K/1 and 2/3 Observe, Draw and Collage Sunflowers

Vases of beautiful, bright sunflowers provided inspiration for some observational drawing in art class. Looking carefully at the shapes and colors of the flowers and in some cases the stems in water in the vases, the students filled their papers with large sunflowers, colored them with oil pastels and painted backgrounds with tempera paint. The resulting discovery of oil resisting water added to their enthusiasm. When done with these pictures the students looked at the very tall sunflowers growing outside the Pre-K 4 classroom. They worked with green and yellow paper to make their own tall versions that will be part of a group collage greeting all who enter the front lobby.

Observing and drawing

Adding paint over oil pastels

Careful coloring of the dark center

Petals cut and glued

Overlapping petals around the dark center

Gluing flower petals

A finished picture

More finished pictures

One group of sunflowers

A large wooly bear

Beginning a monarch caterpillar

Painting with liquid watercolors

Careful application with a very small brush

K/1 and 2/3 Lines, Shapes and Colors

The new school year began with the younger students listening to Leo Lionni's Matthew's Dream and talking about lines, shapes and colors in abstract art. They drew long, lazy lines across their papers and noticed the shapes that emerged as their lines crossed each other. The different shapes were then colored in to create abstract drawings reminiscent of Matthew's paintings in the Lionni story.

Long, lazy lines

Some thoughtful areas of color

Contemplating the overall design taking shape

Concentrating on color application

4th - 8th Grade Students Begin Locker Names

Each year the older students begin art class creating art work to differentiate their hall lockers. This year they are working on name pictures that appear different when viewed from different angles. By combining their distinctly written name with a picture that tells something of their interests, anyone walking in the hall will learn a bit about each student. Two separate pictures are created, cut into 1 inch strips, reassembled and glued on a backing paper in alternating strips. The backing paper is then accordion folded so each picture is visible from opposite angles.

First pass at sketching ideas

Working an a name in Chinese characters

Bold lettering

Eye-catching color

Making sure the name is legible

And here is the sequence of putting it altogether!

4/5s Create Tunnel Books

The 4/5 class is working on their life stories, creating animations in the classroom. In art class they are designing tunnel books highlighting events from their life. The back panel of the book reflects their life and interests at the current time, while the preceding cut border pages pinpoint previous experiences and/or people.

A horse on the back panel

Composite picture of many interests

Gluing the sides to the back page

Sliding a frame page into place

Finished book

And another

One more!

2/3s Make Indian Shadow Puppets

Each 2/3 student is studying a particular Hindu God as they study India this spring in the classroom. In art class they are making a shadow puppet of their particular God, keeping in mind profiles and postures that will enable the viewer to identify their puppet by its particular characteristics.  This has been a challenging and thought provoking task. As part of their celebration of work, they will perform a shadow puppet play introducing their God to the audience.

Fitting the figure on the final paper

How many arms do I need?

Finished puppet

Another

One more

Puppet performance

another performing

K/1 Amate Painting

The K/1s recently began their spring study of Mexico and learned about Mexican Amate paintings in art class. The  paintings are done with bright colors on bark. They usually depict flowers, birds, deer, rabbits and everyday stories from the community such as fishing, hunting and harvesting. The K/1s used brown paper to simulate the bark and painted their flora and fauna in bright tempera colors.

Sketching ideas

Deciding what elements to include

Beginning to paint

White shows up well against the brown "bark" paper

Getting that blue right

Details clarified with a Sharpie

Middle School Work On Scratch Design portrait

Beginning  with their completed self-portraits, the middle school students copied their work onto heavy paper, outlined the faces and backgrounds with Sharpie and added intense oil pastel color in unusual combinations, covering the entire composition. They were then painted over with black tempera paint and intricate designs were scratched into the surface revealing the face underneath the scratched surface.

Adding unrealistic colors

Going over the lines in Sharpie

Working on the background

Beginning to scratch into the ink

Patterns across the top

Check out the face!

Finished work

Another with lots of texture variety

Lots of color and texture in this one

Great variety of possibilities here