People in Motion

This week we began class by looking at a few of Matisse's works including Icarus. We discussed the possibilities of what the image might be doing. There were many suggestions that it might be dancing, jumping, leaping in the sky with fireworks, and skipping. We talked about how the bent limbs of the image made it look like it was moving. Students began with a sketch, in pencil, by drawing one of the teachers in a pose with bent limbs. They focused mainly on the outline and shape of the body rather than details in the face or hair this time. Next they began a series of three drawings in oil pastel. Each drawing was done by looking at one of the teachers in a different pose. The three together are a wonderful example of drawing people in motion!

Animal Profiles

This week we continued to work on profiles. We looked at several works of art including more Picasso. I brought a bag of small plastic animals for students to draw. Students began by doing a practice sketch of the profile of the animal. (See the elephant and bird above) This was a wonderful exercise! Everyone quietly focused on drawing their sketch. Next they drew the animal on a larger piece of paper. We talked about how to create texture on their animal through drawing techniques. Finally, they completed their work by painting it with watercolor.
They turned out fabulous! Sketching first has really empowered the kids to make their own decisions and experiment with their own style of drawing.

Picasso Profiles

This week we reviewed more of Picasso's work including Woman with Yellow Hair. We began class by discussing the imagery and walking through how to do a profile sketch. The preliminary sketches are outstanding!

This was a new way to draw a person to many students and they all did a wonderful job of trying something different. Next they worked on black or white paper and using oil pastel they drew a profile. Each one has a personality of it's own and would be amazing framed on the wall!

Mr.Picasso Head

We have been studying Picasso this past week and will continue to look at more of his work in the weeks to come. I discovered this fun site to create Picasso portraits online!

Mr. Picasso Head is a site where you ... or your kids can create a portrait in the style of Picasso. It is incredibly fun and I have to say some what hard to stop creating once you start! The possibilities are endless! There is a gallery you can post your creations to and you can email them to friends as well!
www.mrpicassohead.com

Picasso inspired self portraits

What a wonderful way to come back to school- Bright smiling faces ready to create art! This week we began class by looking at Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar and Weeping Woman. Students observed the different shapes, line, color and textured patterns in his work. We discussed what the differences between an abstract portrait and a photograph are. We then discussed what the term self portrait means. This term was new to many students.
Next students did a warm up self portrait drawing exercise. They are marvelous and I intend to put them on display soon! Following the warm up, students created a self portrait inspired by the style of Picasso by using scraps of paper to cut shapes and then draw facial features. After most of their features were complete they assembled them into a portrait and completed it by adding any missing elements they felt it needed.
Again, the room was full of fun and artistic chatter as the portraits were being assembled and coming to life!

Alphabet Ideas

Image courtesy of designspongeonline.com

I found this wonderful blog post on how to make your own flash card at designspongeonline.com
It has a FREE pdf download so you can make your own. You only need 7 sheets of card stock and a creative imagination for words.
I thought a great extension to this might be to draw pictures for each letter. What a wonderful gift set of cards for anyone! A great set of cards for a baby, a child just learning to read, Grandparents, or any adult!
This could be a fun project to help students recognize sounds and letters especially if they are involved in the process of choosing the word and drawing the picture that goes with the letter. Oh the possibilities!

Recycling Jars into Snow Globe Art!

Because we have a collection of little baby food jars in our recycling bin, I thought it might be fun to do something arty with my 3 year old by using them. So we made a snow globe! It's not really in the holiday spirit but fun none the less! I think we may end up with a little snow globe village by the end of the winter break! Here's a "how to" with some other fun suggestions.

Materials needed
a glass jar with a tight fitting lid
shrinky dink material or plastic toy
waterproof glue
distilled water
liquid glycerin (from a craft store- Joann fabric or Michaels)
glitter!

Create your scene on the inside of the lid and glue it down. Let it dry.

Fill the jar with water, a squirt of glycerin (which helps the glitter move around, I didn't have any so we skipped this part) add the glitter. Screw the lid on tightly (I add a bit of glue to the inside of lid to make sure that it stays on and little fingers don't open it to see how it works. It's best to let this dry before you flip and shake it). Next flip it over and watch the glitter fall over your scene. You could glue little people, animals, robots, you name it! I just put a little felt on the bottom of this one to cover the cap.

If you are using shrinky dink material. Follow the shrinky dink instructions by creating your drawing and baking it before you begin.
Another fun idea is to create a family portrait drawing and shrink it to fit into the snow globe.