8th grade: Alternative Self-portaits, Symbols

I cannot take credit for this lesson, my fellow art teacher Valerie Heath was my inspiration. Check our her blog here.

Instead of drawing our face we used symbols and the meanings behind them. The kids gave an explanation behind each symbol, allowing me to learn more about them. Explanations were done behind flap to give the students some privacy. I required 7 paper flaps, one needed to be their name and no repeats.  You learned so much from these tiny images!

1.Watercolor a background that fits your personality (colors, lines, symbols or words)

2. Attach paper flaps with personal symbols and write you explanation inside

3. Color symbols

8th Grade: Painted Tiles

Many thanks to Brenda Kane and the Dowling art students who helped us our with special project. These wonderful people stopped by St. A to show our kids how to design and glaze tiles. It gave them a taste of what they could expect if they attend Dowling Catholic High School for their art program. The tiles turned out great! It also motivated several of my students to sign-up for art classes for next year. Makes me proud to see they want continue their art education.

Kindergarten and 8th grade Buddies Part 2

Early this year our 8th graders learned how to draw the human face using correct proportions. They then gave their drawings to their Kindergarten buddies to complete. This project was influenced by the works Busymockingbird and her daughter. Busymockingbird's project started with the her creating the the faces and her 4 year old daughter added the body. Have you ever seen beaver people in space? It is so funny!

A few weeks later our buddies corroborated again; this time writing a story together to go along with the image they both helped to create. When they were finished the stories were bound together in a book.

Their collaborated stories turn out so funny! The mind of a Kindergartner and an 8th grader can create some pretty amazing stuff.

Day of the Dead: More art!

We have been so busy getting ready for Day of the Dead! Here are some more projects my kids have been working on.

Tin art Calavera by 7th grade:

 Paint and oil pastel Sugar Skulls by 8th grade:

Bones in Action by 2nd grade:

Can you guess what they are up to?

Rock Sugar Skulls by 3rd grade:

Kindergarten and 8th Grade Buddies: Collaboration Art

I can not take all the credit for this lesson. That credit goes to BusyMockingBird. She and her 4 year old daughter collaborate during their art project to create some that is truly unique and imaginative.
The mom starts the drawing by drawing a face, then her daughter takes over by drawing the body and background. Finally, BusyMockingBird adds extra color to complete the collaboration.

Here at SFA our 8th graders have been teamed up with a Kindergarten Buddy. Together they have made some awesome pieces of art.
Mrs. Heath, our middle school art teacher here at SFA, had her 8th graders practice drawing faces using proportions. Their faces were then turn over to my little ones for the finishing touches.
Kindergartners were not allowed to change their partners marks, but they could add around them. They have great imaginations! 8th grade decided that the pictures turned out way better when gave up some control and let things just be creative.
Later, 8th grade will be writing short stories about the images and reading them to back to their Kindergarten buddies. I know these stories will be amazing!

8th Grade: Shattered Images

Eight grade have been working on Value, one of the seven Elements of Art. Value refers to the lightness and darkness of a tones or color.
For this project we used observational drawing skills to recreate an image of a bird or other animal using simple contour lines. After that, we divided our paper using five lines going across our paper; curved or straight both work. If the lines went through our animal even better, the more spaces in our creature the better.

They then used these spaces to demonstrate their skills in creating gradation of values from the darkest dark all the way to white. I suggested that in each space that they angled their value slightly differently so their image would stand out.
They turned out amazing!

I love that he added patterns on top of his shading.
He figured out this style himself. Way to go!