Art Room Update Week of 10/29/18
Kindergarten has been working on creating 10 different kinds of line patterns. Patterns are things that repeat, which can include numbers, colors, images, etc. Students created their lines in oil pastel, and watercolor painted the spaces in between.
First grade are finishing their Pointillism drawings having looked at Georges Seurat’s (1859-1891) work, particularly “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86). Seurat invented Pointillism, which is a comprised of applying small dots of color to a canvas in order to create an image. The First graders were impressed when they heard that “La Grande Jatte” actually took Seurat two entire years to paint!
Second grade students have embarked upon our BSI postal unit. They have been busily looking at reference material in order to draw insects and spiders on their stamps. The best of 3 drawings will be chosen for their published stamps. Students have to completely fill the space with their drawing, and pay attention to contrast when coloring their insect in relation to the background. Third grade looked at Op Art artists like Bridget Riley (1931) and Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) and proceeded to create an Op Art hand and arm.
Fourth graders are finishing their “Bad Hair Day” self portraits, which has created lots of giggles throughout the lesson.
Fifth grade finished working on their self portraits in graphite, and have embarked on a name Zentangle pattern lesson, paying particular attention to positive and negative space to create a dynamic image. A class poster will be created from all of the students names.
Sixth grade are working on reverse painting acetate self portraits, with attention to texture, and warm and cool colors.
Seventh grade finished their sneaker/logo designs and will create a finished version on laptops with Ms. Sophia in Media Tech.
Eighth grade skateboard sketches based upon Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s style continued. The 5th grade Art Elective are finishing up their “Monster/Animal pillows.”
The 7th grade Fine Arts Elective finished “Common Threads,” and have begun their Micrography self portraits. Micrography, also known as Microcalligraphy is a Jewish art form developed in the 9th century (with parallels in Christianity and Islam), using minute Hebrew letters to form representational or abstract designs. We looked at work by the artists Michael Volpicelli, John Sokol, and Anatol Knotec for inspiration. Students will create a list of words that represent themselves, including song lyrics, poetry, and excerpts from favorite books. They will re-write those words in various weights and sizes to create a large self portrait, paying close attention to value (how light or dark something is).
The 8th grade Fine Arts Elective are working on completing their portfolios, and looked at a compare and contrast test this week. They used elements of art and principles of design to compare/contrast Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” (1936) and Jaime Olaya’s “La Famiglia” (1897).