Happy Fall and Halloween!
Bats, cats, ghouls, and goblins!
And Pumpkin Spice Lattes of course.
Happy Fall and Halloween!Weaver is a fun place to be this time of year. There are football games, fun projects, and goofy costumes! Above is my personal favorite: the 80's DJ. Here, we have a French man and his pal. A cute cartoon character! We can't forget Principal Vroom as Darth Vader, of course. And myself, as myself in 50 years. Now onto the Patterns and Pumpkins! Above is an example of the "Pumpkins and Patterns" project we just finished. Throughout the project, the students were encouraged to focus on pattern, balance, and unity. We started by studying contemporary, Brazilian artist, Romero Britt, who's work has been featured all over the world. Some of his most famous displays have been in the Super Bowl, the Fifa World cup Logo, and on a few Bentleys! We took inspiration from Britto's bright colors, beautiful patterns, and playful designs. But instead of copying his cheerful theme, we put our own twist to our work and created patterns that were fall or Halloween themed. The next step was to brainstorm! We made a web to come up with some things that came to mind when we thought of fall or Halloween... Bats, cats, ghouls, and goblins! And Pumpkin Spice Lattes of course. After they came up with some patterns, the students had to sketch their layout design and then get to work! Once they got their patterns down, they then had to make a centerpiece. I taught them how to make a pumpkin, a ghost, a bat, and an eyeball but allowed them to come up with their own if they'd like. They got so creative! Here are some examples of the finished work. They were so good, they gave me the chills! Have a terror-iffic day!
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While I was away in DC, the seventh graders were finishing the picture. They had to choose an image from a magazine that had a large human face. The students then divided the face and drew the other side. I was so pleasantly surprised at what an amazing job they did!! Keep up the great work, 7th grade!!
Draw what you see, not what you know. Or what you think you know... That was the challenge we took for a week. Finally, we did a continuous contour line drawing (right), where they had to draw their hand again without lifting their pen, but this time, they could look at their paper every so often. After a few of these exercises, I started to see the drawings improve and I was impressed. I think they saw it too and after hearing "Hey! I don't even know how I did that!", I think they were impressed with themselves. Then, my students were able to pick objects to make a personal still life and draw it using only contour lines. They started with sketches in their visual journals (click image to see details). Then it was on to their finals! One option was to draw one view of 2-3 objects. Below was an exception. I allowed this student to draw only one object since the clarinet was so detailed. I was so impressed with how many students chose to include their hand as one of the objects in their drawing. Hands are super hard to draw but they did an awesome job! The amazing drawing below was the result of a creative problem solver. This student originally drew her hand with the bracelet in the middle of the page but it was too small. One of their challenges for this project was to take up most of the page. She drew the hand again, but unfortunately, it was still too small. She repeated this process again and I had to tell her yet again that it needed to take up more of the page. Instead of starting over, she drew her sketchbook and added her other hand drawing it! YEAH CREATIVITY!! The second option was to do 3-5 angles of one object. They came up with some very beautiful drawings and they successfully drew what they saw instead of what they know (or think they know)!
Did you know that middle school kids are capable of making AMAZING abstract art? I didn't. But after seeing all of the other work my students have done thus far, I decided to put them up to the challenge. We started by studying abstract artist, Vassily Kandinsky. We learned some history and then broke down and analyzed his work. We found that the elements of art, like shape, color, and line, could be the subject of a work instead of traditional subjects like people, places, or things. We also interpreted the work and talked about the emotions that it made us feel and/or the emotions he may have felt while creating it. Then it was time to brainstorm! They picked an emotion to represent and got right to working in their visual journals, jotting down lines, shapes, and colors to help get their chosen emotion across to their future viewers. After brainstorming, the students used rubber cement or white oil pastels to draw large shapes on their watercolor paper in order to create a resist. These substances resist water, so when we did the next step, which was creating a watercolor wash for the background, these shapes were left untouched. After the watercolor was dry, the students rubbed off the rubber cement leaving bright white shapes to contrast to colored background. The next step was to use watercolor pencils to add designs until their page was almost completely filled. Here's what they came up with. Take a look at the lines, colors, and shapes they used. Can you guess the emotion they were trying to express? Aren't they beautiful? I'm so impressed!
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