Friday Update: September 24-28

Today was the last day of 6th & 7th Grade "A" term art classes!  That means that the first 6 weeks of school is over!  Wow - time really did fly!  On Monday I welcome all new 7th and 6th grade students to art class for the start of "B" term classes!

6th Grade:
This week, we finished up all of our projects (obviously). On Thursday, students were sent home with their paper mache letter sculptures! Wanna check them out? There's a whole gallery of examples on our Artsonia site!

 

Although the first half of the week was spent finishing the paper mache project, we spent the rest of our time completeing our pen & ink patterned animal drawings.  The last two days of the term were spent cutting out our drawings, gluing them to bright backgrounds, and fringing the edges of the paper to look like fabric - what a fun finishing touch!  These projects will also be photographed and uploaded to Artsonia within the next week - gotta get final grades done first though!

(Our LEGO characters on display in the hallway here at school!)

7th Grade:



We spent our entire week working very hard on our grid enlargement drawings.  These drawings were done entirely in graphite, paying very special attention to the different shades, shadows, and highlights in the photographs that we chose.  Although it could be difficult at times, many students found great success in obtaining a realistic likeness of their chosen celebrity!

8th Grade:

Still reeling from the excitement of pottery wheel week, we returned to "normal" back in the art room this week.  First, we finished up our plaster sculpture construction (for those who needed another day or two).  Then, we began the process of adding glaze to our hand-built clay mugs!  Remember those?  I havent mentioned those for a few weeks now!  Once those have been glazed (the glaze is painted on with a paintbrush!), the mugs will be fired a second time.  The glaze + firing is what gives the mugs a bright, glossy, food-safe and water-tight coating.  Can't wait to see how they turn out!

In other news:

I'm reading a really good book right now, called "Masterpiece" by Elise Broach.  I checked it out from our school library!  It's about a beetle named Marvin who learns to draw tiny masterpieces with pen & ink using his tiny legs, and how he gets involved in an art museum heist!  There's lots of information about Albrecht Durer and his artwork woven into the story.  Exciting!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: September 17-21

6th Grade:
Next week is the last day for Term "A" art classes, so we've been BUSY!  We worked on painting and decorating our paper mache sculptures, and they should be all finished by Monday or Tuesday next week!  We started by using 3-dimensional "puffy" paint to add interesting textures to the face of our letter sculptures.  We then painted a base coat of black acrylic paint to the entire letter - we're going to use a metallic wash on top of that for our final layer.  They should look super cool when they're finished!



Our third and final sketchbook assignment is due this upcoming Tuesday (we're drawing manikins), and we're also working with pen and ink on our patterned animal designs, which will be all finished by Friday!




7th Grade:
Due to Outdoor Education and pull-outs for MAP testing, our 6-week term has been considerably shortened this time around.  In order to fit our curriculum into this time frame, We're going to skip our third sketchbook assignment in favor of spending our time on our last major project: grid enlargement drawings using graphite!  Students selected and printed 8.5"x11" black and white photos of celebrities that they wished to draw.  Then, they drew a 1" grid over the printout, and a 2" grid on large sheets of white drawing paper.  Students will draw and shade, square by square, in order to reproduce a very realistic version of their photo.  So far, they're looking fantastic!  Check this out:



8th Grade:
This week was POTTERY WHEEL WEEK!  On Tuesday, we watched a video all about throwing clay on the potter's wheel.  The class was split into three groups, and each day, one of the groups had a full class period to work on the potter's wheel.  The rest of the class worked on small paper figure sculptures using the Papercritters website to design and print out tiny characters that are cut out, folded, and glued into a 3-dimensional form.



In other news:
I discovered a great teacher blog, written by a teacher of gifted students.  Krissy Venosdale writes Venspired.com and she also makes posters from readers who submit quotes.  Well, I submitted my own personal favorite quote (you may have seen it before - it's part of my e-mail signature here at school!) and was super excited to see it made into a poster on her website!  Woo hoo!  Check it out below, and read her accompanying post about it here.

















































Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.



Week in Review: September 10-14

HAPPY NATIONAL ARTS IN EDUCATION WEEK!!!

Week four of art is at its end!  Can you believe we only have two weeks left of art for this term's sixth and seventh graders?  Eeek!

6th Grade:
We viewed our sketchbook #1 drawings on Artsonia!  Have you checked out the gallery yet?  Be sure to leave comments and join the fanclubs of your favorite artists!

In class, we finally got to apply paper mache our cardboard block letter sculptures!  It was very messy and slimy, but super fun.  We're also working on the pencil drawing for our pen & ink pattern drawings inspired by African Art.  Next week, we'll be working on both projects at the same time so that we can complete all of our work by the end of the term!

7th Grade:
On Monday, we completed our monochromatic still-life paintings.  Because of Outdoor Education this week, students had a double-period of art on either Tuesday or Thursday, depending on which half of Outdoor Ed they attended.  During that double period, we worked on sketchbook assignment #2, which is a fun black and white op-art design.  It's due next Tuesday (the 18th of September) and you can get more details on the art website.

8th Grade:
Our plaster sculptures (faux mounted animal heads) are in full swing and they're looking AWESOME!  I'm so excited about this project!  Here's a little preview of student work-in-progress:

Also, our clay mugs are being fired in the kiln literally as I type this blog post!  So... soon we'll be glazing, and by the last day of art, enjoying a beverage in our functional art!  Next week I'm planning on pulling out the pottery wheels, so that is another super fun experience for 8th graders to look forward to!

Phew - we've been busy!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Friday Update: Week of September 4-7

This week was SHORT - only 4 days due to Labor Day weekend!  I still have a ton of news to share, though:

6th Grade:
This week, notifications were given to students in class of any missing work.  Thankfully, there weren't many, but it's always good to stay up-to-date on your grades via PowerSchool!  Remember, if an assignment is marked "zero," it means that it hasn't been turned in.  So, get your missing work in and raise your art grade!

In class this week, we worked on our second sketchbook assignment (due next Thursday, September 13th), which is a drawing of a room interior, using our knowledge of one-point perspective from our first sketchbook assignment!

We also worked on some new drawing techniques: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle lines to create shading and three-dimensional form in our drawings.  Today we read about African Art and the use of patterns.  Our new drawing techniques will be used along with some African pattern inspiration in our final drawing, which we hope to start next week!

7th Grade:
Most of this week was spent continuing our work on our monochromatic still-life paintings.  Because next week is Outdoor Education, we are trying hard to get these paintings completed by the end of class on Monday.  That way, we'll be able to start fresh on a new project when we return!  Keep an eye out for our paintings on Artsonia (along with our sketchbook drawings) in about a week or so.  As long as you're registered on the site, you should get an alert email when new artwork is up for viewing.

8th Grade:
This week, we finished the construction on our clay mugs!  That means that they'll probably be fired sometime next week.  From this point forward, art becomes a little bit crazy... we're starting our plaster animal head sculptures, but in the next few weeks, we'll end up taking a break to do some pottery wheel work, and also return to our clay mugs in order to glaze.  All this jumping around allows us to make the best of our short 9-week stay in art, and to make "wait time" for drying/firing productive by working on other projects in-between.

Our key vocabulary word this week was ARMATURE.  Today, we began building the armature for our plaster sculptures.  Be sure to ask your student artist what that means!

In other art news...
Have you seen the special limited-edition Andy Warhol Campbell's tomato soup cans at Target?  This year marks the 50th anniversary of Warhol's "32 Campbell's Soup Cans" artwork.  To celebrate, Campbell's has released these fun and colorful designs!  I have a set of all four here at school!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.