5th Grade: Wayne Thiebaud Tints and Shades

American artist Wayne Thiebaudis,  famous for his realistic still-lifes, was our inspiration for our project. He has a well known series of paintings featuring life-like cakes and desserts that seem to welcome the viewer to reach out an grab a slice.

As a group we learned how to draw a cake with a slice missing, then we discussed how light would effect the appearance of the frosting.  We learned that closer to the light source the frosting will appear lighter (tint) in color and further away the frosting will appear darker (shade). Oil-pastels allowed us to mix white or darker colors with our 'start/true color' to achieve our tints and shades.

We layered lights and dark colors to create the illusion of shadows and the reflection of light. They look good enough to eat!

5th Grade: Op art

Fifth grade looked at the op-art works of  Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely. Op-art is art work that fools the viewers eye into seeing reality change either by giving the impression of movement, color-changes, vibrating patterns, hidden images, swelling, or warping.

Our assignment was to create an image that appeared to go backwards in space with spheres that seemed to pop out at the viewer.

Students were given few options to test which would give the best illusion of a warped space.
They could choose to color in their background like a checkerboard board or rings, add gradation to some spaces, or change the directions of their curves throughout the background.

Many discovered that the best spheres were ones with curved lines; straight lines were discovered to make the sphere look flat. Also. as their lines went to their vanishing-point their stripes should get thinner and closer together.
I am so proud my fifth graders willing to experiment with the unknown. When they do the testing themselves it seems to stick better than when I tell them 'just do it.'

Op-Art

We have been working very hard on the Op-Art Movement in grades 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. We have learned that Op-Art, also know as optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with  many known pieces in black and white.Typically, the give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or sense of swelling or warping.