Space!

4th grade artists learned about the element of design called "space." We learned that any artwork (drawing, painting, photography, even sculpture) has both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE space. Positive space is typically the object in an artwork and negative space is the space around and in the object. We had great discussions about how negative space can be just as important as positive space. We then used construction paper, scissors and glue to create these positive and negative space designs. These images are created from GEOMETRIC SHAPES. The below images feature ORGANIC SHAPES.

First grade artists studied the difference between lines and shapes. We read Shel Silverstein's "The Missing Piece." We learned that lines are "open". They start and they stop. Lines are used to make shapes. Shapes are "closed". We all chose one letter and we drew that letter repeatedly on our papers. As we drew we discussed variety. We created our letter in a variety sizes, while changing our paper orientation from vertical to horizontal again and again. Eventually the letters that we drew repeatedly filled our papers with shapes. Inside each shape we created a different pattern. We used markers and watercolors to then create patterns using our colors.

Mouse Paint!

Kindergarten Artists read the book "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Walsh. In this fun book, three white mice find three jars of paint. One jar is red, one is yellow and one blue. Thinking the paint is "mouse paint," they each jump in one jar. When they climb out and walk around they drip paint in puddles on the floor.
The yellow mouse steps in a red puddle and makes...ORANGE!
The blue mouse steps in a yellow puddle and makes... GREEN!
The red mouse steps in a blue puddle and makes... PURPLE!

We drew three white mice and used primary paint colors to paint the mice.
We then had our mice do exactly as the mice in the book did and we mixed secondary colors using the primary colors.

Line, Shape & Pattern

Grades 3, 4 and 5 studied the art work of Gustav Klimt. He is the founder of the art nouveau movement. Klimt's artwork is full of lines, shapes and patterns. As a class we talked about the difference between a line and shape--a line is open and a shape is closed. We then worked in groups making a list of as many different kinds of lines as possible. We looked around the artroom and found inspiration for our lines on the tables, ceilings, floor, posters, flags, almost everywhere!

Student then created a simple scribble-line drawing. They then found shapes in their drawing and had to fill each shape with a pattern using only lines. We then used colored sharpies to create pattern using colors. The results are great!

First Grade Artists

 First grade artists spent the first art classes this year learning about different kinds of lines. We looked around the art room and found horizontal lines and vertical lines on the brick walls. We saw organic, wavy lines on our wooden tables. We worked drawing cartoon faces using only one type of line for each face.
This week we are reading "Elmer", the story of a patch-work-colored elephant who doesn't like being different than all the other gray elephants. We will be creating a drawing of Elmer, using all the lines we learned about to create shapes and patterns.

KindergARTen

Kindergarten artists learned many things in art the past week and we made two masterpieces. We read "Bridget's Beret," the story of a girl who creates masterpiece drawings and thinks that her beret is the reason she can draw well. We have been talking about lines. We created a really fun drawing with lots of different cartoon faces using only lines--horizontal, vertical, diagonal,  zig-zag, wavy and curly. Hopefully you saw this packet come home and had fun talking about it with your student.
This week we are using those lines and learning the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional artwork. We are creating a paper sculpture using strips of paper and recreating our all of our lines from last week, but in 3-D. Should be fun!