The scream

First graders have been working on portraits. It works well to do several styles of portraits for practice, this portrait is based on the piece called "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. 

We talked about the use of thin and thick line as well as an interesting background. Students discussed the warm and cool colors and figured out which colors were primary and which were secondary colors.

We also talked about mixing primary colors to get secondary colors.  I'm sure you've seen images similar to this on Pinterest, here is the step by step process.

Students draw their face with a wide mouth and no hair, they must color their shirt with either warm or cool colors, and outline their face with a sharpie.

I watered down paint and filled these tubes with the primary colors.

I cut up straws for students to use to blow the paint. I suggest only cutting straws in half so students don't have to get so close to the paper with their face.

Students lined up one at a time and I would use a straw to draw the paint from the tube and drip it onto their paper. After each color was dropped onto the paper, students blew the paint away from their face.  Make sure to drip the paint above the hair line to avoid paint in the eyes, some students were ok with paint in front of their face for the "messy hair day" look.

As the paint is blown across the page, the colors mix and secondary colors are achieved!

Here are a few finished examples, students blot the paint and color their shirts after they go to their seats.  Next week we will finish the backgrounds.

Starry Night

Each month in school, numerous papers get lost somewhere between the classroom and the hands of loving parents.  Well, here is one project ALL students get excited about painting and even about showing their teachers and family.  First graders have been spending the past three art classes working on one of the most recognizable paintings in the world, Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

Day one was spent as a drawing day, students planned out how to separate the stars, wind, tree, hills, and houses in the way that Van Gogh did with his painting.  After drawing with pencil, students outlined their lines with crayons, the crayons create a wax resist when they add water colors, making the crayon look even brighter.

After putting down the crayons, students picked up a brush and added water color to their starry landscape.

Drawing from observation/Contours

 Third Grade learned about contour lines, which focus on the outline and major lines of objects and not on shading or details.  They used that knowledge of contour lines to draw from observation and drew their shoes.  Drawing shoes helps students focus on their outlines as well as shapes that are used in design.

Students focusing on shoes while moving eyes between shoes and their drawing.

3rd Grade Pastel Colorwheel

Third graders learned how to mix INTERMEDIATE colors this week in art.

Intermediate colors are made by mixing a primary color with a secondary color next to it on the color wheel.  Students used Primaries and Secondaries to draw, label and color the color wheel, they also learned how to blend the oil pastels using their fingers or a paper towel.

Busy 4th graders

Fourth Grade has been busy with a clay proposal, as well as working on American Indian artist style self portraits.

Students had to draw and write a short proposal of a 3D clay project, students chose something important to them, while having the freedom to create (almost) anything.

Max the puppy

Minecraft "Creeper"

Students in fourth grade are also in the process of creating a Frank Big Bear style self portrait.  Frank Big Bear is a Minnesotan artist from the White Earth Reservation.

He uses an interesting style using complimentary colors and a modified grid to create an interesting color scheme and portrait.

Students first draw a large face, some features may be exaggerated.  They then draw random lines over the face to make a organic grid. Every new line they run into, is a new color.  Each color should be somewhere near their complimentary color.

Finished work coming soon!