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.

chilling at the pool.

The 3rd graders are identifying and creating movement in art this week. Like the kinders, they looked at the work of painter David Hockney for inspiration. We looked at a couple paintings from his LA pool paintings and identified that he created movement by using wavy lines and by using lines to create a splash.

We then drew out a pool shape together. After that, students were free to add any details they wanted to. Students colored everything except the water with color sticks. I reminded them about using light and dark to make things look more real like we did on their lego mini fig selfies from a few weeks ago. Many students added some realism by doing this on things in their drawings.

When it came to the water, students approached it with crayon resist. They pressed hard with white crayons to create the wavy motion lines and then painted the water and sky with cool color watercolors.

I started the week with a different composition in mind, but switched because I felt the overhead point of view was a bit too challenging for them.

 Hello Kitty makes everything better;)

 Yikes!

jellies.

This is the first week I have gotten to work with the 5th graders since our mini collaborative lesson the first week of school. It's been a great week:)

I am sharing the work of Canadian artist Tamara Phillips with them as we look at how line can create shapes, unity, and movement. Tamara makes wonderful watercolor paintings of natural shapes. Many of her paintings focus on marine life. My favorite paintings of hers are her jellyfish. I love how she captures their shape and sense of floating motion. We have the Birch Aquarium in San Diego and they have a great jellyfish exhibit. Many of our students have been there as well, so it's cool to do a project that ties in with the aquarium and the Pacific Ocean.

While looking at Tamara's paintings, we talk about how she uses contour lines to make the jelly shapes, how her uses of wavy lines creates both a sense of motion and unity, and how her use of a limited color palette creates unity as well.

Before we start drawing out our jellies I share the exit slip students need to turn in when they are done painting. They need to answer how Tamara's work is similar and how it is different to their painting in at least 2 complete sentences. I want them to have this in their head as they are working.

We draw them out together, pressing softly with the pencil, so that it doesn't show up in areas where 2 light colors meet. I show them how the direction of their jelly body and tentacles will tell us where the jelly is moving from and where it is moving to. We trace certain parts with sharpie markers to get them to stand out a bit more.

Before painting I ask students to decide what color family they will use to paint- warm, cool, or 2 primaries plus the secondary they make. We then start with one of those colors for the body of the jelly. I demonstrate making a color lighter by using mostly water. We continue to add water to the body and tentacles. I demonstrate how to keep parts bleeding into one another by starting away from wet parts.

When we paint the background I go back to one of Tamara's paintings and show the students how she lets colors bleed together in the background and I then demonstrate painting wet next to wet and on wet.

The students are doing a terrific job with this project. Lots of variety in color. They are also doing a great job communicating similarities and differences between their work and Tamara's.