coraline's garden.

Interesting week with my 5th graders. Started the week with a lesson that did not pan out how I thought it would, so I switched things up and did this project inspired by a piece of concept art from the movie Coraline. (I'll share the results of the first project later this week.) The objectives stayed the same- using analogous colors to create unity and possibly mood, and creating depth with contrast and some perspective. I scaffolded the lesson and skills needed more and I'm pleased with how the 5th graders are achieving these objectives.

The focus image this week was made by Japanese illustrator and concept artist Tadahiro Uesugi. I love his sense of style and color. A few years ago the kinders and I did a project inspired by one of his illustrations.

We started the lesson by reviewing how the students used tints and shades to create depth and volume in their Hubble telescope and thunderclouds drawings from their last rotation. Then I shared 2 images- one was the concept art image and the other was a digital still from the completed movie. I shared that the role of a concept artist is to create a sense of what the settings and characters of a film are going to look like. Compared to the finished digital stills that make up a movie, concept drawings or paintings are often looser in style. It's up to the animators or also in this case, stop motion animators (everything you see in the film was actually built by a team of artists, sculptors, and designers) to fine tune the look and add the details in shape, value, and texture that make the final film look so realistic. 

Students then collaborated in small groups to compare and contrast the images. They shared their responses with the class and I created a class list on the board. I encouraged kids to change or add to their findings if they heard any responses that they felt were stronger or more appropriate than theirs. My plan is to have them use this info in an entry slip at the beginning of class this coming week. 

Lastly, we talked about analogous colors (color families) can be used to create unity and mood in art.

The students role was that of a concept artist and to create a garden scene similar to our focus image. Students sketched a couple ideas out and we practiced using converging lines to create depth in the porch. They then picked a color family to work with and used chalk pastels to draw it. The final step was to use black oil pastel to make a porch shape pop out and contrast against the background.

 some of the porches look architecturally sound.

 others have a bit more character and wear on them:)

on the road.

The first lesson I did with the 3rd graders focused on line and 3d space. We looked at a print by an artist named Meme.

I talked to the students about the use of contour lines in the image, and how these lines outlined the shapes. We then looked at how Meme had made the drawing look 3d. Students identified that things in the front and things got smaller in the background. They also picked up on the change in value from foreground to background.

We then looked at Meme's use of diagonal lines on the road in the drawing. We identified that the road got smaller as the diagonals got closer and closer. We tried to come up with as many words to describe this difference- wide/narrow, thick/thin, fat/skinny, big/small, etc. This was a simple introduction to the basics of perspective.

My original plan was for students to execute their drawing in just black, white, but changed my mind before meeting with my first class. I'm glad I did. The variety of colors in the drawings makes looking at a large group of them more interesting.

Students drew in pencil first, traced everything but the sides of the road, and then added color with crayon. Students could choose the place their character was heading toward and they could style their character how they wanted as well. When they added color, I emphasized pressing harder in the front and lighter as things went back in space.

This lesson took the full hour, plus an additional 10 to 15 minutes of the next meeting time.

The two images above were done with the student's non-writing hand. She gets her cast off in a week. She can totally draw with both hands now!

leggo my lego.

Last week the 4th graders created a design using patterns and different types of lines to make certain parts stand out. This week I wanted to see them apply these elements to something that looked more real.

Enter my kids' legos:)

I began class by reviewing how the students used diagonal lines last week to make shapes look like rooftops of buildings. We then created a 2 practice drawings. One making a box look 3d from the front and the other from a corner edge. I emphasized the importance of the diagonal lines in these 2 drawings. If you don't use any the shape will NOT look real. I also stressed the importance of the diagonals being consistent with each other.

I then talked about what a still life is. Showed the kids a few examples, and then told them we would use diagonals and line patterns to observe a still life and draw it.

I used my presenter to show them a lego block. I moved the camera so they could see it from an angle up on my dry erase board. I then traced the shape, soliciting the steps from the students as I drew. Once the shape was complete, I removed the lego so they could see the drawing by itself. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Again, I reminded them that it was the use of diagonals that made the drawing look so real.

I then put the block back on the presenter and added a couple more shapes to the set up. We drew it together. We revisited the different geometric solids that made up the shapes- cubes, rectangular prisms, cylinders, etc. Some of the classes even picked up on the obtuse angles present in some of the set ups.

I stressed the importance of drawing the shapes large enough on their paper, so to eliminate too much empty space in their compositions. I also discussed moving the shapes around in their drawings. They could place the shapes differently than they actually saw them. This is more creative for them, and more interesting for me when I look at 150 of them.

This activity challenged the kids, but they all hung in there and did a great job with it. I have seen many students struggle with using diagonals correctly to make things look like they have volume and depth. By tracing the shapes out on the whiteboard as the students followed along worked well. It may seem a little cheaty, but I really wanted them to see how these lines were present in a real life set up.

Once students finished with the shapes, they traced the contours and added line patterns of different value to each of the shapes to make them look even more real.

A special thanks goes out to Logan and Aurora for letting me play with their legos for a few days:)