continuing contrast

This week the 4th graders finished up their Rodney Alan Greenblat drawings. They also completed exit slips that had them reflecting on how they created contrast and what was the most successful part of their drawing... and WHY:)

That left each class with about 45 minutes to do a quick line drawing activity that reinforced the same concepts while creating something that looked a lot different than their RAG compositions.

For this activity , I shared a couple illustrations done by Mexican designer and illustrator Victor Melendez. He uses variety in line to create contrast in his work. He also heavily relies on contour line to define his shapes and add pattern elements that enrich his work further. We also looked at how one of his final designs was different than the sketch he did. We talked about how this type of revising is an important part of the artistic process. Changes, improvements, and risks are still taken when preliminary work is translated to finished pieces:)

"Tell Me Jaguar"

Inspired by a song of that name from the Mexican rock band Jaguares.

 

After introducing his work and how it compared and contrasted with Rodney's, students were tasked with creating 2 different animal designs that showed symmetry while also used line to create pattern and shape. They picked one of those designs to do slightly larger (6x9) and drew it out softly. They used thick and thin markers to create contrast again and then added color to the background to add contrast that way as well. Now, these drawings aren't as refined as their first projects, but I wanted to give them a chance to explore similar concepts with a different look in a shorter amount of time.

 

There was a lot of variety in the individual approaches to this activity, just as there was with the RAG drawings. I'm looking forward to the ideas these kids explore for the rest of the year!

Below, are a few more RAG inspired drawings that were completed this week. Cool stuff!

making patterns and pizza;)

It's true. My kinders from last year are all grown up and are my neighbors on our south campus:) We jumped right in with a line lesson that had them making patterns, pizzas, and other shapes too!

I used the work of Kim McCarthy as the inspiration for this one. Her multi-faceted creative company is called UrbanSoule. I love her use of pattern on many different surfaces and how she often juxtaposes these patterns with figurative elements.

We started the lesson by identifying examples of what and what isn't a pattern made with line. We talked about the importance of repeating for a pattern to be a pattern. Then we looked at how lines, and contour lines specifically, can create all sorts of shapes. We wrapped up the intro by looking at how Kim used both functions of line in several pieces found on her website.

We started by adding 3 lines to our paper. One from top to bottom, one from some point on the first, and one from some point on the 2nd. We then added line patterns to each shape we made on the paper. We added color stick color to each section with the same color that our patterns were.

For the shape step, we all got smaller white squares to draw any shape. 2 requirements for this step- draw as big as possible and to be aware that you will have to cut out the shape when done. We traced our shapes in black sharpie and added pencil gray to parts if we wanted. Then we cut them out and glued them on. To wrap things up, we wrote a sentence together that described the 2 ways we used line in our project. Boom!
1st grade is off to a great start!

learning line with rodney.

My official art rotations have begun and this week the 1st and 4th graders are exploring line in their lessons. The 4ths are doing a project that is inspired by the abstractions of Rodney Alan Greenblat. Rodney has been making illustrations, paintings, and designs for a good while now. He actually designed the cover for the first They Might Be Giants album back in 1986 (not that this matters to the kids, but I loved that album... and Lincoln after that one:). His style ranges from figurative to non-objective abstract, but it all has a good degree of funk in it. It is his more abstract work that I am focusing on with the kids.

When I share a few of Rodney's pieces with my classes, we talk about how he uses contour lines to define most of the shapes in them. We then look at how he uses different thickness of line to create contrast. Certain shapes stand out because their outlines are more bold than others.

We also talk about how his work and abstraction in general, allows people to see different things in an image. I like this because it breaks down the stress involved for students in the project, especially for their first drawing of the year. They can include the shapes they want and if they don't draw them perfectly, the image can still work... as long as their shapes and arrangement of those shapes is interesting.

I've been sharing this quote from Rodney's website about abstraction-
"Stop making sense. When you have abstract paintings in your house, you can read a language without words. You can see forms that have are non-representational. You can enjoy freedom from meaning. You can appreciate line and color for what they are. You can make up your own associations and stories about the works if you want. You can easily ignore them. You can easily enjoy them. Your guests will be impressed, and might imagine you know something about art. If you want, you can say they are influenced by Kandinsky and Calder, or you can say they remind you of a child’s birthday party. Either one is Ok. They are abstract."

For this project, students create 2 small sketches before moving on to their final drawing. Each of these must include a minimum of 3 main shapes, a minimum of 7 supporting shapes, and a use of line or shape to make a minimum of 2 patterns. When doing this I emphasize that the types of shapes and placement of them is up to the students. I don't want copies of Rodney's work. We are using his work as a springboard for their own investigations of line, shape, and abstraction.

 Pulling focus words from the word wall.

Breaking things down.

When their sketches are done, the kids are sharing with a neighbor why they are picking one over the other. Then they draw the chosen design on a larger sheet of paper.

Then comes the contrast part of the project. Students need to trace most of their pencil lines with a thin sharpie and they go over a 2-3 of those with a thick sharpie. This way they have 3 different thicknesses of line in their final drawing.

They can color the shapes in their final drawing any way they see fit, as long as they leave the background white, so that they contrast against each other.

Most kids have finished, but we haven't had enough time for their written reflections. Next class, they will come back and identify how they made shapes contrast from each other and identify what the most successful part of their project is and why.

a colorful beginning.

How's everybody doing?

I can't believe (but really I can) that I haven't posted for almost 2 months! That is, by far, the longest break I have taken since I started blogging 5 years ago. I'm recharged and ready to see what fab things my kiddos will explore and create this year.

We are off and running at Zamo and this week I have meet with all of our 3rd-5th classes (23 in all). The first week of school is different for me because my art rotation partner starts a week later than I do, so I modify my schedule. I meet with classes for only 30 minutes and during this time I review my classroom rules and expectations and have the students participate in a collaborative art project that gets installed in our auditorium at the end of the first week of school. This is the 5th year that I have structured my first week like this... and I love it! These projects are low stress for the kids and have a big visual impact on our physical environment on our school site.

With these projects I emphasize unity and variety in art and the school community. I recently wrote about last year's project for Arts and Activities and presented it at the winter AOE conference with Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse. My curriculum centers on living artists, so I introduce students to a new artist with these lessons who has a strong sense of visual pattern in their work.

This year, I used the quilts of Libs Elliott as the inspiration for the project. Her work is amazing! I came across her work on instagram early last year and I knew her work would lend itself so well to my opening week theme. All of the artists I've used previously have repeated a circular element and this year I wanted to break out of that and share an artist who plays with different shapes. In Lib's case, it's all about the triangle. Her design approach is quite interesting.

 She explains it way better than I ever could on her website-
"All the quilts are randomly designed using a programming language called Processing. The project began in 2012 as a collaboration with designer and technologist, Joshua Davis (joshuadavis.com), who provided the original code framework. Using Processing allows me to quickly edit the code and generate random compositions from simple geometric and traditional quilt block shapes."

 I don't have those programming capabilities, but my kids ARE the random generators! They have parameters to follow, but each student does things differently and will place their shapes in different spots on their quilt square and then they will put their quilt squares on the larger sheet in a random way too:)

30 minutes. That's all each class has. 10 minutes for my classroom rundown, 5 minutes to introduce
unity, variety, and Lib's work- how it's a great example of both of those concepts, and 15 to fold, cut, and glue. Boom. It's a hectic week, but it's so cool to see the kids variations on the theme and to see the collaborative piece grow and grow.

 in a nutshell...

1. At each seat I have a 6x6 square, pre-cut large triangle, and 2 3x3 squares. The colors at their tables change every other class, so that the transitions that are present in the install can happen. (this has taken a bit of organization on my part, but it's stuff I geek out over anyway, so it's no biggie:)

2. students may keep the large triangle intact, or fold it in half and cut on the fold

3. students fold each of the small squares corner to corner to make triangles and cut on the fold- 4 triangles total

4. students take at least one of their small triangles and fold in half and cut (some do this to 2 or 3 and I emphasize not to do it to ALL because they will lose some variety in size

5. students MAY cut one of those smaller triangles even smaller if they choose (only my 5ths really explored that option)

6. then they play with the arrangement of shapes. they can layer and overlap or not. The only requirement I give them is that their composition can not go outside the larger square base shape

7. when they are satisfied with their design, they glue it in place. I show them how to leave things where they are and do the gluing on the paper square. Glue the small onto the medium, medium onto big. This way my tables don't get quite as funky with glue.

8. they put glue on the back of their quilt square and bring it over to the 24x36" white sheet in the middle of the room. Students are responsible for looking at their design and what has been laid down before them and to decide which direction their piece will face and where it will be located in response to those factors.

9. clean up and scram! It's tight. I have 10 minutes in between each of the classes, which allows kids not done to have a few extra minutes and for me to get paper out for the next class.

my random generators;)

 

 

 the amount of detail varied depending on grade level.

installed in our auditorium. it's 6' x 26'