birding with andrew.

I revisited the work of artist and designer Andrew Holder with my first 3rd grade lesson this year. I enjoy the way he abstracts and flattens natural objects in his well composed designs and prints.

As we were looking at images from Andrew's website we talked about how there are not a lot of contour lines present. He creates edges in his work by changing colors or values. We also identified his use of line, color, and shape patterns to give his work more variety and interest.

Drawing out the bird was done with direct instruction. I wanted to make sure their birds took up enough space in their compositions, so we walked through the bird step by step. There was more choice when th students added color and pattern to their creations.

I demonstrated how to use crayon pressure to make tints of colors on white paper. This idea of controlling hand pressure is one of the toughest concepts for my students to "grasp". Students applied color and tints to the main bird body, the sun shape, and the background border.

The tail feather patterns were open to the students' creativity. I asked for 2 things only- that they create an ABAB pattern and that they leave a part of either the A or the B white for visual variety.

The students thought it was quite cool that Andrew works for Roxy and they got a kick out seeing how, in some cases like the design that inspired our project, how he prints them in a variety of colors.

schooled in san diego.

Andrew Holder is an illustrator who grew up right here in San Diego. Two of his biggest clients are Roxy and Urban Outfitters. He uses a variety of mediums in his illustrations, including acrylic paint and screen printing.

I like how he creates layers of depth and 3d space while filling his compositions with relatively flat shapes. He also uses pattern effectively to create variety and texture throughout his illustrations as well.

Since the kinders have been working with contour line and pattern, I thought Andrew's work would be a good introduction to pattern in landscape and the use of printmaking to create a final image in art.

I showed the kinders a number of Andrew's illustrations and talked about how these images of outside places are called landscapes. I then revisited the use of pattern in art and had students identify a few patterns in his work.

Instead of drawing on paper, students drew on the same material that they use as lunch trays at school. Students pressed into the styrofoam as they drew so they indented it. After coloring the shapes on their plate with color markers of their choice, I helped them transfer that image onto a dampened piece of paper.

I like using washable markers on some print projects because students can work with multiple colors at once and add color patterns to their images more easily. Plus, the clean up for me is SO easy. 

1. intro to Andrew's work 

2. draw landscape on styrofoam, working from the front of the composition to the back

3. add color with washable markers to each part of the composition

4. dampen white paper and place on top of styrofoam and rub evenly to transfer

5. coloring process may be repeated to create more than one image from the same plate