7th Grade: Warhol Self-Portraits (Pop-art)

Bright bold colors coming at ya! Seventh grade created these bold new looks by first tracing their own printed images on to a clear slide, We then added crazy colored backgrounds inspired by the king of pop-art, Andy Warhol.

We cut apart our photocopy image and traced our body, face, hair, and arms separately on to card-stock to make sure colors were in the correct location.  Once the paint was dry we sandwiched their background, clear slide, and frame together giving them a finished look.   Backgrounds and tracings are slightly off for a nifty off-set printed look.

7th grade: Non-objective Paintings and Color Wheel

Seventh graders did an amazing job demonstrating that art does not have to be a recognizable subject to be a valid piece of artwork.
Non-objective art, unlike Realism, does not represent objects known in physical nature. The artwork creates an interesting composition using the elements of art (line, shape, color, texture, form, value, and space).
 Example of non-objective artwork by Wassily Kandinsky:

Wasilly Kandinsky – “Yellow, Red, Blue” – Oil on canvas – 1925.  “Abstract art places a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with ‘reality, next to the real world.”  “There is no must in art because art is free.”

Students were giving a list of requirements before they began. Then, they sketched out a few ideas to practice their own compositions. The students then transferred the final pick to their canvas.

• Three circles, two need to intersect
• One geometric shape
• One organic shape
• One complex shape
• Three different types of lines
• Finish by painting lines black to bring unity to artwork
• Using only the Primary colors, show sections that are painted red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. (They could invent other colors too, if time allowed.)

I love recycling when every we can, so our canvas were from cardboard boxes.
So many variations within limitations. Great job!

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:

7th Grade: Value of Words

Constantly being aware of your pencil pressure can be a real challenge if you are not used to it. So, 7th Grade has been sharpening their value skills by undertaking a project called 'Value of Words'.

Students first had to use their math skills to measure out an evenly spaced grid. Then, they had to think of two different words that would fit on the top and far left row. The length of their word depending on how many column and rows they created. (Only school friendly words were excepted.)

Each letter was repeated down/across the column and row, rotating the letters as they went; this lead to some interesting division space within their rectangle. We found that capital letters that touch the edge of our boxes worked best.

When students were ready for shading, I offered two different options for filling in their spaces.  They could fill their spaces with a gradient or within the square spaces they shows a varied of values as solid tones.

Some students challenged themselves by picking colors pencils to show value. 

Those that struggled seemed to find some relief if they traced over their lines first in marker before shading. The marker helped keep their lines in places when they needed to erase or adjust their spaces.