chalk lung... for real;)

So. Much. Dust.

6 weeks of chalk pastels in my classroom is done! I think the kids were able to apply just a little chalk to their paper than to themselves over that time.

That said, all grade levels really rocked the chalk and their projects are bold and vibrant.

This week my 2nds and 5ths worked with chalk pastels to create landscapes inspired by our San Diego coast. Both grades identified and applied warm and cool colors to their landscapes. Both created a lot of space in their work. The 2nds did so through value, size, and overlapping. The 5ths did it by using overlapping, color value contrast, and through the amount of detail in areas.

The 2nds started off by reviewing how we created depth with overlapping and value in their Aaron Draplin inspired landscape skate decks. Then they looked at a photo of our Coronado Bridge at sunset and noticed how those space makers were present. We then looked at how dark the bridge is compared to the background and how this makes the bridge come to the front. They built their drawings up from the background to the foreground. All chalk pastels, some areas rough, some areas blended, and finished the drawing by using black oil pastels to make the bridge. (I like to switch up with oil pastel at the end because it's more controllable.)

The 5ths worked with the same concepts of color and space when they did their chalk and oil landscapes. The biggest difference was the complexity of shapes and the use of details in the foreground to make the tidepool area stand out in the foreground. When drawing those pools, we talked about perspective and point of view. Why the shape or shapes would look more like ovals and not circles.

Next week we move on to painting madness!

local landscaping.

This week the 4th graders have continued working with chalk pastels landscapes. We changed the point of view (from the side as compared to looking down in the ISS photos from last week) and the location of the landscapes as we looked at SoCal scenes by San Diego artist Monique Straub. Monique creates intensely colored landscapes that have a strong use of line to fill space that contrasts interestingly with the character of the photos taken aboard the ISS by Commander Scott Kelly.

The emphasis for this lesson is twofold- practicing pastel application/tinting techniques and looking closely at a scene and recreating it. Just as students need to pick up on main ideas and key details in reading text, I wanted them to gain practice in identifying those concepts when observing and making art. Earlier in the year, when exploring line and shape, students had much more room for choice in the art making process. I find that having this type of balance is important in developing creative thinking and technical skill.

Students could choose from 3 of Monique's landscapes to work from. I asked them to outline general shapes first and then add contour details. When adding color to their drawings, students could mix and blend colors and add white to make tints where needed. I also encouraged them to use line patterns in areas to capture the line work present in Monique's originals.

When students finished and cleaned up, they answered 3 questions about the project and materials they have been using this year.

looking down at landscape.

And we're back...

Zamo just started back up after a 4 week winter break and the 4th graders have been looking down and closely with the help of Commander Scott Kelly's photographs from the International Space Station.

We start by reviewing a couple things from previous projects- that we have used color sticks to create some pretty clean drawings and that we have been drawing on white paper.

 

I then ask the kids to roll their sleeves up and get messy with me as we practice a couple chalk pastel techniques on a small sheet of black paper. We look at the difference between blended and non blended color applications and notice that they look like different textures. We add white to a couple colors to see that in order to make a tint on black they need to add white to their paper. We practice draw a colored line over a color field and replace it with an edge when the line color fills one side right up to that said line. We fade a color to black by pulling it away from a color shape. All these techniques can be applied to a landscape drawing to create different effects.

I go over point of view with them and how something can look different depending on the direction you look at it. Then I share a photo of the Commander and that he is not stationed on Earth, but in outer space.

As Captain Jean Luc Picard would say, "Engage."

This is where the kids gets hooked. We look at some of the photos that Commander Kelly has taken of the Earth below him and has posted on his instagram account. The kids can't get over the colors and shapes that they see in the images. There has been a lot of excitement in the room as we look at his photos. We talk about how these images become abstract compositions because of his cropping of them and their overhead point of view.

I printed out about 12 different photos of his for kids to choose from and what I tell them is that I expect that they try their best to capture the essence of their chosen image. I do not expect them to be copies. I model drawing out the shapes they see lightly with white chalk to start. I show them how to start with a point of reference- where a shape touches a side of the paper/photo and build from there. Then add colors to their larger shapes. I emphasize adding details at the end, so they remain crisp. When students are looking at the images I ask them to think about what surfaces look rough and which ones look smooth. Which areas are tints and which areas are shades? Which areas are made of one color and which are made of color mixes?

When students get further along, I encourage them to look closely at the photo for details and elements that are present that are not yet in their drawing. Identifying those details and including them in a drawing gives it much more interest and character.

The kids have definitely felt challenged by this activity, but I have not sensed much frustration with it. The images are complex, but the abstract nature of the landscapes, I think, frees them up a bit.

landscapes- thick line style.

This week the 2nd graders are working with collage and landscape. The lesson is inspired by a skateboard design by Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Company did. In the design he took elements from a series of "thick lines" prints he did and put them together to create a layered landscape composition. The individual prints as well as the deck design are visual statements that are striking and bold in their color palette and simplicity.

This landscape touches on a couple points that 2nd graders need to know in terms of creating 3d space with shapes. It's a clear example of overlapping to create depth and Aaron also uses color value to separate layers.

This is a pretty direct lesson, but I wanted something that students could complete in one session after spending 2 classes working on their Miguel Mejia inspired animal portraits.

We quickly review the Miguel lesson and tell them that we are going to focus on creating depth in this project. When students come in I have paper laid out on the tables like this.

I ask them to look at how the papers in front of them to see if they can identify how the 3 pairs of color are similar in terms of creating a front/back relationship- each has one sheet overlap another and there is a dark color on top and a light color behind it.

We then look at Aaron's image and the kids go, "Whoa!" We look at how he uses those same elements and get ready to make some landscapes in the shape of skateboard decks.

We draw out patterns for water, trees, and mountains together on the light colored paper of each pair. When cutting, we put the corresponding darker color behind the light one, so we can cut out both sheets at the same time. Then we flip them back to dark in front of light, overlap them and place them on the deck paper.

When we get all 3 layers cut and placed we glue them down. We start with the light mountain and move forward in the scene. Once the "land" part of the landscape is done we move onto the sun and clouds. Here, it's a little different. We cut the sun, glue it onto the orange and cut a bigger circle. WE do it again for the red. We then make our cloud shape and decide the sun and cloud positioning in the sky.

To turn their landscapes into decks, I show them how we can round off the corners.

After clean up, we sit back down and the kids talk to a partner about how they created 3d space. I can cruise around and get a gist of the conversations. I then get a couple of them to volunteer to share with the whole group. Finally, kids think about what their favorite part of the project was and share that with a partner, and then some of them share with the whole group too.

The kids have loved this project. Even though it is a direct lesson, there is a decent amount of variety in the final products due to overlap spacing, sky element positioning, and pattern making.