So we are back at it. Winter session began last week and it is sure nice to have the kids back in the classroom.
As requested by many of the kids we are continuing on with Art Basics. What does that mean you ask? Well, as for any of my sessions my goal is always, to explore a variety of art media and techniques. It's as simple as that. Typically, many home schooled kids that come to my classes have very little experience with art for a couple of reasons. One, buying a good variety of art supplies for one or two children can become expensive and parents often don't know what to do with them. And two, when all is said and done our priorities tend to begin and end with core subjects. Art is often pushed off until we realize sometime in May, "Oh dear! We forgot to do art!'' Until I started teaching art myself I was one of those moms too. It's so hard to get it all in.
So now, I get to have all the fun while you do the math:)
Week 1
As you can see, for the first class this session I decided to pull out the charcoal. I love charcoal. It's really hard to go wrong when using this media and the kids are so encouraged to see their final work. I even have a 6 year who can barely hold a pencil in my class. His work is just adorable! (Middle, top row).
For this lesson kids were given a choice of owls to pick from. Together we used a simple grid to draw the eyes and beaks. From there they were asked to study the patterns and growth direction of the feathers. We began in the center and worked our way out. Concentrating on the faces we applied a variety of lines to create the texture and patterns of the feathers. Very messy but so much fun:)
This project was inspired by: http://artdishwithmj.blogspot.com/2011/04/charcoal-and-pastel-owls.html
Owl Faces
Week 2
Who doesn't love messing around with soft pastels ! ? Okay. I know. There are a few of you out there who really can't stand the texture and sound of the chalk rubbing the toothy paper but it sure is a messy favorite in my art class.
This week we used chalk to experiment with color theory. Before starting our projects we discussed the concept of color theory including, primary, secondary, and complimentary colors. With the older groups we introduced the idea of tertiary color. Then students proceeded to draw their turtles, making sure that some part of them were left "hanging" off the page. I expected to have more complaints about this as younger kids can struggle with this more abstract concept. But, alas, I was wrong. No complaints at all ! Once turtles were drawn, leaving areas large enough to fit a piece of chalk in, which did turn out to be a challenge for many, students used black glue to trace all their lines. Once dry, they were able to mix and blend a play with colors of their choice.
Pretty messy but lots of fun!
This project was inspired by: https://www.pinterest.com/source/princessartypants.blogspot.com
Sea Turtles
Week Three
This class was jam packed with color lessons. First of all, we continued our discussion around color theory. We reviewed primary, secondary and tertiary colors before we talked about what I called "color families". With my home schooling background I immediately related these families to "fact families". It really helped the younger ones to understand the concept that some colors mix better together than others. I also introduced the idea of using black and white to tint and shade a given primary or tertiary color. This all lead us to creating colour recipes to use in exploring tertiary colors or tinted and shaded colors. Students then used palettes of either tertiary and primary colors (such as purple, red, and blue) or palettes of primary and black and white. Using brushes, scrapers and palette knives students were allowed to played and experimented with their colors. They had sooo much fun!
Finally, students cut their dried and varnished painting into a variety of pieces and laid them out to create beautiful non-objective, low relief works of art.
Great work kids!!!
Thank you to Ken Schwab for posting this project idea. http://www.incredibleart.org
This class was jam packed with color lessons. First of all, we continued our discussion around color theory. We reviewed primary, secondary and tertiary colors before we talked about what I called "color families". With my home schooling background I immediately related these families to "fact families". It really helped the younger ones to understand the concept that some colors mix better together than others. I also introduced the idea of using black and white to tint and shade a given primary or tertiary color. This all lead us to creating colour recipes to use in exploring tertiary colors or tinted and shaded colors. Students then used palettes of either tertiary and primary colors (such as purple, red, and blue) or palettes of primary and black and white. Using brushes, scrapers and palette knives students were allowed to played and experimented with their colors. They had sooo much fun!
Finally, students cut their dried and varnished painting into a variety of pieces and laid them out to create beautiful non-objective, low relief works of art.
Great work kids!!!
Thank you to Ken Schwab for posting this project idea. http://www.incredibleart.org
Non - Objective Low Relief
Week 4
Okay.....hmmmm.... Not sure what to say here:) This week we worked on monochromatic landscapes. The last couple of weeks we discussed some of the concepts related to color theory and today we talked about color value. I found this project online and practiced it, of course, before the kids arrived. It took me maybe, 15 minutes including drying time. I was a little worried it was going to be too easy for some of my students. WRONG! Though I am very happy with how nicely these turned out I was very surprised at how difficult it was for the kids to apply an even layer of paint across their paper, especially without breaking it down. So many kids wanted to do broad, sweeping, scrubbing, strokes that the lesson in fact began to focus on how to apply water color "properly". It just goes to show how we can so easily take some things for granted. So... in addition to learning about color value, and that landscape in the distance is lighter while objects in the foreground are darker, we also learned about changing the color value of our paint and how to use a brush to apply the paint evenly with out making little "balls" all over it. I'm thinking of changing things up on Friday:)
Thank you to Mr. Otter's Art Studio for this project.
Monochromatic Landscapes
Week 5
For this weeks lesson I decided to continue with the monochromatic color scheme. This time we used color value to create shade and dimension in a simple subject. Fruit for the younger kids, fish or flowers for the older kids. To help the kids see the gradient shift more easily I introduced the to water color pencils. This enabled them to color the shaded areas more easily from dark to light, leaving the center white. Adding water is really almost magical after that. Lots of fun:)
For this weeks lesson I decided to continue with the monochromatic color scheme. This time we used color value to create shade and dimension in a simple subject. Fruit for the younger kids, fish or flowers for the older kids. To help the kids see the gradient shift more easily I introduced the to water color pencils. This enabled them to color the shaded areas more easily from dark to light, leaving the center white. Adding water is really almost magical after that. Lots of fun:)
Monochromatic Shading
Week 6 - Wednesday's Class
This week was a little bit unusual. I have a young artist boy, same one as last session, who will spot a piece of art displayed on my wall and beg me weekly to do that project. I love his enthusiasm :) This is the project he spied out this time. A good choice:)
For this project I was excited to tell the kids we would be painting without brushes. I think they were a little surprised to learn that we would be FINGER PAINTING. There was a time that I would limit finger painting to the pres-school room. Not anymore. Surprisingly, many of the kids I've done this project with never even finger painted in their preschool years! How could that be? Every kid should try it, at least once. It's just soooo much fun!
For this project we talked about perspective (view from a bridge), complimentary colours (blue/orange) and creating a sparkly water effect using small strokes and white (glistening) paint. I was very happy with their work and I think they were too.
Enjoy:)
(As you can see a few of the kids decided to finger paint some Monet's water lilies and some landscapes.)
This week was a little bit unusual. I have a young artist boy, same one as last session, who will spot a piece of art displayed on my wall and beg me weekly to do that project. I love his enthusiasm :) This is the project he spied out this time. A good choice:)
For this project I was excited to tell the kids we would be painting without brushes. I think they were a little surprised to learn that we would be FINGER PAINTING. There was a time that I would limit finger painting to the pres-school room. Not anymore. Surprisingly, many of the kids I've done this project with never even finger painted in their preschool years! How could that be? Every kid should try it, at least once. It's just soooo much fun!
For this project we talked about perspective (view from a bridge), complimentary colours (blue/orange) and creating a sparkly water effect using small strokes and white (glistening) paint. I was very happy with their work and I think they were too.
Enjoy:)
(As you can see a few of the kids decided to finger paint some Monet's water lilies and some landscapes.)
Finger Painted Koi and Lily Ponds
Week 7
I saw this project for the first time last year when my son's grade 10 friend brought his over to show us. I loved it! His work was a bit more difficult, (Bob Marley and John Lennon) so I adapted the subject matter to work with my students. Instead of choosing a person to carve I gave my students the option of a few jungle animals or an acacia tree. I think this project fits nicely with the carving/sculpting component of an art curriculum.
For this lesson students were asked paint a board with the pattern of the animal of their choice and then, using carbon paper, which was, of course, something very new and mysterious to them, they traced their subjects silhouettes onto their board and used an exact-o knife to carve out either the positive space. (This required a lot of focus.)
(The last 3 displayed here were done by students who were a bit younger so I had them create stripes in their positive space using a white or black grease marker.)
They just loved this project!
I saw this project for the first time last year when my son's grade 10 friend brought his over to show us. I loved it! His work was a bit more difficult, (Bob Marley and John Lennon) so I adapted the subject matter to work with my students. Instead of choosing a person to carve I gave my students the option of a few jungle animals or an acacia tree. I think this project fits nicely with the carving/sculpting component of an art curriculum.
For this lesson students were asked paint a board with the pattern of the animal of their choice and then, using carbon paper, which was, of course, something very new and mysterious to them, they traced their subjects silhouettes onto their board and used an exact-o knife to carve out either the positive space. (This required a lot of focus.)
(The last 3 displayed here were done by students who were a bit younger so I had them create stripes in their positive space using a white or black grease marker.)
They just loved this project!
Paper Carving - Jungle Animals
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St. John's Newfoundland
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Week 8
Alas, the end of another session:( Thank you everyone for making it such a pleasure:)
For this last session I decided to introduce the kids to the idea of perspective. One point and simply 3 dimensional, actually 2 dimensional, as well, with some of the younger kids. First, we talked about St. John's Newfoundland, Canada and the absolutely beautiful houses and buildings and neighbourhoods and cliffs that are packed full of gloriously colourful buildings. Yup:) I love this place. Secondly, after a quick lesson on perspective kids were allowed to draw 1 or more houses or other buildings as they wished. We used watercolour paint to add the colour and black markers to give them details and that finishing pop.
Such happy results.
Alas, the end of another session:( Thank you everyone for making it such a pleasure:)
For this last session I decided to introduce the kids to the idea of perspective. One point and simply 3 dimensional, actually 2 dimensional, as well, with some of the younger kids. First, we talked about St. John's Newfoundland, Canada and the absolutely beautiful houses and buildings and neighbourhoods and cliffs that are packed full of gloriously colourful buildings. Yup:) I love this place. Secondly, after a quick lesson on perspective kids were allowed to draw 1 or more houses or other buildings as they wished. We used watercolour paint to add the colour and black markers to give them details and that finishing pop.
Such happy results.
