drawing and dreaming with Horace and Melissa.

This week the 3rd graders continued their value unit. The goal of the project was for them to be able to make a character look 3d by using light and dark color values. Last week they used light and dark to create variety, so I wanted them to apply value to a drawing and make it more realistic.

The inspiration for the project comes from illustrations done by Melissa Sweet for the book A Splash of Red: the Life and Art of Horace Pippin. (the link for the book is a great resource for the classroom and has a video biography narrated by a child) 

 

I started the lesson by sharing a photo of Horace and talking about his life and all he overcame to become an artist. I then shared 2 illustrations by Melissa that are from the book. We looked at how she used a little bit of value contrast on Horace's skin and clothes in order to make him seem a little rounder and solid. I read the text to them and we then identified places, animals, and things that we saw in his thoughts above his head. I explained that they would be creating self-portraits- they would draw themselves and things that they enjoy.

 We followed the composition that Melissa did and I walked the kids through drawing their self-portraits. I had various hairstyle examples on the board, so they could have a better idea how to approach that aspect of the drawing. When they added color I emphasized pressing hard for their dark values and soft for their light values.

An hour isn't quite long enough for this lesson. I'll be bringing back classes for 15 minutes each next week, so that everyone can get finished. I wanted the focus to be on value, but the drawing portion of the lesson took a lot longer than I originally planned. That said, I love the individual takes on the self portraits- both physically and what they like to do:)

Always nice to see expressions like this on kids' faces when they get done:)

art reward winners!

My second art rotation with all grade levels has been in the books for a little bit, so it was about time to recognize some students that had showed excellent citizenship in art class. The names of 4 wonderful students were pulled out of my art reward bin yesterday and because of that they got to pick out an artwork that some of our awesome focus artists have donated to me over the past couple of years.

Way to go kids! Keep up the great work:)

 

 Jamie, 5th grader from room 62

He selected a hawk print from lab partners "California Gold" series.

 Delilah, 3rd grader from room 53

She picked a Kermit print from Thom Pastrano's "the Streets" series.

 Joven, 2nd grader from room 739

He selected a peacock print from lab partners.

 Seanna, 5th grader from room 61

She picked a Cookie Monster print from Thom's "the Streets" series.

getting in the pond with Melissa.

The kinders are continuing their value unit this week. The focus image was done by American illustrator Melissa Sweet.  I love the soft touch with color that she displays in many of her illustrations. The 3rd graders are going to be working from an illustration she did for a book about Horace Pippin later this week as well.

We started the lesson by reviewing the vocabulary we used in the Budi Kwan project from last week- value, light, dark, soft, hard, and oil pastels. This project used all those too, but the 2 projects/artworks look a a lot different from each other.

Students identified the things they saw in Melissa's painting. We talked about how the painting is of a frog and it's habitat. (science connection for the win;) I guided them to also recognize that some of the lily pads were dark and some were light and the flower has dark and light pink petals.

The lesson is pretty straightforward-

1.  Draw the flower. Start with an oval and add a couple sets of bump patterns around it for the petals.
2.  Draw the line that separates the ground from the pond. Overlapping!
3.  Draw a few lily pads. Have at least one go off the page. I referenced pac-man for the shape. I also pointed out that the lily pad shape is a big "C" with a "V" cut into it.
4.  Draw the frog. It starts out the same as the lily pads, but you also add an "m" for where the eyes go.
5.  Color the lily pads with greens. Press hard on a couple and light on a couple. Color the petals of the flower. Press soft on the inside and light on the outer ones.
6.  Color the frog. Press hard with yellow and then softly with a green to make it a bit different than the lily pads.
7.  Color the ground softly with brown. Press hard to add a shadow underneath it. Use the side of the oil pastel to color a large area easily.
8.  Color the water of the pond with blue and/or purple.
9.  Write a guided sentence or two about the project. Students can count how many lily pads they have or describe how they made or used light and dark.

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:)

Jason answers a few questions:)

Last week the 2nd graders did abstract landscape drawings inspired by the work of Chicago based ceramicist Jason Messinger. Part of their exit slip was to write a question that they would like to ask him. I selected 5 questions and Jason was kind enough to respond to the kids:)

Here's what he had to say.

1.  What inspired you to become an artist? Amir, room 739

I've always been interested in making art - since I was a little kid.

I studied art in college, and been working as a full time professional artist since then.

2.  Why do you make your trees flat? Elsa, room 735

I wanted to reduce the complexity of the images as much as possible, but still leave them recognizable.

3.  Why do you use clay for your art? Nathan, room 43

Clay is a great medium, you can do almost anything with it. Combine it with glazes and you have a colorful material that can be turned into anything you imagine.

4.  What music do you listen to when you draw? Sophia H., room 739

I actually don't listen to music when I make art. I like to be quiet with my thoughts - or even not thinking but just being in the flow of making the artwork.

5.  What made you think of making shapes into fictional things in the outside world? Jordan, room 42

I have always been interested in the boundaries between representational artwork and pure abstraction. I wanted to explore how simple I could make images that still inspired viewers to 'read' actual things into the images.

Jason was also posted the lesson and students projects on his own blog. Thank you kindly, sir.