identify what we see- a tree, leaves, more trees, a house, a vent, a bird, and a weather vane.  Although most kids call the weather vane a windmill:) We then talk about which parts look close to us, and the kids agree that the tree and house look closer to us because they are darker, or bolder than the trees. Some kids pick up on the overlapping too. 

To review the warm and cools  we learned about last week I ask the kids to identify what colors are present in this image. Students are able to recognize green as cool and that there are no warm colors present.

I then ask them to describe the types of lines that the branches are made of. I have gotten many answers of wavy and bumpy, and some crookeds. I have even got wrinkly as an answer.

Once we are done breaking sown the image, I share an example I did that uses warm color leaves to turn the design into a scene of autumn.

The project is built from the back to the front. Students lightly draw a zigzag type line all the way across their paper to create the tree line. I remind them to press softly so it looks light, like we did with the water in the background of our fish pic from last week. Students lightly fill this in with a gray colorstick. 


The house is done with black paper. We draw out the top of a house and then cut it out. I point out that we only saw the top pf the house in Mike's image. I tell students that they don't have to copy mine, if they want their house to look different, that is more than okay.

After they cut out the house I ask them where they want to put it- left, center, or right. The only requirement is that the house doesn't float off the bottom edge of the paper.


Our branches are next. I ask students to add 3 long, bold crooked lines, starting at the side of the paper. Students then need to go back and make the lines a little thicker near the side of the paper. 
Then we do a little math... If we have 3 branches and we want a sum of 8, how many do we need to add? Then we add 5 medium branches that are attached to our long ones. Then we add small branches to our tree- if we have 8 branches, how many do we need to have 13?



Once the branches are done, we add the weather vane, followed by the warm color leaves. If students want to add any other details, like lit windows or birds, or any other stuff, they can once everything else is done.

I love how everybody's branches are different and how they're all a little funky too:)












1 comment:

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