eleanor rigby? no...

Eleanor McCain rocks!

Her quilts blew me away when I encountered them for the first time on dearada.
She gets so much range out of repeating simple shapes and then varying their size and color.
I turned her work into a collaborative project with each of my 2nd grade classes.

I love collage. Students get to practice cutting and gluing, investigate different color relationships, and work with different types of shapes. And the results always seem to come out top notch.

Eleanor was very kind to me and the students after I contacted her about the project. She passed on much praise to the students for the excellent work they did. I have written an article for an art education magazine and when it gets published Eleanor will link it to her site. Cool.

Oh, Charley.

Be still my beating heart. A few years ago I got a giant book of Charley Harper artwork for father's day. I was blown away by the sheer amount of brilliant work the man produced in his lifetime. Thousands of remarkable images. The ways that he interpreted the natural world into geometric shapes that are clean and sharp astound me.

I try to do at least one project based on his work every year. This year I chose a bird and it's reflection print to do a 2nd grade project with. It was a collage that had drawn lines added to add a bit of texture and movement. The results across 10 classes were consistently of high quality. One of those projects that kids hit out of the park.

I emphasized his use of geometric shapes to make animals more abstract in style.

1. Introduce Charley and his images of nature done in an abstract style. discuss the use of collage to create our version of his image
2. students get 2 equal size rectangles of paper. the same color, but one is a tint of the other
3. draw the bird shape on one rectangle- a simple raindrop and triangle
4. cut shapes out with 2nd sheet underneath, so you get 2 drops & 2 triangles
5. position first bird shape on black paper and glue down
6. take thin gray rectangle- 1x9", glue down so that it overlaps tail/triangle  of bird shape
7. position and glue down 2nd bird shape so it overlaps slightly the 1st bird shape
8. cut U shape out of black paper for face of bird and glue in place on 1st bird
9. cut small orange triangle for beak of 1st bird and glue in place
10. add black crayon dots for eyes and add repeated lines with crayon color that matches bird, so that it appears the bird's wings are flapping

Popsicle time!

This year our art magnet rotation teachers broke our schedule into trimesters. We had 12 weeks each with k &3, 1 & 4, and 2 & 5. We could then meet with classes on a weekly basis. That's why all the posts are from 1st & 4th so far. Its what is freshest for me, since I worked with them last.

 After doing a 4th grade project based on Alex Eben Meyer, I wanted to find one of his images to do with the 1st grade classes I was working with. I found a popsicle illustration that he did that I thought the kids would get excited about.

I was not disappointed. When I introduced the Alex's illustration I was greeted with a collective shout of "POPSICLES!!!"
They're enthusiasm carried through the whole length of the project. The students created a collage that had drawn on elements to it. They used a black crayons to make shades of colors on the bottoms and sides of the popsicles, so they looked more 3d.

1. intro to Alex's work, color families, overlapping, and tints/shades
2. draw one popsicle on one of 3 sheets of paper that are from the same analogous color group
3. slide the other 2 sheets underneath and cut all 3 out at the same time
4. fold a smaller brown piece of paper in half and draw 3 popsicle sticks- cut them out so there are 6
5. glue popsicle sticks onto popsicle bodies
6. add pencil lines on pops to make them more 3d. this gives them more perspective- front, side, and bottom
7. glue pops in place on larger white paper, making sure to overlap at least once to make the scene look more real. like they are stacked on top of each other
8. lightly shade the sides & bottoms of the pops to make shadows
9. trace over pencil lines to make contour lines stand out like they do in Alex's original

Thanks to Alex for inspiring 2 student projects!

Houses

I've liked the work of Salomon Huerta for awhile. I remember seeing one of his paintings at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla 5 or so years ago. A bald man sitting in a chair, facing away from the viewer. Not your normal portrait...
He has also done a series of suburban homes from around LA that I have always liked for their clean lines and the simplicity in the colors and compositions. Notice a theme?

I like these houses, too, because of what they aren't. They aren't mansions. They are homes that many of the students of our school could live in, whether as renters or owners. The students can relate to them and that's important.

It was our first foray into chalk pastels this year. The students chose one of Salomon's houses to draw and when doing so they focused on using tints and shades to make the scene look somewhat 3d. They were allowed to use 2 different sets of complementary colors, so that parts of the drawing contrasted against other parts. It's easier to create a focal point when using opposites.

The drawings were completed in an hour and 10 minutes.
Students also practiced blending the pastels and leaving other areas rough. Again, this allowed for contrast and set the trees and grass up nicely against the house and sky.

1. intro to Salomon's work- focus on landscape as subject, tints & shades, color
2. intro to working with pastels- demonstration of how easy it is to erase and make corrections
3. make contour line drawing of suburban landscape lightly with white chalk on black paper
4. add color to sky and then house, blending the colors smooth
5. add white to areas and blend for tints and light
6. add color to trees and grass, leaving these areas rough
7. add white and black to areas to make shapes look more 3d

Pablo. Lobato, that is.

I caught on to the work of this illustrator while looking for current abstract illustrators. The beginning drawing class I teach at Miracosta was doing a project based on abstract style and color schemes, so I wanted to find someone who was influenced by Picasso and the like, but was, you know... still alive. Enter the other Pablo. Lobato that is.

The college class did a good job with it. They copied an image of his 3 times, but using a different color scheme each time. I felt this allowed them to get into a way an artist could abstract a person into an image that was primarily made up of geometric shapes. By copying, it also allowed them to focus more on working with the different color groups, since the shapes and values were already laid out for them in Pablo's originals.

I thought it would be interesting to see how my 4th graders rolled with the same types of concepts. Taking a natural thing and using geometric type shapes to abstract it, while still making it look 3d by using tints and hades of a color. THey only created a monochromatic drawing.

We had already worked with chalk pastels, so I thought it would be good to practice with them again. We used a grey paper so we could draw with white chalk. I have found corrections are easier to make this way.

We used Pablo's Barack Obama illustration as our subject. The kids enjoyed the process. There was less discomfort with the drawing portion. Any time they are asked to draw realistically from observation, there is resistance from those who "can't" do it. Since the image is already abstract, I emphasize that it already looks "weird" and if their interpretation looks different or off in any way, it just makes it more abstract.

1. intro to Pablo Lobato's illustrations, focusing on abstract style, natural & geometric shapes, tints & shades, and portraits as subjects in art
2. drawing the contour lines of the image lightly with white chalk on grey paper
3. adding tints of colors where necessary
4. adding the true color where necessarary
5. adding shades of the colors where necessary
6. adding a background color that contrasts against the color chosen for the face

Since the drawings are done in pastels, it is wise to spray them lightly with workable fixative or hairspray when they are done. If you can't do this, palce sheets of wx or tracing paper in between them, so they do not smear each other

Ribbons.

In college I shared a 2 bedroom apartment with a rotating crew of guys over the course of a few years. Rent was cheap split 4 ways and it was right across from the school campus. When snowstorms shut the campus down, I could get to the print studio and have it to myself for hours. Bliss.

One of those guys was a student named Aaron Wexler. He's doing well for himself in New York and beyond these days, making super collages, window installations, and designs.

I was checking out his website and discovered an installation of various ribbons he did with another artist.
Project inspired!

I decided to do it with 1st graders, but it could be modified for any grade really. Instead of moncochrome, each class worked with an analogous color group. The project focuses on gluing, cutting, and looping paper.

Individually the projects look sharp, and they also are striking when gathered and dsiplayed together.

1. intro to Aaron's work, talking about unity and the skills we would use to complete the project
2. cutting a circle out of a 6" square
3. cutting another 6" square into 4 equal parts and gluing them to the cirlce- all gluing is done on the backside of the ribbon
4. gluing 12 rectangles that are about 1 & 1/2 x 9" around the circle shape.
5. after strips are glued, add glue to the inner edge and loop the far edge to it
6. gluing 8 rectangles that are larger, 2 x 12" in between the skinnier ones, then glue & loop
7. glue 3 rectangles that are 1&1/2 x 12" to the bottom of the cirlce so they hang down like the verticle part of an award ribbon
8. flip over to the good side and cut & glue a smaller circle to the center of the bigger one. i used metallic origami paper to give it a "fancy" finish

the kids really thought this was a good one. Like they got an award for doing the task- the ribbon itself

Monster Bikes

I've been following dearada for a few years now. I have been turned on to so much quality work through this source. good variety of artists, locales, and media. I am very grateful to have found her postings online.
Recently she posted about the illustrations of Alex Eben Meyer.
Cool stuff. Interesting finished pieces and he has a fascinating sketchblog. Many of his drawings have a looseness to them that i relate to in my own work.

The pic posted was a bike illustration that he did. Complex shape made through adding on thick and thin lines against a white background. An obvious understanding of the functionality of the parts being added.

Great exercise in drawing to test students' imaginations within limited parameters- black lines & bike parts. A balance between the bike parts and empty parts is key to creating an engaging composition.

I did this with 4th graders. It was completed in one session lasting an hour & ten minutes.

1. intro to Alex's work. emphasizing line, composition, positive and negative space, and imagination
2. pulled up a variety of bikes on my presenter screen so students had references for their drawings
3. drawn in pencil first
4. traced in marker- making some lines thicker than others to create variety in line quality

It's a very open assignment. Students may go many different ways assembling their "monster bikes".

Alex was kind enough to post pics of some student work and give them a shout out on his sketchblog.

Mobiles

When looking for a mobile project I wanted to do with 1st graders, I came across the work of Heather Frazier.

The simplicity and the repetition of shapes and the limited color schemes on many of her pieces speak to me.
Add the subtle movement and variation inherent in a mobile and she has something very special.

Pretty simple to adapt to small students. The project is good practice in cutting and gluing. Shape design is up to students, with 2 rules- make them as big as possible on the paper, and make sure they can cut the designs out. Don't make it too complex, in other words.

This is an easy way for students to create something together. They create their own garland mobile and then attach it to a wire piece with all the others.

The project can be completed within an hour, including a brief introduction to the artist and what makes the sculptural forms of mobiles unique to other types.

materials- armature wire, string, construction paper, scissors, glue, pencils, erasers

1. intro to Heather's work
2. drawing of shapes on a minimum of 5 folded sheets of paper. sheets are folded so students can cut out the front & back of the shapes at the same time
3. cut out shapes- keeping them grouped in pairs
4. lay out string and place shapes in the order you want to see them in
5. put glue on front of back shape from 1st pair, slide under the string and place front shape on top. creating a string sandwich
6. repeat this step until all pieces are glued to the string
7. tape individual garland mobiles to the armature wire bent in the form of a spiral
8. repeat with individual garlands until large mobile is complete

I sent Heather some info and pics of the project we did based on her work and she was kind enough to mention us on her own blog. Thanks!