X-Ray Vision!

Today I read the book "Boo to You" by Lois Ehlert. There are fabulous collage illustrations in this book and it seemed timely with Halloween around the corner!
We took a look at a human skeleton and discussed backbones, and rib cages as well as many other bones and they differ from a cat.
Some students included a full moon, pumpkin or a haunted house in the distance to add an extra spooky touch!

Spiders and Self Portraits!

Today we read the book Aaaargghh, Spider! by Lydia Monks. The book has some wonderful illustrations that demonstrate great facial expressions.
Students used oil pastel and watercolor to create their own self portraits with an expression they might have if a spider were about to land on them! The results were marvelous!

Stages of a Butterfly

Today we continued looking at Van Gogh's work. This time we looked at three of his butterfly paintings for inspiration. Students watch the stages and released real butterflies last month. Since this was fresh in their minds I thought it was a nice opportunity to talk about it and create a beautiful series.

Evening Owls

Today we took a look at some paintings and photographs of the great horned owl for inspiration. We discussed details like feather pattern, shapes of features, and the evening sky. We also looked at a self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh and discussed ideas of how we could make the background behind the owls more interesting. Students used permanent marker, water color and white oil pastel to create their owl imagery. I love how they all look so different!

Van Gogh Inspired Sunflowers

This week we looked at Van Gogh's sunflowers. I brought in some real sunflowers for inspiration along with Van Gogh's images. We discussed texture and students looked and touched the flowers to get a better idea of how to illustrate what they were seeing. Every single work was different and so beautiful!

Windy Days

We have been talking a lot about wind and looking at how artists illustrate wind in their work. Today I read the book Goodnight Kiss by Amy Hest. The story is a sweet bedtime tale and the illustrations are a wonderful example of wind. At the end of the book students discussed what they might add to the illustrations to demonstrate wind even more clearly. We had a great conversation full of brilliant ideas! Next we looked at more work by Van Gogh specifically the tall bent grasses and trees in the wind in contrast to calmer illustrations where the grass and trees are standing straight.

Students then used oil pastels to create a windy background on an evening sky. Next, on a separate piece of paper they illustrated a house using oil pastels and watercolor. When they put the two together they came to life! Wait until you see the work come home!

First Day of Art

Hooray! It is finally the first day of art! Today I read Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets.

It's a sweet story of a boy playing with the wind and all that the wind is capable of doing. Next, we looked at some familiar and not so familiar work from Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night and Arles: View from the Wheatfields. We discussed the difference in the two pieces. Students looked and discussed how Van Gogh created wind and movement in Starry Night as well and a sense of calm in Arles: View from the Wheatfields.

After our discussion students used their markers, colored pencils and crayons to create a scene of their own including a solid structure (house), trees and movement (wind). It was a fantastic first day and so much fun to see all the new faces and some familiar from last year!