One-Point Perspective in the Hallways

One of the concepts we want our middle and high school art students to learn in the beginning classes is perspective. This can be a tough one for even the best artist to master. For this concept I had them take their art pads into the hallways and draw what they saw in one-point perspective. To prepare them I talked about the horizon line (always at eye-level), the vanishing point (where you are on the horizon line), and how all lines moving away from you in space converge on the vanishing point. They also had to keep in mind that any line that is perpendicular to the viewer will not be effected by perspective.

I had them start by drawing the far wall in the hallway (usually with the doorway to the staircase), then find their vanishing point. After that they could draw in the information on the ceiling, floor and side walls. I did end up helping with some of the drawing until they got the idea, but many of them came out pretty well!

Here are some great examples:

Rousseau Collages are Fierce!

The latest project I did with my elementary school students was based on Henri Rousseau's jungle paintings. They learned all about how Rousseau was self-taught and made his paintings of jungles without ever having visited one, but through visiting zoos, botanical gardens, and using his imagination. They saw how he filled up his canvases with a lot of imagery:

For homework the students needed to bring in pictures of animals that they wanted to portray. They had to cut out shapes to make their animals and plants, and were instructed not to rely on drawing for any of the details (although some could just not help themselves!). Once the project was nearing its end I brought in shiny colored paper for them to add details. I think some of them turned out pretty great!

Congratulations!

The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders have been learning how to type this year - I guess they call it "keyboarding". Well, congratulations to the first two students who completed their certificates AND captured all the jewels in Typer Island: Matthew and Arthur - both 4th graders!! Here they are posing with their screens -

Matthew

Arthur

The Joys of Painting Fruit

In a color scale exercise, my middle and high school students learned the value of using a color's complement (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple) instead of black to create different values and neutralize a color. To practice this, I gave each one of them a handout with photos of 3 fruits, each with a good light source and shadow:

I instructed them to divide their paper into 4 sections, and paint a fruit in each one. They would start with using just black and white (and mixing to make gray) for the first one, choosing any fruit they would like. The next three squares they would use each of the fruit one time, and the following paints in any arrangement they liked on the paper. 1) blue and orange (and white), 2) red and green (and white), and 3) yellow and purple (and white). Here are some of the best ones. I am really impressed with how well they did!

High School student Ashley

High School student Beam

Color Theory for Everyone!

So I've started teaching my middle and high school students about color and paint. Their first task was to paint in a color wheel with tints and shades. They have a full range of colors in their art packets but I only allowed them to use red, yellow, blue, black, and white for their color wheels.

Once they figured out how to mix the paint, I wanted them to create an artwork utilizing warm and cool color palettes. I looked around online for ideas and I loved this one posted by Arte a Scuola (thank you!!). I had them choose 5 items from a bunch of containers I set up in the classroom and they could arrange them any way they wanted to on the page.

The next step was to break up the page with lines going through the objects. Each shape would need to be next to a different color than itself. They could choose warm colors for the background and cool colors for the objects, or vice versa. After they finished painting they went over their lines with black sharpie.

Even with such specific rules I still think there is beautiful diversity in the results:

High School student Marcus - this one is exceptional!!

High School student Katie 

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First Grader Draws Video Game Scenes... I Am Impressed

One of my first graders, Quinn, was finished with his artist worksheet early this week and was drawing in a sketchbook. I just happened to notice this amongst all of the hubbub of trying to get the rest of them finished. I couldn't believe how intricate and detailed his pages are and I wanted to share them! Take a look: