4th grade perspective

 4th graders learned about creating the illusion of depth and distance on their two-dimensional papers. We learned about shapes and forms and we learned all about the Renaissance. We looked at video games from the 1980's and compared them to today's games. The older video games lacked perspective or depth. Then we looked at artwork from before the Renaissance and in much the same way as the video games, these paintings are lacking in the accurate portrayl of depth as well. We finished our drawings in "plastipastels"--these are like a cool combination of crayons and colored pencils. We also used texturized rubbing plates to give our buildings a variety of textures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 2nd and 3rd grade artists learned about the life of St. Patrick. Born in 387 AD in Scotland, Patricius was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland. He spent six years working as a slave and finally escaped. He ended up in France where he studied hard and became a bishop in the catholic church. He returned to Ireland and spent thirty years teaching and preaching while building schools and churches throughout the country. He used the shamrock when teaching and it has become a symbol for Ireland as have lucky leprechauns. Our leprechauns are 3-D paper sculptures. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kindergarten Leprechauns

 Kindergarteners are celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Art class this week. We are reading Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman. In this neatly illustrated book, the leprechauns take all the luck from the "big people" and hide it in a chest. Fiona goes on an adventure into the leprechaun's world and uses her wits to get the luck back.
We made paper collages of leprechauns. We talked about the difference between 2-D and 3-D artwork. We made our noses 3-D. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the noses are standing up (like a tent) and make our artwork 3-D!

4th grade Celtic Knot

 4th grade artists studied the life of St. Patrick as St. Patrick's day approaches. As a child he was taken into captivity. Upon his escape he began teaching, preaching and building schools and churches throughout Ireland.  St. Patrick used the Trinity knot and the shamrock in his preaching. We used a protractor to draw our endless knot and used a technique called stippling to add texture and depth to our work.

From a 3rd grade perspective

 Third grade artists learned about one-point perspective as a way to create the illusion of three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. We looked at street artist Julian Beever who creates fantastic chalk drawings that look very real. After we drew our shapes, we traced the corners back to our vanishing point with rulers, turning our 2-D shapes into 3-D forms.  Lastly, we shaded these with ball point pens, creating value (range from light to dark) using a technique called crosshatching.

Kindergarten Lions

 Kindergarten artists read the book The Lion and Rat, which we learned is a fable or a story with a lesson. Kindergarteners did a great job of figuring out the lesson behind this story. "The lesson is that litte friends can help big friends," one student said. We drew our lions by overlapping three circles. We added triangle teeth. We learned about pattern while making the mane. We also talked about the month of March--how it goes in 'like a lion and out like a lamb'.