Nature Jars

I wanted to make sure that before the ground gets covered in a beautiful blanket of white frosty snow that my little guy and I collected some bits of nature. There is something about having these little jars of rocks or jars of twigs and things sitting around that are comforting on those really, really frigid days. It's a reminder that there is something under all that white stuff.
We set out on a nature walk to gather things that inspired us and put them into a little jar. He can use this as inspiration to paint, sketch, assemble a collage or even take out and drive hot wheels around for an obstacle course!

One Line

The upper level worked on some amazing one line drawings today. After reviewing Picasso's One-Liners, a book by Susan Grace Galassi the children tried their hand at creating some Halloween art using only one line. The end results are outstanding and the creative challenge was welcomed by these young artists with enthusiasm!

Scaredy Cats!

The spooky season is upon us so I thought it might be fun for the kids to create some scaredy cats!
Today I read the book Scaredy-Cat Splat! by Rob Scotton. It's a perfect Halloween book about a little cat that wants to be the scariest! The illustrations are very expressive.
After the story students used a white oil pastel to draw a scaredy cat on black paper. Then they cut around the outline of the cat and glued it to blue paper. They added detail using more oil pastel! The children had a great time creating these felines!

Mercer Mayer Books

We have been working on drawing in art class and I always think of Mercer Mayer's books as great examples to look at for inspiration. Mercer Mayer's Frog books are wonderfully illustrated books that show texture in the imagery through different drawing techniques. These books tell a story through pictures rather than words. This makes them perfect to look through with a beginning reader to build confidence to tell a story by observing what is happening in the illustrations. And, to teach children how to tell a story through their own illustrations!

I've included links below to some of the other titles-
Frog on His Own
Frog Goes to Dinner
One Frog to Many
A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog
A Boy, a Dog, a Frog and a Friend

Lines, Lines, everywhere a Line....

Today we read the book Lines That Wiggle by Candice Whitman. It has fabulous illustrations to look at and raised lines to give a great texture to the book as well. This book was great for students to look at because it illustrated to them how a curved line could be a path, or short straight lines could be the texture of fur.
After the story, we took a look around the room to see how many different types of lines we could see to help warm up our "art eyes". Next, students created their own creature using oil pastels starting from the head all the way down to the toes and including texture of fur, scales or feathers too! After their drawing was complete they added some brilliant color using tempera cakes.
Once they were complete they named them! The room came alive throughout the process and certainly during the naming!


Before painting

Pattern Fish Pattern Fish Pattern Fish

Today was all about patterns. We discussed what a color pattern might be (red, green, red, green), and what a shape pattern might be (square, circle, square, circle). Then we read the book Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris. This an engaging book that teaches pattern not only through the illustration but also through rhyme. This was the inspiration for the project today. Students started by doing a warm up pattern drawing exercise. Next they created their very own pattern fish by first drawing the outline of the fish and then creating a pattern within it. Beginning with the tail first they used oil pastel to fill in the fish with brilliant color! These were later cut out and mounted to bright paper to really make them stand (or swim) on their own!
Enjoy the week!

Little House Drawings

This week we read Tomasso and the Missing Line by Matteo Pericoli. The book is about a little boy that carries a drawing he created in his pocket and one day he discovers the horizon line is missing. Through this story he takes a journey and discovers many different types of lines that make up drawings and in the end he finds his missing horizon line.
After the story we looked at work from Vincent Van Gogh to help students see how artists illustrate things in the foreground smaller and things in the background larger. We talked about horizon line, foreground, middle and background. Students used their pencils to create a drawing demonstrating these things.
The drawings are great representation of what they learned today. It is fun to see their interest and enthusiasm when their drawings take shape!

The upper level experimented with one point perspective drawing. This was new to many students but they were all eager to learn and try. They did amazing! I can tell they are excited to keep going with it next week!


Have a great weekend!
ps Look at the yellow frame in the window of the office. The school self portraits are done and they are adorable!