gone fishin.

The 4th graders have gone fishin this week with the help of Erik Abel. A fair bit of students will need some time next week, but I thought I'd share some of the cool drawings that have been completed so far:)

Erik is an amazing artist who is constantly inspired by the ocean, the creatures that inhabit it, and the landscape surrounding it. I love his sense of color, style, and composition. I have used his work as inspiration for multiple projects in the past. I was scrolling through my instagram feed recently (like, this past weekend) and when I came across the image below that Erik had just posted. It's a bit of a departure for him in terms of shape, contours, and mark making and I think it's absolutely awesome! I think it could be the source of a great shape and collage lesson, but I decided that I would use it for a lesson in my texture unit.

We look at a number of images from his website and then I share this image with them. We identify the geometric shapes Erik has used and how he created a bit of depth in the images by changing fish sizes. I also point out that there is a spot on each fish that is handled differently than the rest in that it has a more natural texture than the other parts. It contrasts from the rest and gives the image a little boost of energy. Before the kids start with their sketches we also review our warms and cools from the previous 2 lessons and go over how each of the warms has a cool opposite or complement.

The students need to draw at least 2 small practice fish before starting their large (12x15") final drawing. I walk them through using geometric shapes as the basis for body, head, fins, tail fins, and interior elements like gills.

After their sketches are done, students can start on the large drawing- making sure to alter the size of the fish to create a little depth. Erik's image doesn't have outlines, but I had the students use thick and thin sharpies to outline their parts and create variety in their line weight. 

When students were ready to color, I modeled using texture plates to create different patterns on their fish. I emphasized only using textures on some of their fish parts to create contrast between solod and patterned parts. Students were also to use at least one pair of complementary colors per fish. They could use more than that pair, but they needed to demonstrate that they could identify and use complements too.

Their exit slips are done on post-it notes for this one. I gave them to sentence starters to reflect on the project. 

just keep swimming...

We are back in session at Zamo after a wonderful month long spring break, that for me, began with the tremendous NAEA conference and ended with a fabulous family camping trip up in Malibu.

This week the 2nd graders are focusing on symmetry, analogous colors, and purpose in art with the help of artist Erik Abel. I have used Erik's work a few times the past couple of years to help kids explore color, style, and value.

We are looking at a couple of skateboard designs that he made to support the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Not only does Erik do some very cool visual work, but he is also very generous with his skills and work to support various causes and groups.

There is a cool time lapse video of Erik creating the two decks on vimeo.

Students identify how there are parts of the decks that are mirror images of each other, that show symmetry. The students also pick up on the areas that don't show symmetry. I also point out that Erik often uses colors that go well together, color families.

When students get designing, they choose one of these families to work with, as well as white,black, gray, and browns.

The decks are made by folding the brown paper to create a line of symmetry and drawing only half of their fish shape. This is glued to black paper and trimmed to create a border around the fish. Students break up the fish into 3 or 4 parts and draw patterns in pencil. 

Cool results so far and I'm looking forward to more:)

wavy faces

Last week the 5th graders looked a the work of California artist Erik Abel. I have used Erik's work to teach students about different elements in a few projects before. In this one, we used Erik's work as the focus for an exercise in color value and relief sculpture.

Erik's work is all about the water. We looked at numerous images from his website and looked at the wide variety of work he has done that ties into this theme. The image we focused on was called "Neptune's Crown of Coral". I pointed out that Erik and created variety in color by adding white or black to mainly one color.

The 5th graders have been working with tints and shades for a few lessons, but not with the limitation of using only one color to make a monochrome image, so I thought this would make for an interesting visual challenge for them.

Erik's painting is flat, but I thought it would be cool to add a relief element to the project, so after students drew out and colored their abstract portraits they cut them into several pieces and reassembled them on black paper. I showed them how they could have each section pop up once or twice, depending on how many places they added glue to. These pop outs tied in well with the water theme of the portraits too:)

We did draw out the basic shapes together- nose, eyes, mouth line, but I offered variations at each step. If students wanted to do something different at each point, they could go for it.

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.