surfin and shading.

The 3rd graders started their value unit this week. We looked at a few paintings that Mario Quezada did on skateboards for inspiration.

Students pointed out the things they saw in the designs. I nudged them along to also describe the light and dark colors they saw in them too. I used this point to talk about tints and shades of colors in art. In this case, the different values are used to add variety to the designs, but I talked about how light and dark colors can make an image look more and 3d too.

We had an interesting PD yesterday and one of the things discussed was that students understanding of the content increases when they know why they are learning about it. What is the purpose of the learning? To that end I wrapped up my intro with the following-
Why practice creating tints and shades?

Well, I tell them, one of the main reasons the video games play look so real is that the programmers and artists who design them use the element of value effectively to create light and shadow in those games. So, my students who are interested in designing games, or becoming an illustrator, they are going to need to nail the use of light and dark in their work. Not, obviously, right away, but their time to practice and evolve starts right here, right now,  in elementary school.

The students were to use Mario's work as a resource. I explained that our goal was not to copy his work, but use it as inspiration for a fun way to practice making tints and shades.

The project can break down into a few steps-
1. Draw the surfer. Start with the waist and go from there. Talk about how a surfer uses their arms and legs to balance like the kids do on a skateboard. Then add the board.

2. Draw at least 6 waves and then add a couple curved lines to break up the bigger waves into smaller parts. Emphasize not to copy your example. Tell them to respond to their drawing as they go. IF they have a lot going on in one area, add shapes to another part. If they have a big open space, think about adding a wave to that area to make it more interesting.

3. 6 shapes gives them enough waves to color with a couple colors and tints and shades of each of those colors. Color the waves. With tints, shades, and the colors by themselves. If waves are left over, they can make them white or black or create more tints and shades. We used oil pastels, but color sticks, or construction paper crayons could work too.

4. Color the surfer. We used color sticks so the kids could capture more detail than with the oil pastels.

5. Complete an exit slip that gets the kids reflecting on what they did in the project. Ours had 3 questions.
          -How did you create tints in your project?
          -How is your project different than Mario's?
          -What question would you ask Mario about his skateboards or art in general?
    

adding a color on top of white softly to make a tint.

making shades.

Reflecting and writing.

I love this question for Mario:)

Check this out!

One of the awesome things about focusing on living artists in my curriculum is that I can reach out to them, share what the kids have done with their work, and get feedback from that artist to share with the kiddos. Just last week, Jason Messinger took the time to answer 5 questions the 2nd grade students had for him.

Well, Mario took it one step further and answered the questions up there^ in this post in a video! He wanted to make it even more real for the kids. Indeed, it will. Thanks Mario:)

scratching away.

Last week the 4th graders started working with line. We looked at the work of artist Sandra Willard, who uses scratchboard to create many works of art. We focused on how she uses line to do a variety of things- she creates shapes with contour lines, creates patterns, and creates different values.

Using her website portfolio as a reference, students identified these elements in a few of her pieces. Then we got started with ours. We softly drew out our landscapes with a pencil and then I modeled how to create thick and thin lines with the scratch tools. We worked out way through the landscape, creating different values by changing the number of lines and the amount of space in between lines.

At the end of the activity, my classes at the beginning of the week did exit slips reflecting on the project. With my last few classes of the week, I tried something new- letters to the artist. I asked students to write a letter to Sandra that used at least 3 of our art vocab words of the day. This wasn't as dry as the straightforward exit slip and there was some interesting variety in the kids' writings.

pattern and meaning

Last week the 5th graders looked at the textile designs of Malene Barnett and focused on pattern, meaning, and color value.

Malene is a textile designer based in Brooklyn. Her patterns and designs are based on cultures and places that inspire her. There is a great interview at designsponge with her, that sheds light on her experiences and creative process. I shared parts of this with the classes as well as examples of her work from her company website. I talked about where her ideas come from and how much planning, sketching, and refining goes into each of her finished pieces.

 planning!

more planning!

This pattern was inspired by traditional Mexican embroidered textiles

We also looked at how she uses line or broken lines to make colors look lighter or darker than others in many of her patterns. This was another example of creating value in art, something the 5th graders have been exploring in numerous lessons this year.

The students played the role of textile designer with this project. I asked them to create multiple sketches of pattern ideas. These patterns were supposed to be influenced by something that inspired them. Before moving onto the next step, students turned to a neighbor and shared WHY they were selecting one pattern over the others they had tried.After that they created a styrofoam stamp of their pattern. They colored it with water soluble markers, and then stamped it onto another piece of paper. They then were asked to color it at least one more time and stamp it again to create a larger textile design. They could use the same colors or rinse their plate and apply new colors.

When the project was complete, they filled out an exit slip where they reflected on value and their pattern inspiration. (ELA 5.W.10  Writing routinely for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.)

These exit slips are becoming routine for all grades now. Instead of getting a "why do we have to do writing in art?" I'm simply getting "where are the exit slips to fill out?"