Honored!

I am thrilled and honored to be blogged about on Jon Contino's website! The kids loved studying him in school. They did a fantastic job creating the letters to their name for a project just like Jon! I also talked to my kids about how hard work can really get you places! See the my original blog post [here] and Jon Contino's blog post [here].

Also, what a wonderful way to close out this blog! I an no longer working at Jefferson Middle School in Washington DC , where U taught for the last two years. This year I am moving on to a new school, still in DC, called Langley Elementary school. I am more than excited to be working with a younger age group again. However, I am yet again faced with very little budget for art supplies. Please feel free to donate to my cause at Donors Choose. Anything would help!
 
I also invite you to come and join my new blog for Langley Elementary School, its called Northeast City Art.

Contour Line Bright Shoes!

Both 6th and 7th grade learned about contour line drawing last week. We opened the lesson by an exercise of placing shoes in a time line. I gave the students 12 shoes, ranging from 400 BC all the way to the 2000S and had them place them in the order in which they thought the shoes were made. It was a lot of fun seeing how the student's worked together to figure it out.

Next, we talked about how artist used to record things like shoes and style of clothing and architecture in their paintings and drawings. We then moved on to recording our own shoes, in contour line. We then added fun details like their names in the shoe laces and bright colors.



March is Youth Art Month

The National Education Association has declared March as Youth Art Month! The students and I reflected about what art is and what art isn't on a post it note last week. We displayed our thoughts in the hallway to celebrate art and bring awareness to March being Youth Art Month! Read NAEA's fantastic art flyer [here]

Value Painting Meets Zentangle Drawing

I taught the 6th graders how to make a tint of a color by starting with white paint and adding just a tiny bit of another color to create a new color. This is called a tint. The tints are then made darker and darker to create lot of value of the same color. The students practiced this on their own, using old plastic lids are their paint pallettes. They did a fanstastic job making tints and values of their one color.

With their one color, the students painting in a background to a flower drawing. Each student had 1/4 of the flower on their paper and their table partners had the other 3/4s. So that when each students has completed their paper and places them with their table partners, an entire whole flower is created.

After painting the background and sketching out their 1/4 of a flower, the students were taught how to draw in the zentangle style. We watched a video to get us inspired. Afterwards classical music was played and the students really, really got in to their zentangle styles. The students were completely silent and really enjoying the concept of "zenning out" to the music and enjoying how to make repeated lines and patterns. Next, the students began to zentangle draw on their flower petals with fine tipped sharpie pens. The results have been not only beautiful but also inspiring to me!

I am looking forward to them being displayed together in the hallway for the arrival of spring!

Paul Klee Inspired Cities

The 6th grade recently completed a city scape painting in the style of the artist Paul Klee. Pictured above is his painting, Kingdom and the Sun. The students observed his painting and had a gallery discussion about how he used geometric shapes and learned that his work was classified as cubism.

To create their own Kingdom and the Sun, my students created a pre planning paper.  On this paper the students wrote a few guided notes about Paul Klee and his life and they also did a presketch of their painting. The students were also challenged to choose a color theme and stick to it for their painting. This proves that the students really do understand the difference between warm and cool color families as well as what the primary and secondary colors are.

Next, the students drew, in pencil, the outline of their city, using geometric shapes, on a piece of recycled book paper. Then, the students painted very carefully the buildings they drew. Lastly, the students traced over their pencil lines with a black marker to create bolds outlines.

6th Grade Watercolor Tone Grids

The 6th grade has been experimenting with watercolor and how to mix tones, tints, and shades. With their mixed colors, the students are filling in a grid, using great patience and care. This lesson teaches the art students how to mix colors neatly and clearly as well as how to use fine motor control with their painting process. I love the outcome so far...and the students are SO focused!

6th Grade Color Wheels

Today the 6th grade began painting their own color wheels. This lesson is great because it shows students how the colors are placed on the color wheel as well as how to use fine control of their paint brushes in making two different values of one color.

We viewed a great video of an artist painting trees and how he used value [going from light to dark] to create depth in his painting. The students learned to make two value shades of a paint color today on their color wheel. They will use this skill of value painting to create depth in their own projects over and over again in the next few weeks as we continue our current unit; "Paint like a Pro!"

Sketchbook Update

My middle school students have been working so hard on their sketching! The first five minutes of every class is dedicated to sketching. It is either an observational sketch [something placed on their table to draw] or a challenge! Here are some of the students sketchbooks in progress.

Gesture & Figure Drawing

The 6th grade has been leanring about gesture drawing. On Thursday of last week, the students got to read about gesture drawing and then we able to model in front of the class and draw in that style. It was a lot of fun as we had students stand on a table and pose for 45 seconds in front of the class.

The 6th grade learned that gesture drawing is quick, has very little details, shows a body in a pose, and uses broad swift strokes. After practicing gesture drawing, the students then went on a magazine hunt. In the magazines the students had to find one figure in motion and cut it out. After they cut it out, they had to redraw the body in motion, using the gesture drawing skills they just practiced and then the value scales they learned to color in the bodies. The results have been awesome!

Aaron De La Cruz

Every Friday my students and I explore a new artist. This past Friday the students and I watched a short video of Aaron De La Cruz painting a mural. The students and I talked about how the artist uses thick, black lines to create murals. My students also wrote in their sketchbooks a reflection about Aaron De La Cruz by either responding with a sentence or drawing a picture. The most exciting part of the artist study was when my students made the connection between Aaron's line and the types of lines they are  currently using to complete their Van Gogh Style landscapes!

Here are two student examples of the Van Gogh style line landscapes that we are working on.

An Exciting Classroom Visitor!

My principal made a fantastic connection with Dreamworks Films to have a animation film director come to speak to my students yesterday about art! Peter Ramsey, director of Rise of the Guardians, spoke with my students about making a career out of art. He expressed how important it is to stick with drawing and creating, even if it feels difficult at the moment. "Always go back to the difficult thing and try again" he said yesterday to my students.

Mr. Ramsey showed my students the animation film trailer for Rise of the Guardians and spoke with them about story boards. He showed the students how characters develop and how each frame and shot in a movie is mapped and planned out.

My students responded so well to the speaker. They asked fantastic questions and were amazingly behaved. I was so proud to be their teacher. I hope they took away as much inspiration as I did yesterday.

Here is a photo of Peter Ramsey talking to my students about character development. He also gave each of my student's a book; Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, which his animation film is based on. He signed each copy for the students as well!

Donors Choose "A Sketchbook for Every Kid!"

I put together a Donor's Choose project over the summer for a class set of sketchbooks. My friends, family, and anonymous donors contributed over $450 to the cause and funded 100 sketchbooks for my students in under 48 hours! It was a wild success and I am so very thankful! I can't wait to upload images of what the students will be doing in their sketchbook every day!

Here is the first class designing the cover of their very own, professional sketchbooks!