abstract landscaping.

And we're back!

Right before winter break, the 2nd graders started their value unit. They used value to create 3d solids and 3d space in a drawing inspired the topiaries of Pearl Fryar. They tried to make their drawings look as realistic as they could. With this week's project, inspired by the modular clay tile works of Jason Messinger, I wanted to give them a chance to play with some simple landscape shapes, while still exploring how value contrast and shape size can create space and visual interest.

Jason likes to walk the line between representation and abstraction in his work and I wanted the 2nd graders to gain some experience in this too. I've had this image pinned for a while, so was/am excited to break out a lesson inspired by it:)

Versailles, France modular clay mural by Jason Messinger

I had the students do some preliminary work before starting their final drawings. First, they created color value scales. One with just green and another with yellow and green. We talked about pressing hard and soft to create the different values. They then drew a few simple landscape elements- pine tree, cypress tree, setting sun/bush, stream/path. The 3rd step was to put them together in an interesting way in 2 sketches. They needed to overlap at least once and change sizes from big to small somewhere.

They then got an 8x8" white square to draw on. When they had their chosen composition drawn, they could color it with any of the color values they made in their scales. The one rule was that shapes that shared a side could not be the same color.

On their exit slips, students had to identify how their new landscape was different than their Pearl Fryar ones. I also had them come up with a question to ask Jason. I will be collecting these and sharing some with him later this week.

My plan is to have different classes do different color schemes. I'm thinking blues for tomorrow. When we display them, I'd like to group them like Jason does and have the students help with the placement of the individual panels.

It's great to be back working with the kiddos!

cloud city.

This week the 3rd graders are using an illustration by Dinara Mirtalipova to learn about line and 3d space in art. They are familiar with Dinara's work because they did a project inspired by another illustration of hers last year.

Dinara's work is full of whimsy. I like how she flattens and stylizes her shapes, but through overlapping and size changes, she maintains a sense of recognizable space. I like sharing her work with my students because of the fictional touches she adds to many of her images.

I started the lesson by having students read our focus of the day aloud- today I am.., So that I can..., and I'll know I've got it when... We then looked at the image from last year to review Dinara's work and how she creates 3d space, and then we looked at our focus image for this lesson.

 

3rd grade focuses on the understanding and creation of 3d space, so I had students identify what parts represented the foreground, middleground, and background. We discussed how Dinara used size change, overlapping, detail, and color to separate the different layers. We also looked around the room for other examples of 3d space in outdoor scenes. 

Students used their small dry erase boards to practice drawing a person from behind, and to lay out their own fictional cityscapes. They referred to these as they drew out their final compositions on brown paper. I asked that the students only use color on the main character and ladder and that everything else was drawn in white. Students were required to create 3 different layers through color, size change, and having less detail in the background. Students made individual choices about their main character, cloud drawing, and background elements.

cooling off with Erik.

This week the 2nd graders are looking at the work of LA based artist Erik Abel. During this hot stretch of the summer I thought his images of water and waves would put us all in a cooler state of mind:)

When we looked at a few of his images from his website, we talked about how Erik creates 3d space by using bog shapes in the front and smaller ones in the back. When I showed the students an example of the project we would be doing I also had them identify how the shapes in the front were bolder in color too. As things get further away, they tend to get lighter and softer looking.

Students focused on pressing hard and soft in order to make dark and light areas in their drawing.

kinder clouds

This week the kinders got DIRTY!
They had the chance to full on paint for the first time with me this year and, of course, they loved it:)

All the kinders made very flat space collages last week. There was some overlapping for limitied depth, but the designs were intentionally flat.

 So, this week I thought it would be good to focus on 3d space and volume.

I have been really digging the clouds we have had out here for the past few weeks. I've taken a bunch of pictures of them and shared a couple with the classes. I asked them if the clouds looked flat or round and fluffy. They told me those things looked round. I pointed out how the clouds were light on the top and dark on the bottom and that made them look round. I had the students hold their arms in front of them to see how the tops of their arms looked lighter than the bottom.

We then looked at how the clouds in the front were bigger than the clouds that were far away. I demonstrated this in class with students that were sitting next to me and ones that were far away. They discovered that the closer the student was to me, the larger their head looked to me.

After that I shared a painting of clouds I did and then we got cracking.

We drew out our cloud shapes and added shadows to the bottoms of them. Half way through my classes for the week, I also threw in a couple palm trees at the bottom and students drew these by pressing hard with their black color sticks.

I did a painting demo. How to hold and clean your brush between colors 101. Then they went at it. Some classes were asked to paint the clouds with warm colors and others with cool colors. When they painted the clouds I showed item how to leave a little space white at the top to make it look like the sun was hitting the top.

he speaks for the trees.

His name is Pearl.

Pearl Fryar.

He has been creating a topiary garden on the grounds of his house in South Carolina for the past 30 years. He has over 300 plants on his property that he continues to shape from morning until night on most days of the week. Some of the pieces are hard edged geometric abstractions while others are looser, more natural looking spirals and curves.

There is a documentary of him and his work called "A Man Named Pearl". You can stream the video on Netflix. He is a pretty extraordinary artist and man. So passionate. So giving. The documentary is a great watch and provides insight into his process, philosophy, and history.

I shared a number of images from his website with my second grade classes this week. We talked about how he makes his work, and the fact that he has to maintain and cultivate it for many years. Trees and bushes do not stop growing. When our Gee's Bend quilts were done, they were done. If we worked on a tree, that would not be the case.

Since we could not create a real topiary in class (although it would be cool to start a couple on campus this year), we created drawings of our own gardens. Before we did this, we looked at a couple photos of Pearl's garden more closely, so we could talk about how 3d space was implied in them.

The students found out that shapes that are closer appear to be lower and shapes that are far away start higher up in the image. They also discovered that shapes appear largest when they are closer to you, and smaller when they move away from you.

They also saw that shapes looked 3d in the photos because of the play between light and shadow.

When hands on portion started, I emphasized that what their plants looked like was up to them. I modeled sizing and positioning, but they were not supposed to copy what my plants looked like.

Once the composition was laid in the next step was to use light and dark to create the illusion of volume in the plant shapes.

The kids really enjoyed seeing what Pearl could do with a living thing. They also really got a kick out of seeing somebody make art with hedge trimmers!

Thanks for the inspiration, Pearl!