building bridges.

The 2nd graders are starting their color unit by learning about warm and cool colors this week. To help them with this, I'm using a piece of concept art from the Disney movie Big Hero 6. (the big bummer for me right now is that I can't figure out who the concept artist who made it actually is!)

Before starting with the day's work, we review what the kids learned in their last project- the abstract landscapes inspired by Jason Messinger's clay tiles. We talk about dark and light, hard and soft, and big and small. I tell the kids  that we are going to use all that stuff again today and that all of those are examples of contrast in art.

We then get into one more pair of contrasts- warm and cool colors. We identify them and I write them on the board. I also show the kids where they are located in my room, so if they aren't sure when they are working on their drawing, they can look at the list on the board and/or look at the visual examples posted in the back of the room.

When I share the bridge drawing from San Fransokyo, we talk about how it is an example of combining two places- San Francisco and Tokyo, Japan to make something new. The concept artist took the Golden Gate bridge and modified it with traditional Japanese architectural elements. We also identify that the sky is cool and the bridge is warm, that the sky is light and the bridge is bold. The bridge is big in the front and small in the back.

The project is done with both chalk pastels and oil pastels. Students pick warm or cool to use in the chalk background and use the opposite on the foreground bridge with their oil pastels. We do the sky first and then draw over it for the bridge. Students can add flair to their bridge and light posts if they wish to make it more unique.

This has been a very successful project in terms of correctly splitting their drawing into warm and cool parts, as well as creating a sense of 3d space.

I love the dragon head light posts!

look at baymax fly!

contrast in the desert.

This week the 4th graders are starting their value unit by creating a drawing inspired by Ed Mell. The focus of the lesson is contrast- in value and media to make part of an artwork stand out from the other parts.

We start by looking at one of Ed's paintings. I chose one of his more realistic pieces, but he also creates some fantastic scenes of skies and desert landscapes that have some more abstract elements. He primarily does landscapes of the Southwest- big skies, rocky canyons, and plateaus. In the focus piece for the lesson we looked at how he used value and detail to contrast the cacti and foreground elements against the soft sky and washed out mountains in the distance. We also took a minute to talk about the desert habitat and how, once you get over the mountains east of San Diego County, the landscape is pretty similar- minus the Saguaro cacti that are found out in the Arizona desert that surrounds Ed, where he lives in Phoenix.

The lesson also provided the students an opportunity to get practice working with both oil and chalk pastels. We used the chalks for the sky and mountains and oils for the foreground elements. They got to practice blending chalk pastels in a couple different ways. Students created their skies first and the cacti came after. This allowed them to blend without having to go around the foreground shapes. The foreground elements were drawn right on top of the chalk pastel background. As long as students press hard, the cacti overpower the chalks in those areas and the chalk doesn't effect the cacti color. The contrast in color saturation between the 2 mediums really gets the cacti to stand out. Students also added light and dark color values to their foreground elements to give them more detail and 3d volume.

 using the side of the chalk to lay in color.

mini Rothko's;)

 finger blending the sky. one color into the next from the bottom up.

 adding clouds on more of a diagonal.

 laying white softly over sky and finger blend. clouds stay unblended for added contrast.

oil pastel foreground goes directly over background.

I have to say, I am LOVING how these are turning out. So many kids are having success with it! Next week when I see them again, I plan on doing a writing activity with the students that reinforces their understanding of contrast in art and English language arts. Contrasting their work and that of the artist and then posing a question they would ask the artist.

down below.

Last week the kindergarten students continued working with shape and describing the location of things.

I started the lesson with a quick review of the shapes and location word we used in our bee collage the lesson before.

I used the work of Japanese children's book illustrator Yusuke Yonezu. He has done many drawings of animals. When I shared these images from his we talked about how animals are natural shapes. Yusuke's drawings are easily recognizable for the students and they have a childlike charm about them, too. I pointed out that some of the animals are small, some are medium, some are big, and one is the biggest of all.

When we looked at his blue whale I traced the whale shape with my finger and the kids saw that it was an oval shape and when I traced the spray they identified the triangle. The students were able to tell me that the spray was above the whale. I then introduced them to "below". The whale is below the spray in this drawing, just like the floor is below our feet, or like we are below the ceiling. (KG1)

We then drew our own blue whales in 3 steps- the whale body in pencil, filling in the whale body with oil pastels, and counting and making water drops with oil pastels. When we did the spray, I showed them how in each row of drops I added one more. Simple addition and counting. (KCC5) This created a triangle shape of spray above the whale.

At the end of the lesson, students completed a sentence frame, practicing their letter forms and filling in the word of the day- below.

san diego patterns.

The 3rd graders are continuing their study of shape this week. They are focusing on natural shapes. We took a look at the work of Mitjili Napurulla to help us with our understanding of these types of shapes. Mitjili lives and works in the Haasts Bluff community in Northern Australia. Her artwork is rich in natural imagery and patterning.

I begin the lesson with a quick review of the mudcloth project they did last week that was inspired by the work of Nakunte Diarra. As students recall vocab and concepts I write them on the white board, so they can refer to them later when completing their exit slips.

When I introduce Mitjili and her work, I write key vocab under the mudcloth concepts for easy compare and contrast. Students notice there are not nearly as many geometric shapes in her work, she uses a wide range of colors, and she repeats shapes to make patterns. These patterns often symbolize things from Mitjili's home and history. I remind the classes that Nakunte's patterns also represented things from her history and culture.

The students are to make a natural shape pattern design inspired by Mitjili's work. However, they will use natural forms from San Diego to create their designs and patterns. I share with them photos of torrey pines, jade plants, agaves, cacti, and beach side cliffs. These images, as well as completed examples are on the smartboard while students are creating their designs. Students may also base their patterns on other San Diego related natural shapes.

Before they start patterning, I have the students fold their paper into equal quarters and label them as fractions like they did last week. When they draw their patterns, one of the 3 should take up 1/2 the paper, while the other 2 take up 1/4 each.

Once the drawing is done, students add color with oil pastels. The color choices are entirely up to them.

When their coloring is done, students complete an exit slip that asks them to identify similarities between the 2 focus artists' work and it asks them to identify how their design is different than Mitjili's.