Kaleidoscope Art

Remember using kaleidoscopes as a kid?  I LOVED them!  This project was referred to me by a teacher here at school, and I love it.  The kids were really interested and engaged throughout the entire class period.  I had them trace circles with a sharpie because I wanted this to be a 1-day lesson.  If you wanted to extend it, have them stamp circles using black paint and then when the paint dries, you can have them use watercolors to fill-in the areas.  Another idea is to have the students experiment in color mixing where they paint the entire circle a solid color and then when it overlaps with another circle, they can see what new color is made by overlapping the colors.  Of course I thought of this technique AFTER I finished the lesson, but good to know for next time!  Good luck!

Magazine Portraits!

This is a great project to do with 5th and 6th graders!  Kids at this age feel very self-conscious about their drawing skills, so giving them a project where the end result is SUPPOSED to look funny is a win-win!  Thanks to all of my friends who have donated magazines to the Art Room, especially the ESPN magazines (the boys LOVE them).  I started by showing the first photo (thanks to a project I found on Pinterest).  We talked about sizes, proportions, texture, details, and how to integrate all of those things into one great work of art.  

Magazine Portrait by Kelli

Great Job!!!

Abstract Lettering a la Robert Curry

I discovered this artist's work on Pinterest one day while browsing the Art pins.  I thought the 6th graders would appreciate his use of bright, bold colors and his technique of overlapping. 

Untitled painting by Robert Curry

I explained that he probably used digital media to create this effect, while we would be using the ever-popular (and cheap) tempera paint.  I wish I had access to large-scale color printers at my school to create digital prints, but we have to settle sometimes, don't we?

I told the students that they could use words such as their name, their school, their sports team, etc.  I tried to emphasize overlapping the letters, altering the size of the letters and making some go off the page so the audience cannot read the actual words they used. 

Here are a few finished paintings:

Sophia's Painting

Untitled Painting

 Jada's Painting

 

Teshekia's Painting

Yarn Block Painting

In Art Club today, students made stamps out of blocks of Balsa wood and yarn.  We wrapped the wood block in a long piece of yarn, taped it down, and stamped it into the paint and on our paper.  Yes, it was a bit noisy, but I think they enjoyed it and their paintings express the high amounts of energy in a room full of 7 year-olds!

 Brooke's Artwork

 Emory's Artwork

 Isaiah's Artwork

Wood Block Stamp

Jean Dubuffet Sculputres

This is an exciting project that I am doing with my 6th graders.  First, we watched this You Tube video showcasing some of Dubuffet's original drawings, paintings, and sculptures.  I thought it was interesting to teach the kids that this particular artist based a lot of his own work on children's drawings.  Next, I showed them a PowerPoint slideshow showing some abstract sculptures made of poster board and some of Dubuffet's resin sculptures.

We began our sculptures using white tagboard, cutting out free-form shapes, and adding pattern and color with black, red, and blue markers.  I demonstrated how to attach the pieces together by making cuts in each piece and sliding one piece on another piece.  Here are a few sculptures in progress (the first one is my teacher sample):

Jasmin's Sculpture

Evan's Sculpture

 Gabe's Sculpture

Curtis's Sculpture

Here is the video from You Tube that I showed the students: