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!

4th grade one point perspective cities

4th grade artists learned about the renaissance as a time of discovery, exploration and invention. The ability to accurately and realistically portray 3D looking images on a 2d surface happened during the Renaissance. We looked at artwork prior to the Renaissance and compared it to old, 1980s video games. Both types of images had incorrect, distorted and weird attempts at portraying depth on a flat surface. We reviewed parallel, horizontal and vertical lines and drew our cities using one-point perspective and a vanishing point. We shaded in colored pencil, making one side of the building light and the other side dark.

First grade gum ball machines

First graders looked at the artwork of pop artist Wayne Thiebaud. He is famous for creating paintings of foods--mostly desserts. He paints realistically. We looked at his artwork discussed his use of the elements of art. The elements are line, shape, form, color, space, texture and value. We used all of these in our artwork. Can you find them?

Specials Night, First Grade

These mixed-media Art projects feature first graders' understanding of the primary colors and how they are used to create the secondary colors. We looked at the paintings of Audrey flack. She was a pioneer in a style of painting known as photorealism. We looked at her painting of crayon a crayons. Why do they look so real? We noticed shadows and highlights and tints (lights) and shades (darks) of the same color. We drew our crayons by drawing cylinders first and then drawing a cone shape on top. We added details like the crayons stripe or the color name. We learned to shade with our crayons, pretending a spot light was shining on them, making one side lighter and one side darker, producing a cast shadow on the table next to each crayon. We then mixed liquid watercolors, in the primary colors, in a resist technique for our backgrounds. En la clase de Espanol, students looked at their artwork and wrote, in Spanish, about how many crayons they drew and how the mixed the primary colors.