1st grade texture hearts

First grade artists looked Jim Dine's pop art hearts. After talking about how there are two kinds of texture--texture you can feel and texture you can only see. We drew and cut out hearts. Using chisel tip black markers, we divided Our hearts into 7 sections and drew various textures line stipples dots and cross-hatching. We practiced using our one marker to draw both thick and thin lines. We finished by using a hole puncher around the perimeter of the heart and weaving red yarn in a pattern around the heart.

100 Days/100 Years

 Kindergarten artists were celebrating the 100th day of school in their homerooms. In honor of the 100th day of school we created self-portraits. But, our self-portrait collages feature us when we are 100 years old.  Before we began we talked about texture. What is texture? Texture is how something feels. We looked at lots of photographs--pictures of leaves, rocks, feathers, mud and named the textures these items have.  Then, what better way to learn about texture than to create old people? :)
Our self-portrait collages have three textures. Our shirts have a bumpy texture from the paper crimper. We took the paper we used for our faces and crumpled it into a ball and then uncrumpled it, so they are wrinkly. And finally, our hair has texture created from cotton balls. The results are rather funny!

Positive and Negative Hearts

2nd grade artists reviewed the Elements of Art--Line, Shape, Form, Color, Texture, Value and SPACE. We then elaborated on space. There is two types of space in Art: Postive Space and Negative Space. We began with a square of construction paper, folded it in half, and cut out half a heart. We then had two heart stencils-positive and negative. Using pastels and our stencils, we created the overlapping heART you see here.

Alexander Calder Wire Hearts

 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students looked at the life and artwork of Alexander Calder. Calder is a renowned American Sculptor known for his mobile sculptures. He also created 3D wire drawings, drawing with wire much like we draw with pencils or sharpies. We used 18ga wire, shaped it into a heart, then used pipe cleaners and beads to create the sculptures you see here. These examples come from 4R & 5M.

5th grade eraser prints

5th grade Eraser prints

5th grade artists looked at Islamic art. We noticed the patterns, the repeating elements and the lack of representational imagery. We came up with six different ideas for our 1"x1" eraser stamps.  The ideas had to be: abstract, asymetrical and fairly simple given the size of the erasers. After we chose our strongest design, we drew the design on the end of the eraser and then began to carve away the negative (empty) space on the eraser. The areas we left in relief (raised up) are the designs you see here. Using a guide sheet to help us line up our stamps, we created radial balance. Each stamp is repeated four times as it rotates around a central axis. Lastly, since we printed on thin rice paper, we used rulers and following specific measurements, we created a paper mat for our art. The original idea for this project can be found here:  http://www.artforsmallhands.com/2010/07/printing-patterns.html

Eye Love Art Club

 4th and 5th grade members of Art club learned how to accurately draw the human eye. We used #2 pencils and blending stumps to create a range of values from dark, to medium to white.