Line Paintings

In Kindergarten, as part of our line art series, we created a painting using various lines.  This was our first artwork in the line art series.  We started by working together on a worksheet where we practiced drawing various lines, some we were familiar with and others we were not- it was great! Then, the students drew their favorite lines on our Fancy paper and outlined their lines with oil pastels of ANY color, that was an exciting thing!

  The next day, we took our paints and then painted in between our lines.  Some students became so swept up in the excitement of painting that they went all over their paper, but it's understandable... it's painting!  They did a great job working and focusing on trying their best with their painting.

Here are some paintings:

Warm Color Pumpkin

  In Kindergarten, we had learned about the warm colors through many different projects.  One of the projects dealt with the field trip that their classes took to the Rocca Berry Farm pumpkin patch.  Students talked about what the pumpkins looked like- the outline wasn't a perfect circle or a straight line. We worked together to create a drawing of a pumpkin, then we put the warm color paint inside of the drawing.  Students were allowed the ability to mix together the warm colors within their pumpkin, this was a lot of fun for them.

   We then started to create the background on the second day.  We talked about the cool colors and how they can be used to create a background.  Students painted with purple and blue in the sky and green for the grass.  We used some scratching with our brush end to create line designs in our sky and ground.  The next day students cut out their pumpkins and glued them onto their painted backgrounds.

  Here are some of our warm color pumpkins:

Elementary School Banner

  This year at Rousseau Elementary we created our annual Elementary banner.  Our wonderful Fourth Grade students volunteered some of their class time to work on painting our design.  Each time we have done the banner, I have tried to tie it in to a project the students have learned about previously in the year.  We selected our Mola project to use as our banner's design.

  It took all three Fourth Grade classes about a week to finish the painting.  They enjoyed being able to see the project start from the drawing and go to the final painted product.  It really did turn out beautifully, lots of bright and bold colors standing out against the black background.

Fifth Grade Sports Sphere

In Fifth Grade, we finished taking the idea of value to the next level.  With our Cubist drawings, we began investigating the idea of a Value Scale and how artists use it to create light and dark areas within their artwork.  Within the Sports Sphere project, students were given the opportunity to create values in paint using Tints and Shades as well as using their values to create the illusion of a three dimensional object.

We first practiced combining the idea of a value scale to a sphere using charcoal.  The students enjoyed getting to use this tool, not only do you get pretty messy with charcoal the tool allows for an easier creation of values.  They enjoyed both of these things.

On the second day, we talked about Tints (adding white to make a color lighter) and Shades (adding black to make a color darker) and how they relate to the value scales.  We then created both a value scale and a sphere with values with paint.  The students did a great job with this step of the process!

For the final step of the project, the students selected a sports ball to create.  They placed their circle onto their final paper and created a design in the background.  Some chose to make an illustration and others created pretty amazing geometric designs.  The students then selected a color to paint their sphere with using Tints and Shades, I allowed them the opportunity to chose a color that might be different than what the ball is in real life.  We then used oil pastels to add the threads or patches onto the sports ball and then used colored pencils or crayons to fill in the background. 

Kindergarten Tropical Birds

  In Kindergarten, we just finished up talking about texture within art and the many ways in which artists create various textures.  With our tropical bird project, inspired by a fellow Art Teacher's blog, we read a story about a tropical bird who was stuck in a cold place.  We discussed where tropical birds live, as well as the various colors that can be seen on the birds.

   This project was split into two days, the first day we drew our birds and added tropical colors onto them with our cork stampers.  Day two we outlined our birds with black marker to help them have distinguished edges and we gave our birds tails using rolled construction paper and feathers.  The students had a lot of fun getting to pick out their feathers and rolling the construction paper for their bird's tail.  In the background, we stamped some tropical flowers for our birds to fly around.

First Grade Hundertwasser Paintings

First graders finished their project in which they learned about the German artist and architect Hundertwasser.  We also discussed the warm and cool colors along with Hundertwasser's work.  The students used circles, spirals and squiggly lines within their paintings because Hundertwasser did not enjoy working with straight lines.

The students created two paintings, one warm colored painting and one cool colored.  They then selected one to be their background and one for their flowers.  The flower paper was cut out and glued onto their background to create their Hundertwasser inspired painting.

Third Grade Van Gogh

Third Graders just finished up discussing Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. They had a lot of fun getting to work with paints and exploring the painterly marks an artist makes on their canvas. We discussed movement that can be seen in Van Gogh's art as well as the many colors that he utilized. Below are two pictures of the final product as well as some in-process artworks. The students painted their backgrounds using only the primary colors. We did not wash out our brushes between colors, this allowed the colors to mix together and marble. After the background dried, we used black paper and colored it with Oil Pastels for our buildings. Foiled paper was an option to give the artwork some Emphasis if the artist chose to use it. I will definitely be doing this lesson again in the future!