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.

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.