Aztec Warriors

The 7th grade looked over some images of helmets and costumes the Aztec warriors would wear. Depending on their tribe they would represent an animal or element. Using a list of tribes the students created their own version of a helmet. Here we have two skulls and flint. 

Cherry Blossoms in Progress

The 8th grade has started working on a cherry blossom painting. The background was done with blue water color paint and salt sprinkled on it. The black branches is ink that has been blown with a straw.

More to come...

Drawing a Face in Proportion

Look at how hard the boys are working on their drawings of faces. 

Or they just don't want to look at the camera.

Next week I will post how the faces came out with the 8th grade.

Star Wars Fever!

I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to going to the new Star Wars movie. I couldn't help but to add a couple Star Wars themed lessons this week.

The 1st grade used paper plates to make Yoda ears and painted the Death Star with watercolors. Then the 4th grade followed my direction on how to draw Chewbacca. They started with pencil then added line with black marker. The hair was made with chalk pastel perfect for showing texture. Most important step is to make the Chewy sound when drawing his mouth.

Solar System

The class was started with the viewing of "The Power of Ten" video to get the 3rd gr. in the right mood to draw planets. The lesson is really to shade and highlight spheres with chalk pastels. It also gets us thinking about outer space. 

Fringe Tree

K2 class did a lesson on cutting fringe. We do this every year in the art room. With the fringe strips we make a Christmas tree. This time however the students made silver ornaments out of recycled yogurt lids and markers. Once Christmas is over I will turn the tree into some mysterious thing.

Hibernation

After reading a story about hibernation the 2nd grade went through many steps to make these pieces. The sleeping chipmunk is made with crayons and marker along with the leafs and acorns added for the bedding. The sky and ground was made with watercolor. Then the great birch trees were made by scraping black paint with a piece of cardboard onto white paper and cut into strips.

Van Gogh Chair in 3D

The 6th grade class was shown paintings by Van Gogh of two chairs. One was of his chair and the other was the chair of painter and fellow studio mate Paul Gauguin. It is a study of contrast and it also reviled the tension between the two painters. Van Gogh's chair is a simple modest wood and straw chair while Gouguin's chair is fancy and expensive looking. Here is a good article about the relationship.

So our project is a personal vision of Van Gogh's chair done in marker on card stock. The 3D effect was achieved with the box fold used in pop up books. The real challenge was coloring the part behind the chair.