We Are Art Smart!

 I'm going back in time a bit to talk about our very first art project this year. Seventh and eighth grade students colored individual quarter-sized sheets of paper I had preprinted with outlined letters. The students had no idea what letters they were working on, but were instructed to use complementary colors and their imaginations to decorate their pieces. When we put the pieces together the letters spelled "We Are Art Smart." The project gave me a chance to assess the skill level of each student and discuss what it means to be "Art Smart." My students had fun working with their favorite colors and patterns, and as a bonus, the banner looks great hanging in our art room!

Falling Leaves

One last leaf project this fall. Students love to paint, and grade 6 students enjoyed blending paint on paper to create backgrounds for "falling leaves" silhouettes.

We looked at photographs of blue skies and sunsets, observing how cool blues dominate daytime skies while warm colors appear at sunset. Using only blue, purple and white or yellow, red and white paint, students blended the colors directly on 12" x 18" white sulphite paper to create their backgrounds. They then drew or traced leaves from nature and cut them out from black construction paper to create the leaf silhouettes. After adding veins and outlining the leaves with metallic markers, they glued them onto their backgrounds. The composition was important, and the artists strived to create the look of the leaves falling through space against their skies. Click on any image to get to the picture gallery.

Name Patterns

This was a fun start-of-the-year project for my 4/5 grade class. Using black marker, they divided a 9" x 12" sheet of paper with intersecting straight lines, then wrote their names on an angle. They filled in the spaces within the sections formed with patterns they chose. We stressed being creative with the patterns, and how any repeating image can form a pattern, even spider webs or paw prints! Clicking on any image brings you to the picture gallery.

            

Name Towers

Grade Six students use the elements and principles of line, pattern, harmony and balance to create theses "Name Towers". Using the letters of their names, they rotated, flipped and stacked letters in interesting compositions that would support themselves (at least theoretically) in three dimensions. They then filled in the spaces between the letters with line and pattern. I love the way each composition has its' own personality, just like the artist who created it! Go to the gallery by clicking on any of the images.