drawing and dreaming with Horace and Melissa.

This week the 3rd graders continued their value unit. The goal of the project was for them to be able to make a character look 3d by using light and dark color values. Last week they used light and dark to create variety, so I wanted them to apply value to a drawing and make it more realistic.

The inspiration for the project comes from illustrations done by Melissa Sweet for the book A Splash of Red: the Life and Art of Horace Pippin. (the link for the book is a great resource for the classroom and has a video biography narrated by a child) 

 

I started the lesson by sharing a photo of Horace and talking about his life and all he overcame to become an artist. I then shared 2 illustrations by Melissa that are from the book. We looked at how she used a little bit of value contrast on Horace's skin and clothes in order to make him seem a little rounder and solid. I read the text to them and we then identified places, animals, and things that we saw in his thoughts above his head. I explained that they would be creating self-portraits- they would draw themselves and things that they enjoy.

 We followed the composition that Melissa did and I walked the kids through drawing their self-portraits. I had various hairstyle examples on the board, so they could have a better idea how to approach that aspect of the drawing. When they added color I emphasized pressing hard for their dark values and soft for their light values.

An hour isn't quite long enough for this lesson. I'll be bringing back classes for 15 minutes each next week, so that everyone can get finished. I wanted the focus to be on value, but the drawing portion of the lesson took a lot longer than I originally planned. That said, I love the individual takes on the self portraits- both physically and what they like to do:)

Always nice to see expressions like this on kids' faces when they get done:)

invaded by weavings!

This week I wanted to get the 3rd graders some practice with weaving as a process in art. We talk about warp and weft, over and under, and the alternating pattern found in most clothes.

We practice doing an AB pattern with cut paper a couple times, so they get a basic understanding of weaving and then I tell them to pull them apart because we are going to do something a little different...

I share the work of Invader, a street artist from Paris who puts up ceramic tile space invaders in cities all over the world. He visited San Diego a few years ago and posted over 20 of these creatures. We looked at some from his website and a surprising amount of kids had seen a few of them in different parts of downtown. I talk about how parts of Invader's tile work look as if they could have been done with the weaving technique we just practiced.

I then share how Kate Lilley has taken the same space invaders from the 80s and created some cool paper weaving versions of them.

From here, I let the kids create their own woven paper invaders. I leave Kate's examples up on the screen and I do a demonstration next to them, so students can see how to make small and large parts of color. I point out how some parts of the invaders are close to the AB pattern we practiced, but other parts do a lot of skipping over or under the warp to create solid bands of color or white.

Once students have their invaders woven, they glue the ends for stability and then cut off any extra lengths of their warps.

cacti, cacti, cacti.

I'm in the middle of my texture unit at Zamo and I'm swimming in cacti!

It wasn't originally planned that way, but I recently came across some super cool images by a variety of artists and illustrators, and to be honest, I just love those darn plants anyway, so I'm making it happen:) It's a great way to talk about our SoCal climate and to see how others interpret the cacti in different visual ways.

I'm sharing some illustrations by Mexican born illustrator Elena Boils with my 3rd graders this week. We are looking at how she implies the textures of the plants in her illustrations through line type and mark making. By doing a relief print project we can also identify how actual texture can be used to create an artwork and by doing the print on white paper, we can mimic the way Elena uses white lines to define shapes in some of her illustrations, too.

I model and break down some of the cacti shapes we see in her ills on the whiteboard attached to my smart board, so students can see my versions and Elena's at the same time. I also show them how she makes her flower pots look like cylinders. Students then practice these shapes and make a compositional sketch that is the same size as their relief plate will be. That way, they don't have to worry about scaling things up when they are ready to start on their plate. I share that cacti come in all shapes and sizes. I have one in my front yard that is over 15' tall! So, when they are sketching I repeatedly state to make at least one cactus almost as big as  their paper. I also talk about/model moving things up and down in the drawing to create more variety in their composition.

Once their sketches are done, they redraw it on styrofoam, and then add marker color. Color choices are up to them, although I do suggest not using the same color in shapes that touch each other. If students finish their print early, they may color the plate a second time and contribute it to a print triptych with a couple other students' works.

 early finisher triptychs

When I see these classes again next week, their projects will be waiting on the tables for them, so they can complete their project exit slips at the beginning of class.

warming up and moving up.

The 3rd graders continued to work with movement and color this week. They looked at warm colors in art and we discussed how different types of line could create different types of movement in art. We also talked about how just the direction a line is going can create a bit of motion in an artwork.

I shared 2 images with them for this project. The first was the atari logo and thte other was a skateboard design that looks like it was inspired by the atari logo a little bit.

Students started by shaping their decks out of a long rectangle piece of paper. They drew their city sky line next and filled it in with black. Next, they decided what kind of motion they wanted to create in their sky and added pencil lines to convey it. These lines were traced in black crayon and they could then paint their sky with both warm and cool colors. I showed students how they could make a colo darker or bolder by painting it, moving onto another part, and then going back and adding another coat of that color.

Here are a couple shots of my new buddy in the classroom. I now have a true master watching over my instruction;) I tend to carry around star wars figures in my pocket from time to time.