Picasso Guitars, part 2

We finally started painting our Cubist style guitars using tints and shades of one color.  We chose either Blue (for Blue Period), Red (for Rose Period), or Purple because its a popular color. 
Here are some results:


BMS 4th Graders in Mrs. Garelick's class painting



Alan painting his guitar



Matthew's guitar




Jeffrey's guitar




More 4th graders from Mr. Kaminski's class painting



Renee and Emma painting



Ceeva's guitar (WES)




Matthew D's guitar (WES)



Mola Inspired Drawings by BMS grade 3

Third Graders at Birch Meadow are working on a piece of art inspired by Molas. 

A mola is part of the traditional costume of the Kuna women of Panama.   "Mola" means "shirt" or "clothing". The mola originated with the tradition of Kuna women painting their bodies with geometrical designs, using available natural colors; in later years these same designs were woven in cotton, and later still, sewn using cloth bought from the European settlers of Panama. 



Kuna Woman selling Molas (from wikipedia)

Molas are made by using the technique of appliqué.  Appliqué means that pieces of fabric are sewn on to other pieces of fabric. 
For our project, we studied where the Kuna Yala or Guna Yala people lived, which is in Panama on a small group of Islands that were formerly called the San Blas region.  It is near the Darien Rainforest and Columbia.  Since it is so close to the rainforest, we decided that the subject of our mola inspired drawings should be rainforest animals. 
We started by drawing different types of rainforest animals.  We drew them on black paper and outlined them with white Elmer's glue.

Jessie outlining in glue

Once the glue dried, we added color using oil or chalk pastel.  I gave the choice of either material, because many children have some tactile issues with chalk, meaning that they can't stand the feeling of it.  So instead of making them use it, I gave them the option of using oil pastel.  It was split between oil and chalk pastel.  Each has a different outcome.  Here are some of the results:

Chalk Pastel Mola by Kiara

Chalk Pastel Mola by Erin (unfinished)



 

Chalk Pastel Mola by Braden

Oil Pastel Mola by Haley (unfinished)



Fifth Grade Coil Pottery

Fifth graders at BMS and WES are still working on their coil pottery.  We have been working on them since the end of February!  And to top it off, we don't even have a kiln....so what's taking so long?
Size, perfectionists, days off of school and substitutes that I couldn't always trust to continue on with a clay lesson....I mean how do you know if the sub has an art background and can handle it? 
So here are some more unfinsihed pots, but I do have to say they are coming along nicely!
The students just finished painting their pots white and will now add their designes in the style of artist Juan Quezada. 

View of Pots by Mrs. Malone's and Mrs. King's classes

View of Pots Mrs. Commito's class



First Grade-Architecture

Students at BMS and WES are working on architecture.  We studied the buildings of Russia and were intrigued by the shapes of the buildings.  I've adapted this lesson from "Art Projects for Kids".  Click on the link here to see the lesson. We looked at St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. We talked about the different things that we noticed about the building like the domes at the top, the different patterns and all of the details on the buildings. We then started to draw. We began by drawing in pencil.  Each child was required to have at least 4 domes on their building and include patterns in their work.  We then outlined our work with a black felt tipped pen, and began using colored pencils to add color.  In the past I've painted and used oil pastel, but this time I wanted to use colored pencil.  We hardly ever use them and the kids really enjoy them when I take them out.  I showed them how to create dark and light values, and how to blend colors together.  I know these are unfinished, but here are a few pieces to show off my amazing first grade artists!

By Carter

By Eniyah

By Drew



Picasso Guitars

I found this lesson pinned on "Pinterest".  It was a link from Artsonia.com.

I have been teaching the 4th graders at WES and BMS about Value.  We all made value scale using black and white paint to create light medium and dark values. 
TO continue on the value lesson, I wanted to teach them about creating a value scale using color.  However, I have always wanted to teach a lesson about Picasso and cubism.  I didn't want to do portraits because I feel that Picasso portraits are so over done and sometimes, not well.  So I stumbled upon this lesson.

I taught the 4th graders about Cubism and Picasso.  We focused on his guitar series.  We talked about how Picasso liked the guitar because it was a symbol of his Spanish culture and he thought that the shape was so versatile, you could make anything out of it.  We spoke about how Cubism looks like broken glass or like the space has been cut up and then placed back together again.  We then used Ms. Steiger's (the music teacher) guitar to draw from. I hope Ms. Steiger doesn't mind me borrowing her guitar for drawing! We also used photographs to  look at different guitar shapes.  So far, we have only done some drawing....no painting yet.  When we do paint, we are going to continue studying value, only this time use, black, white, and a color to create tints and shades.

4th graders drawing

Some just divided backgrounds pace

Some students' dividing lines went over sections of the guitar

ArtsFest 2012

a photo of the display boards:

I hope parents had a chance to make it to the annual ArtsFest and find their child's work. 

Value: Grade 4

Value refers to dark and light. Paintings and drawings have dark, middle and light values. The difference between values is called value contrast.

4th grade students learned about the art element of value. The students created a value scale that shows dark, medium and light values using black and white paint.

Value Scale by Rachel T.