Showing posts with label art lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art lessons. Show all posts

Monday, September 26, 2016

In the Art Room: Andy Warhol Inspired Flower Prints

Today my second grade friends started a new printmaking project that I thought I'd share with y'all. In our 30 minute session together, they were able to watch the first half of the video, discover a little about Andy Warhol, learn some new vocabulary, work with printmaking tools and complete about two sets of prints (one positive and one negative). Whew! Next time, we'll print again to insure that we have enough crisp prints to pick from to create our own Andy Warhol Flower-inspired collage. Lemme show you how we are creating these pop art beauties:
Here's what you'll need:

* Colorful copy paper. I found mine super cheap in the Back to School section of Walmart a while back.

* Fake flowers. I tried real sunflowers in my experimenting and found that the petals kept falling out onto the printing plate. Fake flowers from the Dollar Tree were my best find. 

* Acrylic paint. I tried using tempra and it didn't work on the Gelli Arts printing plate. 

* Brayers

* Printing plate. I used Gelli Arts but you could also use this recipe to create your own gelatin plates

* Scissors and glue

* Those two little words that get everyone excited: PUFFY.PAINT.
After the kids have created their prints, we'll proceed on to the collage and puffy painting portion of the video. I'll keep you posted in a follow up on just how these colorful beauties turn out. 

In other news, I kinda sorta totally wanna wallpaper my entire house in these. Who's up for a flower printing weekend?! Party at my house, you bring the flowers, I'll bring the brayers. I'm telling you, this project is so fun, just ask Andy...
I mean, doesn't he look thrilled?! Ha! Love that wonderful Warhol, y'all. 
This lesson is going to be followed up by a flower painting project by our next artist inspo: Vincent van Gogh. I thought printing the sunflowers would give the kids a good opportunity to see them up close, check out those textures and better prepare them to recreate them in paint. I'll keep you posted. 
Until then, have a super happy and colorful week, kids! 
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Sunday, September 18, 2016

In the Art Room: Printmaking Made Easy!

Hey, y'all! I'm in the middle of lesson planning for some upcoming fall-themed projects in the art room. Since my third graders are getting ready to embark on the above printed leaves project, I thought I'd share the lesson video with you as well as my fave printing projects. By the way, I often update my YouTube channel before sharing here. So if you wanna see some art teacherin' videos as soon as they launch, you might want to subscribe here
Every since I learned about marker prints from my art teacherin' buddy Don over at Shine Brite Zamorano, I have been in love. The technique is so simple and yet so impactful. I think my third graders will have so much fun creating their leaf collages. We are going to be tying in science by discussing just why leaves change colors. The background will be a lesson in glue resist and watercolor techniques. I'll be sure to share the complete lesson when we are finished. Until then, here are some of my very fave printing projects!
Last year, my first graders explored printmaking with these LOVE collages. They did both marker and ink prints and had a great time doing so. 
In this video, I share with you some more tips on marker prints as well as printing with ink. When I first started teaching, printmaking was a daunting teaching task for me. Over the years, I've come up with some things that work for me...maybe you'll find 'em helpful as well.
I love the powerful impact of these positive and negative leaf prints. The amount of prep time needed to make these printing surfaces is well work the results they produce. 
Last year, third grade got their toes wet with this printmaking project that explored cityscapes, depth and watercolor techniques. I created a couple of videos to walk the kids through the processes.
By the way, I create these videos for the following reasons: 1. my sanity; 2. so that all of my students can see my demos and 3. for anyone else who wants to use them! Seriously, feel free to play my videos in your art room. It's the reason I share them on my YouTube channel.

Last year, I was super smart and did printmaking with all grade levels at once. That meant all supplies were out and ready for the entire day. No switching visuals, supplies, etc. It really made printmaking a snap for me. Second grade worked on these sweet printed winter selfies
Fourth grade created these amazing Egyptian god portraits a couple of years ago. So much in one project: drawing, printing, metal tooling! 
A fun variation on traditional printing are floating chalk prints. If you've not tried this, I highly recommend it, so fun, easy and beautiful!
Why not print on fabric? My third graders not only enjoyed the printing process but also stitching their fabric pieces together. 
Making your mark with untraditional materials like cardboard is fun too. My third graders learned about the history of the Eiffel Tower while creating these beauties
And, of course, I've been sharing these fun radial prints that my fourth graders just wrapped up. 
Kids love printmaking because it's good, messy fun. I love teaching printmaking because it is a wonderful medium that allows the kids to see that art is not just a one-n-done. But it is all about trying over and again to create something awesome. 
I'm always looking for fun printmaking projects for my students as well as helpful tips and tricks. If you've got 'em, please share 'em in the comments below! 
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Thursday, September 8, 2016

In the Art Room: Dot Day Radial Designs by 3rd Grade

Hey, kids! Today I'm sharing with you the follow up to a lesson I shared a coupla weeks ago: Tissue Paper Relief. Because of the delicate nature of these tissue paper reliefs, I knew the kids would need to back them on something. So, after a review of radial balance and design, as well as the elements of art, we created these colorful backgrounds, added our tissue creations to them and, viola! Third grade successfully created their dot designs for Dot Day!  
Aren't they so spectacularly colorful? I swear they practically glow in the dark! In case you missed it, here is the video I created to introduce the kids to radial balance and design as well as the process of making the tissue reliefs:
BIG SHOUT OUT to AOE and Blick for sharing this lesson at the most recent online conference. 
Surprisingly, this project was a quick one. We spent one day creating our tissue reliefs which needed a day (or more) to completely dry before popping out.
Once dry, I popped the designs out as they are pretty delicate and I didn't want the kids to accidentally tear them. The following art class, they were given 10" cardboard rounds. They traced their tissue relief in pencil and then created a radial design in black marker.
I reminded them to keep their designs big because they would be coloring with these bad boys:
So I'm a sucker for all things fluorescent. And so are the kids. I love these Gallery brand oil pastels which you can find in most of your art supply catalogs and Amazon. 
Creating and coloring the design took them just under an hour. Enough time to attach our tissue reliefs to the center and have them ready for a display in the hall! 
What I love about this project is that it reinforced our study of radial balance...
Gave us the chance to work with a variety of art supplies...
And create something really cool! Definitely a project I see myself teaching again in the future. 
I'm not usually a repeat offender when it comes to art projects but for this one, I might have to make an exception.
I know several of you purchased the rubbing plates after hearing about it from AOE. I'd love to see where you take this project!
Until then, have a super bright week, y'all! 

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Monday, September 5, 2016

In the Art Room: Monochromatic Selfie Mural

Oh, y'all. Murals. Every time I have the kids create the pieces for one I think to myself: THIS HAS GOT TO END. The crawling on the floor, the hot glue burns, the accidental stapling of flesh (in my thigh? For real tho?). Then I hang it up and immediately forget the pain and suffering. I just stand back and absorb the awesomeness that is the work of my wee artists. 
Like awww, y'all. These selfies created by my first through fourth grade students (with about a dozen missing as they still have some finishing up to do) are just about the best thing ever. And it already has me plotting and planning our next collaborative project. Because I'm a glutton for punishment. 
In case you missed it, we started our school year with a monochromatic self-portrait project. You can see the finer details here. The above is the video that I shared with the kids. 
And here is a look-see as to my set up. The covered tables signify the colors available at that table. The kids could use any ONE color they wanted (which meant for that first day, they sat where they liked) but if a table was filled up, then move along, Little Doggie. On the tables there were two bins filled with markers and colored pencils of one color in a range of values. There were also mirrors on each table. 
At the end of the first week, I had a stockpile of these lovelies that I organized by color. Initially I was going to do something COMPLETELY different with these selfies. However, tried as I might to make the idea work (I was going to make a big ole peace sign), it just wasn't coming together. So I shelved the idea, allowed myself to let it go and I flipped my flop... 
And went with this idea instead: The Many Faces of J.E.S. 
Our students have a STONG sense of school pride. They are happy kids who truly love their school. Our school colors are yellow and blue. I think they are gonna totally dig this mural when they see it tomorrow!
But, like I said, the gluing, mounting, plotting and planning is what completely wears me out. I did this on a Sunday just so I could knock it out with plenty of uninterrupted time. And so no child could witness giant extension cords and hot glue guns on the ground. Is it any wonder why I am so accident prone? I set myself up for disaster. I truly am my own biggest enemy!
Next up: kindergarten still needs to create selfies. AND I had the posters that the kids created in this post laminated. I can't wait to hang them up alongside this mammoth masterpiece. 
I'm also stoked that this is up two whole weeks before Open House! Now I just gotta get three grade levels of Dot Day artwork up...whew. That outta be a good time. 
In the meantime, I'll just be hanging out with some colorful kids.
Who are so uniquely different. I love seeing the variety of creativity!
By the way...I may be a little spotty this week as I'm having a ROOT CANAL tomorrow. Be thinkin' of me y'all. And floss. A lot.
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Thursday, August 25, 2016

In the Art Room: Tissue Paper Relief by Third Grade

Now that our Monochromatic Selfies are complete, the third grade was ready to spend their third day in the art room creating tissue paper reliefs! I've been looking for a different spin on Dot Day and when I saw Blick present this at the AOE Now summer conference, I knew I had to give it a go!
This project took us the hour to complete and made for so much prettiness (not to mention educatin'). I created the video to share with my students...but you are welcome to share it with yours! 
Now, the relief might be finished but the project isn't complete yet! Our next step will be to adhere them to 10" cardboard rounds found on Amazon (I just have them sitting on 8" rounds for the photo) and continue our study of radial balance. I'll be sure to share that with you when they are complete. I was just too excited by these lovelies not to share right away!
 I mean...so fun, right?
 For this project, you'll need some of the following:
* Texture plates I used the ones that was recommended by Blick at the AOE conference. I liked the circle design as it went perfectly with our Dot Day lesson. However, they have a ton of cool texture plate designs to chose from. I purchased thirty plus because that's how many third graders I have in a class...and the artwork will need to remain in the texture plate until completely dry. 
 * Tissue paper squares These small squares are PERFECT if the kids are wanting to create a design. I left that completely up to the students. Many chose to create a radial design on their plate while some did a random one. I was cool with both. 
I was DREADING the idea of cutting tissue paper. I was so excited when I found these at the Dollar Tree! I purchased one for each table of four students and it was more than enough. It is a bleeding tissue, however...so some designs may get a little fuzzy around the edges. I was willing to take that as opposed to cutting thousands of squares.
* Large Tissue Paper This is where all of your scraps come in handy. The kids were instructed to use the smaller pieces for their design portion. When that was complete, they were to put AT LEAST three layers of large tissue on the back to strengthen the tissue design. 

* Watery Glue...with GLITTER! I just put white glue and water in a cup and sprinkled glitter into that. The kids also used soft brushes to apply the glue. Anything bristly tour the tissue more than normal. 
The kids put a piece of tape on the back of the plate with their name and teacher code. Here's what they look like as they are drying...not so interesting as the cool design is underneath!
 Not even gonna lie: the big draw back to this project was popping the creations out of the plate. Because the tissue is pretty fragile, I knew the kids might accidentally tear their work and become frustrated. It took me about 10 minutes to bust all of these bad boys out of the texture plates. I did crack a few of the plates while doing so...but they're fine to use again. 
Once popped out, the kids will trim around their circle design, cutting off the excess. 
 I know they'll be thrilled to see them when they get them back!
 Next up: add to a cardboard round and continue the radial design! 
This was such a fun and unique project that the kids really enjoyed. I don't often repeat projects but I can see this one happening again in the ole art room sometime soon!

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