For day one of our new project we learned about Keith Haring and then played Miss Lasto's version of "art charades" to help inspire figure drawings for our new unit. Keith Haring's figures are made using bold black outlines, they are often in unique poses, and they do not have faces or other details. Keith Haring also used symbols, bright colors, and motion lines in his artworks to help tell a story and add interest. Our Keith Haring figures are holding up a symbol that represents something about us. The materials we used were black India Ink, markers, and watercolor paint. We hope these artworks inspire you to "MOve" today!
For this project we were inspired by candy Ring Pops! To get started, we thought about what "flavor" we wanted create, and which color that might be. Color was the main focus of this piece. Our ring pop paintings are monochromatic. This means that it is made of different shades of one color. After carefully drawing and outlining our ring on the colored paper, our next step was to paint. On our mixing plate we were given the color of our paper, white, black, and 2 analogous colors. Our challenge was to mix a different shade for each section of our candy diamond; there are no repeats! We practiced mixing small piles to save room on our palette and make our colors last. Finally, we used white charcoal pencils to make our rings shine! We learned about cross hatching, shading, outlining, and drawing glimmer stars; we had to use each technique in at least one place in our project. We hope our rings help you shine today!
Our new project is a bit of a brain twister! We are switching it up this month and creating black and white paper collages. These collages are inspired by the Japanese art form called "Notan" which takes the ideas of balance and harmony from the Yin Yang. To create these pieces, we are using positive and negative space and contrast. The black is the positive space, the white is the negative space. You can think of it as the area that contains an object (positive) and the area around the object (negative). In this project, what gets removed gets reused! We used five 3x3 inch squares of black paper to help us get started creating. Look at where our imaginations took us! We hope our collages are a positive addition to your day.
For this project, we began by experimenting with tempera paint and various, non-traditional, tools such as sponges, foam, toothbrushes, rubber spatulas and combs. This project is inspired by two artists: Tracy English & Eric Carle. For this project we discussed the difference between implied and actual texture, and made 5 different variations of painted paper. Next, we used our papers to construct a still life collage. A collage is an artwork that involves: gluing, cutting, and overlapping. Each one of our still lives look different even though we were looking at the same arrangement of objects! Our last step will be using oil pastels and colored pencils to add shadows and other unique details! We hope our collages ”texture” your day.
This month our school, once again, celebrated National Inclusive Schools Week. The focus of the week this year was Every Voice Matters. The celebrations looked different in each of our specials and in our individual classrooms. In the art room, we were inspired to share our voices by looking at how the company Life WTR helps others use theirs. We tracked a few different artists across the United States as they used their creativity to bring art, community relationships, resources, positivity, inspiration, and joy to communities in need. Life WTR always supports artists by using their works as the images on their water bottle labels, but right now they have a goal to do more. Their "canvas for change" campaign is hoping to bring art to 10 million students across our 50 United States. There are so many students around our country who don't get to make art, so Life WTR is bringing art to them! This work inspired us to create our own water bottle label designs and share our voices, too. We asked ourselves: "If we could share one message with the world what would it be? What would it look like? Our label designs were colored using the material of our choice. Now that they are laminated, we might use our designs as book marks! We hope our artworks inspire you to use your voice today.
For this project we were inspired by all things fall; we made pumpkin patches! It's time to soak up our last few days before the winter season begins! The focus of this project was creating distance on a 2D (flat) surface. To do this we used linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, and field of view. Each of our landscapes is completely our own... from the time of day, to the color of our hills, to the objects that are all around. The materials we used for this project were white colored pencils, Elmer's glue, chalk pastels, and cotton swabs. Spreading the pastel colors was a blast! We hope our pumpkin patch landscapes ”smooth” your day.
This month our art project focused on linear symmetry, positive & negative space... and our favorite things! Step one, was to create a watercolor wash. To do this we needed to wet the paper first, then add the paint and watch it spread! Step number two, was to draw an object that has linear symmetry. This means that it is the same on both sides (like a reflection in a mirror!). Next, we used that drawing to make a tracer and create our positive and negative space cut outs. The last step was to glue the pieces together and decorate the finished piece by adding details. We hope our projects brings only positive things into your day today. Great job third graders!
In the art room this month we participated in a school wide activity. Our friends, siblings, neighbors, and family group members worked on their personalized version of the same project. We've loved checking in on their progress during class, and learning more about one another. This year, SES is taking part in No Place For Hate, a program that promotes kindness, inclusivity, and belonging among many other things. We will be collaborating on No Place for Hate activities throughout the year here at SES, but our very first activity was this one!
We created silhouettes of our profiles by thinking about the features that make us who we are (nose, mouth, chin, hats, hair, glasses, bows, etc.!). Inside our silhouettes you will find some of the things that are meaningful to us. We began to notice the many similarities and differences we have across our school and celebrated them both. We talked about the foods we eat, sports we play, family members we have, animals we love, countries we come from, holidays we celebrate, languages we speak, games we play, and more. We drew our favorite things, added details, and experimented with water colors to fill our background space and finish our works for our multi-colored hallway display.
We hope our silhouettes help you connect to what is special to you!
To warm up their creative brains, our second graders collaborated on a mural that tells the story of what they think artists actually do. First we brainstormed, then we designed and created. Since we are all artists, we simply had to think about what WE do. in our eyes, artists do so many things. We hope our mural brings a rainbow into your day today. Great job third graders!