Summertime, and, the living is easy

I hope you all have a wonderful summer. The best way to keep your art skills sharpened is to practice. Try to keep some paper and markers handy and draw, draw, draw. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest for children's art projects!  See you in the fall.

1st Grade Art

The First Graders are working on outstanding yarn weavings. After becoming familiar with tabby weaving (basic over/under repetition), and, basic weaving terminology, students have the option of trying more advanced patterns. Many will choose to add fringe to their weaving creating a little more interest and variety.

3rd Grade Art

Third Graders finished their rainforest projects just in time to display during the “Wine in the Vine” celebration. Instructions included drawing an animal of their choice as the center of interest and placing it in its proper rainforest environment. Artificial flowers, paper vines and ferns, wiggle eyes, and dimensional paint could be added to their marker and painted pictures. This multi-media project is always a favorite for both the students and me.

1st Grade Art

First graders learned that many clowns make their faces white to create a stronger contrast to their other make-up. It surprised them that even though clowns might exaggerate their features, their eyes, nose, and mouth placement always remain in the same exact place as when they wear no make-up. These pictures were colored with construction paper crayons. With the addition of sparkly glitter and “Dab a Dots” in the backgrounds, you can almost hear the calliope.

Kindergarten Art

Copying the style of Mondrian, the Kindergarten created paper quilts. Freehand, they drew horizontal and vertical lines to represent patchwork. Small marker “stitches” were drawn to “hold” the quilt squares together. Color was added to the quilt with payons, a water soluble paint/crayon. By cutting circles from squares and ovals from rectangles, animals were created and “tucked” into bed.  Mondrian became famous for his geometric art using only black horizontal and vertical lines, and primary colors red, yellow and blue. But, I venture to say none of his work was this adorable.

2nd Grade Art

After viewing and discussing the movement and texture seen in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the Second Graders created their own landscapes. Starting with the horizon line they drew their textured landscapes with glue, colored them with construction paper crayons in a cool/warm color scheme. Students had the option of adding additional movement lines with oil pastels.
They have recently completed a drawing in the style of William Wegman. Wegman, a photographer, became famous for taking pictures of his Weimaraners dressed up in human  clothing and doing human activities. The second graders' dogs are quite creative as their dogs play soccer, dance, and dress up like the King and Queen.

1st Grade Art

Henri Rousseau became 

famous for his paintings of rainforest scenes even though his only experiences with wild animals and plant life were through zoos, botanical gardens, and books. 1^st graders tried their hand at drawing realistic jungle pictures, although the fluorescent paints certainly give them a unique look.

Kindergarten Art

The  Kindergarten has just finished a paper weaving and added snowy hills, a snowman, and an environment. The edges of their hills and the edges of the snowman were shaded with pastels to add a little contrast to overlapping shapes.  A repeated pattern of snow will be drawn in the woven “sky” with crayons and glitter.

2nd Grade Art

Second grade have finished their snowman portraits, always one of their favorites. They created a close-up of a snowman, creating texture by using a dabbing motion with the brush. Pastel shades of paint (tints) were made by mixing secondary and primary colors with white. Water thinned paint and large glittery flakes were used in the backgrounds to create a wintry atmosphere (not unlike our current weather here)!

Third Grade Art

Before Christmas break the third graders created portraits of nutcrackers either as a close-up or pictured in an environment. Nutcrackers were drawn from observation with black Sharpies and colored with permanent markers. Drawing with materials that cannot be erased helps the children draw with care since the option of erasure has been removed.  They learn to think about how to turn unwanted lines into, as the book says, A Beautiful Oops! One of the most important parts of learning how to use your mistakes is to remember not to scribble it out. A big black blob is awfully hard to disguise.  Collage materials (jewels, glitter, shiny dot strips) were added if desired.   Although they weren’t finished in time to display before Christmas on their bulletin boards, look for them at the spring, April K-8, Art Fair.