K/1s Learn to draw Hedgie

The K/1s listened to Hedgie's Surprise, by the artist/author Jan Brett. Watching a brief video they delighted in learning how Jan Brett creates her "Hedgie" character and then tried their hand at drawing and then painting their own Hedgie. 

Many prickles to draw

Ordering the prickles on this rendition

Adding Hedgie colors

Coloring his underside

Now for the back

K/1s Paint and Collage Snowmen

The K/1s learned about foreground, middle ground and background as they collaged four sheets of torn colored paper together to create a layered landscape on which to paint a snowman. Careful placement of a carrot nose was  collaged  along with  buttons, a scarf, hat and anything else that might be needed. Finally, some falling snow completed the composition.

Carefully placing the foreground

Yay for small glue lines!

4/5s Learn About Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau, a self-taught mid 19th century French artist, is captivating for his fantastic jungles and naive style that is quite accessible to elementary students. The 4/5s learned about his life and looked at examples of his work before they began their own Rousseauesque jungle pictures using watercolor pencils.

A colorful, jungly background with vines

A blue sky behind the vegetation

6/7/8 Watercolor Paintings

The middle school students began a unit on water color painting by watching a short tutorial on the internet and then experimenting with paint on wet and dry paper, mixing colors together, and adding details to wet and dry surfaces. Local water color painter and Parker Admission Director, Laura Mandelson, came into class to show the students some of her work and to talk about how to achieve different results with this medium. Then the students each figured out a composition of particular interest to them, sketched out the scene and painted it using many of the newly acquired techniques.

Early experimenting

Working oncolor mixing and texture

Laying in some first colors

A turbulant sky

Laura discussing her work with the class

Painting the sky behind an eagle

Flowers from a still-life

K/1s Paint Hot Chocolate Pictures

With an abrupt change in the weather and frigid temperatures outside, the mood seemed right for some steamy hot chocolate pictures. After figuring out the shapes needed to make a cup look 3-D, the students drew customized steaming cups brimming with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

A striped background

A hefty handle

Getting the blue in just the right place

Gluing on some "steam"

And marshmallows

2/3s Draw Toucans in Rousseau-like Jungles

Toucans are highly colorful birds with very distinctive bills.  They inhabit rainforests with very distinct vegetation. With a look at the paintings of French artist Henri Rousseau, and his jungle pictures, the 2/3s figured out how to draw this bird with its large brightly colored beak and feathers.

Getting the form of the bird

Adding the jungle

Emphasizing lines with Sharpie

The watercolor wash adds to the jungle mood

A cooler pale green background

Two finished pictures

K/1s Look at Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" Painting

The K/1s had a brief encounter with a painting , "Cat and Bird" by the Swiss artist Paul Klee. They looked at his work and discussed how it related to their recent renditions of animals and birds, where they broke the forms into basic shapes to make them more accessible. Klee's painting uses simple shapes to whimsically represent the cat and bird forms, and the students made their own versions of his well-known work. 

After the basic form is done, Sharpie adds emphasis

Concentration

Finished picture

One more!