Lichtenstein

5th graders wrapped up their Pop Art unit with Roy Lichtenstein. Marked by his dotted figures and comic book tongue-in-cheek humor, Lichtenstein is a well known leader in the pop art movement.

5th graders created their own self portrait in the style of Lichtenstein. Some of the self portraits my not be recognizable as the student because they chose to portray themselves as an animal or other figure.

1st gr Fall Still Life

I’ve been really busy and haven’t been updating the blog! Between teaching art at two schools, starting student council and my new PBS position not to mention continuing political involvement- it’s turning out to be a very busy year! I will try to update more often.

Last week first graders had their first still life experience. Last year we learned what a landscape was and created a few projects learning that art vocabulary word. First graders observed the still life and found shapes within the objects to draw. Students had a chance to use markers, chalk pastels, oil pastels and colored pencils to draw.

Students created their still life drawings from vegetables from our very own Madison Farmer’s Market. They learned the difference between a butternut squash and an acorn squash was and they were all excited about the carrots!

Here are some of their beautiful fall still life drawings…

Love the interesting angel of the pumpkin in this one!

Kohlrabi, corn and a carrot.

Love the simple lines in this drawing.

Can you tell what the artist used to draw their still life? Marker? Chalk? Oil Pastel? Colored pencil?

1st gr Dots

First graders began their art year by reading this book:

It’s a great book to start off the year. The book begins with a little girl, Vashti. She’s at the end of her art class and still has a black piece of paper. She’s very frustrated! Her teacher encourages her to make a mark so Vishti jabs the paper with her marker and makes a dot. Through encouragement from her teacher, Vishti explores how else she can make a dot and ends up encouraging another young artist to have confidence and make his mark.

*If you are interested in finding this book for yourself, I highly suggest finding your local independent bookstore. (In Madison, I recommend A Room of One’s Own). Chances are if you support them, they will support you and your community! Can you say the same for Amazon?*

Here are some of the Gompers first grade beginning of the year marks:

Each child told me ‘I am an artist!’ Each child was given a compliment. We discussed how to find a specific thing you appreciate about someone else’s artwork and use your words to tell them about it. We had a very positive first grade art discussion!

5th gr Graffiti

To end the year, 5th graders requested that we do a lesson on graffiti. I happily obliged! A few years ago, I spent a spring break in San Francisco visiting my cousin and his then fiance (now wife). I kind of sprung it on them that I was coming last minute because my original travel plans changed but they were amazing! I spent days on my own exploring the city and at night they showed me around. One afternoon, my cousin showed me a few really good graffiti spots and that is where these pictures are from. Some of the pictures are from other random places around San Fran that I took on my own. Most of these pictures are from permission walls.

We talked about the difference between legal street and and illegal street art. We also discussed some of the history of graffiti including the fact that graffiti is sometimes used to express opinions about political or social issues. Other graffiti is really just to show off and get recognition.

Here’s the 5th grade work and the San Fran graffiti! (with a little Venice Beach thrown in too)

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Beautiful Wisconsin Birds

Randall fourth graders did such an amazing job on this project I wanted to show you ALL of them. I didn’t know how to insert a slideshow and learned just for this project! I’m so excited I’m able to show you everyone’s projects. Randall kids are so talented!!

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4th gr Wisconsin Birds

4th graders were really inspired by local artist, Joshua Ludke. They were fascinated by all the different types of birds that live in and visit Wisconsin. Each student picked a Wisconsin bird to sketch. We focused on finding geometric shapes in each bird so we could draw our birds a little easier.
Then we focused on texture. We drew short lines for short feathers and  long lines for long feathers. We also learned that when the lines are drawn closer together, the feathers look darker.

Then we focused on using pen and ink to trace over all of our pencil marks. It was really fun using a new material! This was the first pen and ink experience for most of the students.

When students were finished with pen and ink, they had the choice to add color to their bird using chalk pastels, watercolors or both. Drawing with chalk pastels into wet watercolor can give some really neat effects. Check out some of these finished students! There are so many talented birding artists that I had trouble choosing which ones to post. I had to post so many of them! Can you name each bird?

2/3 Gesture Drawings

2/3 students are learning about Edgar Degas who liked to sketch a lot and then take his sketches back to his studio and work alone (unlike other impressionists who liked to paint in the moment!). We watched the ‘Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists‘ video about him.  I highly recommend it.  Funny, informative and engaging!

Students were introduced to the concept of gesture drawing.  Each student had a partner who posed for them (1 min) and then they switched.  Students looked for both positive and negative space to draw.

We discussed how in gesture drawing, the process is much more important than the product.  It’s like basketball practice, practice is important but most people only see the big game.  Gesture drawing is practice, not the final product.Students will be using their gesture drawings to help them create a sculpture like Degas as well!  (Ours will be plaster strips).

100th Post!

Over the last 6 months, I have learned more from other art bloggers than my whole last three years of college.  I’m so grateful to have discovered the blogging world (with help from my friend Heather).

My hope is that my students start using this blog as a resource and it becomes as important to them as it is to me!  Coincidentally, the 100th day of school is this Friday.

In celebration of my 100th post and the 100th day of school, K/1 students created self portraits of what they look like now AND in 100 years!  I’ve seen this in quite a few places around the Art Ed blog world but the one that comes to mind is Teach Kids Art.

Me:  Why does your ‘in 100 years’ portrait look so bored?

Becky:  Because all old people are bored and sad.

Madison:  I’m going to have whiskers when I’m old!

Me:  What’s in your ’100 year old’ portrait’s mouth?

Brock:  A thermometer.  All old people are sick.

K/1 Jim Dine

Jim Dine is really known for his heart images.

K/1 students created a multi media Jim Dine inspired art work.  Students spent time in four different stations to create four different hearts.

Painting,

crazy collage (which included beads, feathers, yarn and all sorts of choices),

drawing,
and paper collage.

Then we let our hearts rest for the next art class.

The second class period, students painted a background for their hearts.  They also added in some texture as well.

Here is the finished Jim Dine inspired art!

I think they are beautiful and just in time for Valentine’s Day!!

Frank Lloyd Wright, block exercise

As 4th graders are finishing their Georgia O’Keeffe watercolors, they are beginning to think about Frank Lloyd Wright.

When students finish, they have three choices:

1.  Go through the Frank Lloyd Wright books and write down 10 interesting facts you find.

2.  Draw your dream home

3. Build a building using 10 or less blocks and sketch it.  Then turn that sketch into a building.  It has been said that Frank Lloyd Wright used to play with blocks as a child and this is part of what inspired his designs!

According to my brother who is going to school for architecture in Denver and who is obsessed with Frank Lloyd Wright, this is something he put in his biography to support the claim that he was born to be an architect but it isn’t really true.  Either way, it’s a great way to recognize the geometric shapes in his designs!

Just look at all that team work and problem solving!

Side note to teachers:

Simply Wright by Diane Bresan Fleming has been a wonderful resource for us to look at Wright’s work in new ways.  This book breaks Wright’s art concepts down into categories like light, nature and many others.  This book is perfect for the elementary level.  I highly suggest this book to accompany any Frank Lloyd Wright lesson.  (Terrace Town 2000 has a spot in this book as well).