Weekly Update: Nov. 26-30

6th Grade 
This week was all about SCULPTURE!  We worked very hard this week constructing our block letters from cereal box cardboard.  These 3-D forms were stuffed with newspaper to keep the shapes sturdy.  Starting today, we began layering paper mache over the forms.  Next week, we'll finish the paper mache layers and add other finishing techniques.

In class, we are also working on a 1-point perspective room drawing, which will be due next week.

P.S. Check out our latest work on Artsonia!

7th Grade


On Monday, we printed out celebrity portraits for our grid drawing assignment.  Our final drawings will be 12"x16.5" black and white sketches drawn in graphite.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent working on the actual drawings.  We are using viewfinders to help us concentrate on the individual grid squares from our printouts, and blending stumps to blend and shade our graphite.

P.S. Check out our latest work on Artsonia!

8th Grade
This was pottery wheel week!  On Tuesday, we watched an instructional video all about the pottery wheel featuring Danielle "The Clay Lady."  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all wheel days, and students had an assigned rotation for taking turns.

On days that the students were not on the pottery wheel, they worked on sketchbook assignment #3.  The topic is "draw your greatest fear." (Yes, this is different from the one on the website - we changed it up this quarter!) The topic was inspired by Ms. Best's AP art portfolio project.  She talked to 8th grade art classes about course offerings in art at York HS, and showed off some of her work.

Sketchbook #3 is due next week on Wednesday.

In other news... 

I made myself into grumpy cat.  Enjoy.



Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Holiday Gift Ideas: An Art Supply Shopping Guide!

Looking for an awesome holiday gift for your art-loving son or daughter?  How about some art supplies?!  Below is a list of art-related gift ideas for the art student in your life:

1. A graphite drawing set. This set by Cretacolor has pretty much everything you'll need: an eraser, a blending stump, 3 GraphitAquarell pencils, a Monolith Aquarell graphite pencil, two graphite sticks, a black pastel pencil, and one Nero pencil for deep black lines.

 

2. A really great set of colored pencils.  As a student, I always asked for Prismacolor pencils, but I've recently discovered Blick studio brand artist's colored pencils.  They're very comparable, and reasonably priced.  Perfect for the middle school student in your life.  Splurge and buy the 36, 48, or 72 pencil sets!  (We use the 24 pencil sets here at school.)

3. An awesome fancy sketchbook with "good" drawing paper is always a welcome gift.  I like this one from Canson.  I recommend the 9"x12" size, but there are many different ones to choose from!  Sometimes the tiny sizes are fun for travel.

4. If you really want portability with your artwork, consider a pack of Moleskine Cahier sketchbooks.  They're sold in packs of 3, and easy to carry around.  A few years ago, I participated in the Sketchbook project, and these were the books that were provided to us.  I used mine for collage, watercolor, colored pencil, marker, and graphite.  I was very pleased with the quality of the product.  And they're cute, so who doesn't like that?

 

5. For the collage enthusiast, a great exact-o and cutting mat set is key.  I like this set by Alvin, and have something very similar in my own art studio at home.  We also use these cutting mats in the classroom!

6. A set of artist's acrylic paints is perfect for a budding artist.  Acrylic paint (the good kind) can be fairly expensive, so a set like this would be a welcome gift.  I recommend the basic 12-color set, which contains
the most popular colors in 2 oz tubes, including Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Yellow Oxide, Naphthol Crimson, Cadmium Orange, Phthalo Green, Yellow Medium Azo, Cadmium Red Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, and Mars Black.

7. If you get nice paints, you've gotta have some brushes to go with it!  This set by Royal Langnickel is a good choice for a couple of reasons.  First, there is a good mix of small, medium, and large size brushes.  I happen to be a big fan of the "filbert" shape (like an upside-down letter "U"), so I was happy to see one of those in there.  Also, the special "soft grip" handle is nice to hold.

8. Now, if you get nice brushes, you've GOT to be able to keep them that way!  I'm all about buying high-quality supplies and taking care of them the right way to make them last.  We use The Master's Brush Cleaner in the art room to keep our brushes extra clean, but it also conditions the bristles and helps them to retain their shape.  Win!

9. The final step in keeping your paintbrushes nice is to use a brush cleaning tank.  It's basically a glass jar with a metal spring inside that helps separate the brush bristles and allows chunks of paint to settle to the bottom and not get smashed up into the ferrule (metal collar part) of the brush.  I have one at home that I use all the time, and I wish these were made in plastic so we could use them here at school, too.  Make your little artist feel fancy by buying them one of these and their brushes will stay extra nice for extra long because they've been cleaned properly.

...It was fun creating this list, since I got to window shop through the Blick store in order to compile it all!  Of course, if you can't decide, a gift card is always a good option - then your artist can decide for his/her self what to buy!

Happy Holidays!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: November 19th

This week was so short, it was only one day!  Just wanted to post a couple of quick reminders & updates...

6th Grade:
Your sketchbook assignment (the 3-D name design using 1-point perspective) is due on MONDAY when you return from Thanksgiving break!

7th Grade:
Your sketchbook assignment (the 2-point perspective surreal landscape) is also due on MONDAY when you return from Thanksgiving break!

8th Grade:
You should have already turned in your sketchbook assignment (the master copy) on Monday this past week.  When we return from break, Ms. Best will be introducing the next sketchbook assignment, and also - it will be pottery wheel week!  Get ready to get messy! Woo hoo!

I actually had a lot of fun meeting parents at parent-teacher conferences this week.  It's really cool to see how much you guys look (and sometimes even act) alike!  I met so many super supportive and inspiring parents - and a whole bunch of them are even working in the arts!  Love it!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: November 12-16

This week went really fast!  We had crazy schedules for three out of five days this week!  An assembly on Tuesday, late start on Wednesday, and extended seminar on Thursday!  How does one keep it all straight in their head?

I have a couple of quick overall announcements this week:

1. I collect CEREAL BOXES to use in art class, so please bring me your empty ones!  In sixth grade, we recycle them into our block letter sculptures, and I'm running a little low on stock.  Send 'em my way!
2. New "C" Term art students: remember that your Artsonia permission form/1st day of art letter is worth FIVE POINTS when you bring it in signed by a parent!  So don't forget!  Five points sure does help out your grade!

6th Grade


This week was our first week of art in 6th grade for "C" term.  I can assure you for a fact that this term WILL go fast, because one of our six weeks is only ONE DAY long - next week!  Can you believe they count that as a full week of art?  No fair!  But we're going to make it work, because unfortunately I can't change the system.

We spent the first week getting to know each other, learning the art room rules and procedures, and working on our first Sketchbook assignment, which is a one-point perspective drawing of our name in block letters.  Here's a screen shot of my rough drawing on the SMARTboard (see above).  It's tricky for 6th graders to visualize 3-dimensional letters sometimes because the concept of "side walls" gets confusing.  So we tried looking at a sample of a 3-D letter sculpture to help us see (top, left).

This drawing assignment is due on Monday, November 26th, when we return from Thanksgiving break, so don't forget to make time to finish if you're traveling somewhere!

7th Grade
This was also our first week of art class ("C" Term).  We've spent most of our time working on our first Sketchbook drawing, too: a 2-point perspective landscape drawing inspired by Surrealist paintings.

This drawing assignment is also (like 6th grade) due on Monday, November 26th, when we return from Thanksgiving break, so don't forget to make time to finish if you're traveling somewhere!

8th Grade


8th grade students are working hard to finish the plaster application on their faux taxidermy sculptures!  We hope to have all of the construction finished before we leave for Thanksgiving break, so that when we return, we can move on to painting.  We also have glazing our clay mugs and the pottery wheel to look forward to soon!  Yayy!

Also, Sketchbook assignment #2 (a copy of a famous painting) is due THIS Monday, November 19th.  Don't forget!


Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: November 5-9

Don't forget that Artsonia is a great place to buy unique holiday cards and gifts while supporting your child's art program!  20% of all purchases go back to the art department.  There are special holiday items available and sale prices going on right now!  Below is a sample of what you can find:



6th Grade
This week was our last week of "B" term art!  I'm going to really miss everyone!  In class this week, we finished up our African art-inspired patterned animal drawings.  The final ink drawings were cut out and mounted onto colored construction paper that was cut into "fringe" on the edges to make it look like a textile.  Check out this example by Erin below - she decided to go all out and weave a paper background!  Pretty cool, huh?!


We also turned in our manikin drawings (our final sketchbook assignment) this week.  Check them out on our Artsonia gallery!

7th Grade
This was also our last week of "B" term art classes!  Our time was spent finishing up our celebrity grid drawing portraits.  A fun tip for when you're drawing using the grid method: try working upside-down!  By drawing upside-down, your brain is forced to look at the shapes you see within each grid square and focus on the shapes and value that you see, rather than the particular facial feature (like an eye or nose).

We utilized the upside-down grid method in this assignment, and I think the results are really amazing!  Check it out below!


8th Grade
We've been working on two different projects in art class!  First, we've been finishing up construction on our clay mugs.  Those will be going into the kiln within the next week or two - they have to sit out and air-dry completely before firing.

In the meantime, we've started our plaster unit!  We've been researching animal photos, sketching out ideas, and just began construction on our armatures yesterday.  Construction on these animal head sculptures will continue all through next week.  If last quarter's sculptures are any indication of what our results will look like, the final pieces will be totally amazing!

In other news...

Thursday, November 8th was Bram Stoker's birthday, and Google had a pretty awesome logo for the day.  Check it out above!  Kind of a fun post-Halloween goth design!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: October 29 - November 2

Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend!

6th Grade 
It's our second to last week of art - next Friday is our last day!  Eek!  This week we made major progress on our final project: a pen & ink drawing inspired by African art and patterns.  It's an animal outline that's been filled in with a variety of patterns, including the four drawing techniques we learned in art this term: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle lines.


Friday was our first day to try out pen & ink!  The day ended with a fun surprise: students got to bring their paper mache block letter sculptures home!  If you haven't checked them out on our Artsonia gallery, please do!

7th Grade 
We're working on two final assignments for art.  The first is our third sketchbook assignment: a self-portrait drawn as realistically as possible, using a mirror for help.  In class last week, we discussed and practiced correct facial proportions.  These proportions should be used to draw our self-portraits.  The self-portrait drawing is due next Tuesday (Nov. 6th - election day!).


Our other assignment is our celebrity grid drawings!  We found and printed out photos of a celebrity (student's choice!), and we're now using the grid method to reproduce these photos as drawings on a larger scale.  On Thursday morning, Superintendent Pruneau stopped by our second period class to check out our progress!  We were happy to show him how well the drawings are coming along.  These drawings will be due next Friday on our last day of art class.

8th Grade 

We are up to our elbows in clay in 8th grade art!  On Monday, we finished our planning drawings for our functional clay mugs.  On Tuesday, we began our basic cylinder mug shape.  The rest of the week was spent forming and decorating our mugs.  By next week, our mugs should be fully constructed and awaiting kiln time (side note: our new kiln is still in the process of being installed... hopefully by the time our projects have been dried, it'll be up and running for firing!).

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.