Hot and Cold hands

Second grade artists looked at the difference between warm and cool colors. Warm colors are found in things like fire, the sun, and lava. Cool colors are found in things like ice, water and snow. Our backgrounds have one shape that echoes or repeats, creating a  pattern. It is painted with cool colors. Our foregrounds (the hands) our painted with warm colors.

Spaghetti Art

4th grade artists learned about the seven Elements of Art. They are LINE, SHAPE, FORM, COLOR, VALUE, SPACE and TEXTURE. Our artwork features all seven of these elements.

3rd grade scribbles

Third grade artists read the book "The Dot." It's a story about a girl who thinks she can't draw but is presently surprised when she tries and succeeds. It's a story that suggests that effort is the most important aspect in learning something new. We began our art project by "scribbling" a lines that filled our paper. Our line had to be loopy and created about a dozen shapes as it overlapped itself. Within it shape we used thin drawing markers to fill each shape with pattern. We looked at the artwork of Brazilian artist Romero Britto whose pop art features thick black outlines and many colorful patterns.

First grade name patterns

First graders reviewed different types of lines we learned about last year in kindergarten. We looked at artists who repeat lies and colors in their art to create pattern. Using our names as a focal point, we began by drawing our names largely in the center of our paper. Using markers we added glowing lines around our names. Then using rulers to help us draw straight lines, we divided our background into about eight spaces and filled those spaces with patterns created from lines and colors.

Kindergarten pattern names

After our first art project, where we learned about and drew different types of lines-zig zag, wavy, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, dotted, etc, we learned about pattern. We read the book "Pattern Bugs" and learned to find patterns all around us. We began by writing out our names as largely as possible on 6inx18in paper. Using crayons and oil pastels, we found shapes in our letters and in between our letters. Within each shape we repeated one line type to make a different pattern. On the following week of art class, we read the book " I ain't gonna paint no more". We discussed how to properly and effectively use watercolor paints and painted a different color within each shapes. The oil based crayons and pastels resisted the watercolor, allowing our lines to show through.

5th grade radial name designs

5th grade artists learned about the three types of balance--symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial balance. We focused on radial balalance. Radial balance has a center axis and the design radiates from the center and repeats around the axis. We found radial balance in nature in flowers and starfish and also found it in human made objects like bike wheels, pinwheels and clocks. Our artwork uses our name, radially balanced and repeated eight times to create a colorful, unique, abstract, radial design.

Name compositions

Third and fourth grade artists learned about composition. Musicians arrange musical notes in original ways to writ music, artist arrange lines, shapes and colors to create compositions. For this project we arranged the letters in our first names, creatively, to create an abstract composition. We then used only four colors, two colors for each shape, arranging them in composition where two of the same colors do not touch.

Welcome back!

Welcome to Holmes Art! I am Mr. Kristofer, the art teacher here at Holmes. This is my fourth year teaching here and gets more fun with each passing year. It is my hope that this blog serves to let parents know what their kids are doing in Art class. When an art project comes home be sure to read up on the artists we discussed, the techniques we learned and the media we used. Over the summer several mural projects were hung up and are now on display. Here they are!