Minimalist Sculpture

Our lesson on Minimalist Sculpture led me to a lesson I found online...
 Art Teacher Blog- The Adventures of a Melbourne Art Teacher

Students were shown sculpture from artist, Tony Smith.  Their design was to incorporate the appearance of a circle, square and triangle and to add a shape in their shape. 
I enjoyed (maybe my students didn't :) ) watching them problem solve.  I showed students visuals of an example I had last year that is shown at the bottom.




Elijah C.

Vanessa B.

Tia A.

Mya P.

Elvis H.





 

 Mya's construction phase

 

 

 Paper Mache time!  finding the balance between not enough paper mache glue and too much :).

Note: I use paper mache powder.  All you have to do is add water and wait 5 minutes.  I tried old fashion recipe but our humidity gave us mold even when I added more salt.  The smell was horrendous :p 

Felt Dolls

It brings a smile to my face to see these incredibly cute and comforting felt dolls or objects.  Students LOVED to sew, they found it very therapeutic.  There are different levels of sewing skills but bottom line they enjoyed making them. 

Onion Domes

Students studied the Onion Domes architecture style. We used watercolors to paint the domes and towers.  Prior to doing the painting, students tried different watercolor techniques such as wet on wet and allowed their colors to "bleed", applied salt, wet in wet, dry brush, and lifting off. 

They used a watercolor they enjoyed most.

 

 

Mosaic Octopus

Students were to draw an octopus of any variety.  They looked at an octopus mantle, siphon, tentacles and suckers and thought about the position they wanted their octopus to have.  Students looked at the history of mosaics from Sumerian, Greek, Roman art.

Students also used different values of a color to create interest.

 

 

 

 

Texture on Scratch Art

Students love working on scratch art and they love the process of making their own scratch art even more.  We concentrated on the Element of Art: Texture (visual) and the Principle of Art: Emphasis

Students drew a contour drawing of their animal using a marker.  Then colored the eye of their animal in any color of their choice to focus on emphasis. They colored the rest of the cardboard, trying to avoid the marker lines, in white oil pastel.  The boards were painted in black tempera and allowed to dry.  We talked about the different types of textures animals have and the types of lines to create their desired texture.   It always makes for a therapeutic art project.  I'm pleased with the results only I would go back and have them retouch areas where the paint was brushed off.

Color Wheel Paper Rolls

Students painted the 12 colors in a color wheel.  Students did not have to put the colors in order but they were allowed to use only the primary colors, yellow, blue and red to create the secondary and tertiary (intermediate) colors.  They used Tints and Shades (black and white) to create values.

Name Rain(ing) down

"That is amazing!" is what I heard this morning from a student at school.  He was referring to the student art work hanging on the library windows.  When I told him they (the students) only used primary colors, he was even more amazed.  He absolutely made my day and I had to share this news with my students.  Their efforts really are paying off. I'm driving them nuts I'm sure, but it's paying off :).

These students viewed different types of fonts either using the internet for resource.  This can also be found on our class designed Pinterest in which students can have access by scanning the QR code created directing them straight to the website or by using 1 of 2 computers in class.  Or if they preferred, they could use a hard copy for different fonts. They ALWAYS have the choice of designing a font from imagination.

We discussed the Principle of Art: Variety and they began to draw a contour drawing of the letters in their name demonstrating a variety of sizes, we studied the Element of Art: Color by completing a color wheel in color pencils using just the primary colors.

We went back to the art work and applied all 12 colors made by the 3 primary colors.  This time students applied color pencils and crayons to their work.  In the process they applied the Element of Art: Values.  A loooong project due to the Thanksgiving break and another 2 days the school was closed due to the weather (ice and North Tx. don't mix).  The students and their teacher, we're ready to finish!

I saw a similar lesson on the link below, credit given to...

http://artexpressionofimagination.blogspot.com/2011/03/name-piles-by-6th-grade.html