lines! more lines! even more lines!

Wrapping up with my first 2 week rotation with our 1st & 4th graders and we have been experimenting with line while looking at the work of Nate Williams, Brita Lynn, Cadu Mendonca, and Seize Happywalker for inspiration.

Let’s dive in.

1sts looked at an illustration by Nate Williams and created profile portraits than included things of interest/ importance to them. They talked about things they liked, drew a few of them as practice, and then included them in the head of a portrait. They drew a picture of them thinking about what they like. 

They came back this week and we looked at a couple animals at the SD zoo and compared them to a couple paintings by Cadu Mendonca. They picked up on the difference between seeing a face in profile and seeing one from the front- one eye and half a mouth… except for peppa pig! We drew one of his animals together and then kids were to experiment with patterns within the animal. Color was added to specific parts to make certain parts stand out.

4ths looked to a drawing by Brita Lynn Thompson (zenspiredesigns) for a landscape and pattern exercise. They noticed how line was used to make the different landscape elements and how she also used it to fill every area with patterns. They looked at a collection of Sd landmarks and tried out combining different elements from different images. We talked about large v small scale and overlapping to create space, to boot.

Students scaled up in pencil, added colored, traced contour lines, and added patterns. Most kids needed extra time for this activity, so they had a full 80 minute session and then 15 minutes of the next to complete it. 

After that, they took a look at some work by Seize Happywallmaker (how awesome is that name?). They picked up on how he uses lines to create different shapes and how he overlaps to still make some depth in an abstract image. They noticed how symmetry was present in some of his pieces and not in others. I shared a short video of Home working and the kids loved it. It’s always cool to share this type of thing with our kids. I think it’s so important to see, videos or first hand, artists working through the various steps of the design process.

I modeled how they could create a design like Seize by starting with a couple simple shapes, giving them borders, adding another border that branches off, and then supporting shapes. We jumped right in to this. It was more much more spontaneous than the landscape drawing. Students drew, traced their lines, and added color. When coloring, I encouraged them to experiment with hard/soft, color patterns, and leaving some background shapes open, so there were places for us to rest.

To wrap up, the 4ths completed an exit slip that had them comparing and contrasting the focus works and telling me which experience they enjoyed more and why.

The 1sts and 4ths are off to a great start! Can’t wait to see them again when we play with shape!

clay cacti.

The 4th graders are finally getting a chance to glaze their clay cacti this week!

A few weeks ago, they slab built cacti and pots that were inspired by a series that Michael Pfleghaar created a few years ago.

This project was part of their texture unit. I have been looking forward to these being glazed since we made them. In my humble opinion, I think the final results are awesome:)

The only drag that I did not fully anticipate, is that with the cacti being glazed front and back, I would need a lot more stilts than we have:( We have 2 kilns, but not enough stilts for me to fully utilize their capacity...

On another note, this week the art team is in full art show prep mode. So much mounting, labeling, and tying up loose ends to do before our 27th annual Celebration of Art next Wednesday!

creating cacti.

Last week my 4th graders were focused on making flat shapes turn into implied 3d volumes. I shared the work of British illustrator Joshua Wiley with them, as well as numerous photos of cacti from right here in San Diego. This provided a comparison between figurative abstract style and realistic style.

We also talked about what conditions cacti thrive in (not really in the climate of England), and lo and behold, the kids figured out that San Diego has a pretty sweet climate for cacti:)

Students identified that even though Joshua's cacti looked different, he still made some of them look somewhat 3d by using light and dark colors. 

Students were to practice drawing at least 3 cacti from the images on the smartboard screen, after that they were to make at least one small compositional sketch so that they had a spacing and size plan for their final, larger sheet of paper. Joshua's work was cool because it was less intimidating to observe and render than the photos. Students did not have to copy the examples, they could make changes and alter the cacti shapes if they chose to do so. I modeled how most of the cacti are made with ovals, some of which are long and thin, while others are short and thick.

When students started working on their larger drawings they could use chalk pastels and/or crayola colorsticks, which are like woodless colored pencils. I demonstrated how to work the chalk pastels to create smooth and rough textures.

Many students did not complete their large drawings last week, so they are finishing them up this week before they start on their next project. 

The next project happens to be a clay one. They created implied texture and volume in their drawings and they are making actual texture and volume when they create their clay cacti and pots. They can not start on their cay project until they have used light and dark on the cacti and pots in their drawings. The pressure is on, but they are getting them done... so far;)

clay cacti coming up!