This Week In Art! December 16-20

6th Grade Art:


This was our last week of art class!  We spent the week working on our comic book project, where each student designed a 1-page story in the theme of "When I Grow Up..."

On our last day, each student stapled together their very own copy of the final comic book!  We read our books in class and had our classmates autograph the back pages!

After break, a digital version of our comic will be available on the 6th grade webpage.  If you open it using iBooks on your iPad/iPod/iPhone, you can flip through the pages just like a real comic book!  View our past comic books here.

Also after break, copies of our comic books from terms A-C will be made available at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst for you to read as you relax and sip your coffee!  How cool!

7th Grade Art:


For our final week of art in 7th grade, students worked on creating oil pastel drawings of pop cans from observation.  We really tried to concentrate on adding shading, shadows, and highlights/reflected light to our final drawings.

Oil pastels make it really easy to blend colors because they are so soft - you can draw right on top of other colors, and use your hands to blend the colors together!  So messy, but so fun!  The final drawings will be made available for viewing on Artsonia after break.

P.S. Have you checked out our monochromatic portraits and op-art drawings on Artsonia yet?  They're up now, and they're awesome!  Via Artsonia, you can have your artwork printed onto all kinds of fun things - even a phone case!

8th Grade Art:


This was the last week of art for 8th grade students, too!  Time has flown by so fast, I can't even believe we are half-way through the school year!  Whoa!

To celebrate our last day of class, we enjoyed some hot chocolate in our ceramic mugs, and watched my favorite episode of the Simpsons, where Homer becomes an artist!



Students who completed all of their artwork before the end of the quarter spent some fun time creating art using perler beads.  It was a natural extension of our pixel portraits unit, since it involves designing an image using a grid!  By the way, have you checked out our pixel portraits on Artsonia?  They turned out really great, and I've already had a bunch put up onto a bulletin board outside the main office!

In other art news...

There are a few weeks left to buy a mini mug at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst to support the UCCA food pantry, so be sure to stop by!  I just dropped off a new batch from Quarter 2 students earlier this week!

...and, of course...


...because it's the last day of art!  Grades will be finalized during winter break.  When we return, all students will report to their new UA class for Quarter 3/Term D!

Thanks for another great week, and have a great winter break!  See you next year!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! December 9-13

6th Grade Art:


This week, 6th grade students finally finished their letter sculptures!  These have already been graded, but they will go home next week after we photograph and upload them to our Artsonia gallery - students will do this themselves via the iPads!

Our painting was done in two layers: first, an acrylic "base" coat, and then a tempera "wash" top coat, which gives a textured/aged feel to the final piece.

Also - on Friday we turned in our 1-point perspective room designs, and had an intro to drawing techniques (hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle) for our comic book project, which will be done next week!

Next week is the last week of art!  Whoa!

7th Grade Art:


This week, 7th grade students finished their monochromatic self-portrait paintings!  We spent a day gluing our paintings to black background paper to give them a framed effect, and filling out self-assessments and reflections on our work.

We also turned in our Op-Art sketchbook assignment on Wednesday.  These have already been graded and entered into Powerschool.  With the end of the quarter (and all three grade levels at once), there is a slight delay in getting artwork photographed/uploaded to Artsonia - but it WILL happen, so stay tuned!

On Friday, we began our final art project: an observational drawing of a pop can using oil pastels.  Students brought in cans of pop and were allowed to drink it in class while starting their drawing!  How fun!

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students are completing several projects all at once (such is the curriculum of 8th grade art!): our pixelated portraits were due today.  You can see a few detail shots from some student pieces above.  We also turned in our third sketchbook assignment: a "master" copy.  The sketchbook assignment has already been graded and entered into Powerschool.  Pixel portraits are in-progress (as far as grading goes).



Also, we finished our ceramic mugs!  On the last day of class (next week Friday), we will get to enjoy some hot chocolate in our mugs!  Mugs have already been graded and entered into Powerschool.  I'm also in the process of uploading images of the mugs into Artsonia, so be on the lookout soon.

Next week, we'll be completing our fourth (and final) sketchbook project: a promotion program cover design for this spring!

In other art news...

It's time to sign up for winter art classes at the Elmhurst Art Museum!
Kids classes for ages through 14 years are listed here.
Teen classes (including a Stop-Motion Animation class for ages 11-14) are listed here.

* * * * *

Norman Rockwell’s Saying Grace became the most expensive American painting ever sold at auction last week, fetching $46m at Sotheby’s in New York.

Want to know which painting/artist has fetched the MOST money, EVER? Click here.


Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! December 2-6

6th Grade Art:


This was a big exciting week for us!  We began covering our letter sculptures with paper mache.  It was messy and fun!  Students who finished early had time to work on the sketchbook assignment, which is due next Friday (December 13th) - it's a drawing of a room, using 1-point perspective.

Today, we applied puffy paint to create texture on the front of our letter sculptures.  Next week, we'll finish up our sculptures by painting them!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students began painting this week!  On Monday, we completed a practice worksheet where students painted value scales in four different color choices.  We then chose one of the monochromatic value scales to use for our final monochromatic portrait paintings.  Tuesday through Thursday were spent painting out final portraits, and Friday we worked on our sketchbook assignment, which is due next week on Wednesday.  (It's the Op-Art inspired black and white drawing!)

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students had a pretty fun week because it was glaze week in the art room!  We are applying the colored glazes to our bisque-fired clay mugs.  Hopefully we'll even have them all fired by the end of next week!

I'm going to give eighth grade students the opportunity to purchase their mini mug before I make them available to the public when they're sent off to Elijah's to join the rest of the artwork for sale.  More details next week.

On Friday, we continued work on our sketchbook assignment: a master copy.  This drawing will be due next week, December 11th.

In other art news...


Don't forget to stop by Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst to buy your mini mugs to help support the UCCA Food Pantry - now and all through the holiday season - only $5 per mini mug!

ART CONTEST! - Want to win an iPad?  Then enter the 8th Annual Metra Safety Poster and Essay Contest.  One poster winner will be chosen from each grade!  Full details and contest entry information is available at www.metracontest.com

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! Nov. 18-22

6th Grade Art:

This week we worked on two different assignments.  First, our sketchbook assignment: the one-point perspective name design, which was due on Thursday.  Second, we began our 3-dimensional letter sculptures.

Our letter sculptures reinforce our block-letter drawing skills.  We're building them out of old cereal boxes and masking tape.  After our Thanksgiving break, we will begin applying paper mache to our forms!  Can't wait!

7th Grade Art:

This was a very full week for us!  We started off the week with some more work time on our surreal landscape sketchbook drawings.  Then, we began our painting project - we took digital photos, and altered them on Adobe Photoshop to convert the image to four levels of value.  Our printed out photos were then transferred onto paper for painting.

On Thursday, our first sketchbook assignment was due.  Be sure to check your grade on Powerschool!  We began our second sketchbook assignment right away: a black and white design inspired by Op Art!

8th Grade Art:

We spent most of this week working on our pixelated portraits assignment, but today we started our third sketchbook assignment.  It is a copy of a famous painting.  We researched artworks online via the links on the 8th grade art webpage.  We then used a shared Google spreadsheet (via our d205 Google drive!) to "sign up" for our artwork, so that no one repeated a painting that was already claimed by someone else!  It was super fun to get to try out our Google Apps logins for the first time, and see an entire class typing on one document at the same time!  Amazing!

In other art news...
How did I miss this news story?  Have you seen former President George W. Bush's paintings?  Apparently, it's his hobby!  He seems to enjoy painting portraits of dogs.  It's pretty interesting!  He was even on the Jay Leno show to talk about it, and presented Mr. Leno with a portrait!  Art critic Jerry Saltz talks about the paintings in this article, and more on the Jay Leno appearance over here.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! Nov. 11-15

6th Grade Art:


Welcome to art!  This was the first week for "C" Term 6th grade art classes.  We began class by sending home a permission slip for Artsonia.com, which is our digital art gallery on the web!  Students can share photos of their artwork with family and friends via the internet!  Permission slips were due today - if you need another copy, you can grab one here, via the main art webpage.

We spent the week learning about drawing block letters and 1-point perspective technique for making our letters look 3-D.  We will use these skills for our first sketchbook drawing (a name design), which will be due next Thursday, November 21st.  Details for all of our art assignments can be found on the 6th grade art webpage.  You can also e-mail me if you ever have any questions!

7th Grade Art:


Welcome also to my seventh graders returning to art this year!  This was the first week for "C" Term 7th grade art classes.  We also sent home Artsonia.com permission slips, which were due today - if you need another copy, you can grab one here, via the main art webpage.  (If you're wondering why you need to turn one in, even though you filled one out last year, it's because I update information every year!)

We spent the week learning about 2-point perspective and surrealism.  We will use these skills for our first sketchbook drawing (a surreal landscape), which will be due next Thursday, November 21st.  Details for all of our art assignments can be found on the 7th grade art webpage.

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students started a new project this week!  Students are creating a pixel version of a "selfie" (a self-portrait photo), which was e-mailed to me earlier in the week.  Students that did not provide a selfie had a photo taken by me in class, and they will create a pixel version of that photo.  This drawing will take us quite a while, but the results are pretty fun!

Today, sketchbook drawing #2 (a scene from a book) was due.  Be sure to stay up-to-date on your grades via Powerschool, so you don't have any missing assignments!

In other art news...

via

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: November 4-8

6th Grade Art:


Today was the last day of art for 6th grade Term B classes.  It sure went by fast!  This week was spent creating our class comic book.  Each student was responsible for drawing one page in the final book, and our theme was "Best Day Ever." On the last day of class, we read our final comic book and collected autographs from our classmates!

Good luck on Monday in your next UA class!

7th Grade Art:


This was our last week of Term B art class.  Because our term was cut so short by Outdoor Ed, our usual still life unit (the pop can drawing) was cut short, and we chose to draw one large image of the pop can using oil pastels.

On Thursday, our final sketchbook drawing (comic grid enlargement) was due.  Look for those drawings to show up soon on Artsonia, as well as two other art projects: monochromatic paintings and pop can drawings!

8th Grade Art:


This week was mostly spent on clay, and finishing up our construction on our large clay mugs, which will be fired, then glazed, and then fired again.  On the last day of art (not 'til December!), we will have a hot chocolate celebration using our special new mugs!

We also started our second sketchbook drawing assignment, which is a drawing of a scene from a book.  This assignment is due next Friday, November 15th.

Next week, we will be starting our self-portrait project: students will have to bring in or e-mail me a photo of themselves for this project!  Full details to come on Monday.

In other art news...
The Rijksmuseum Holland had an idea: Let's bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more - at the museum. They took one Rembrandt painting from 1642, The Night Watch, brought to life the characters in it, placed them in a busy mall - and the rest you can see for yourself!



Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week In Art! Oct. 28th - Nov. 1st

6th Grade Art:


We started off this week by turning in our second sketchbook drawing assignment: a 1-point perspective room design. We then finished up our paper mache letter sculptures, and then photographed them for Artsonia! Thanks to the new classroom mode on Artsonia, students were able to use the iPads to take their photos and upload/title their work, all from one device! Be sure to check out our Artsonia exhibits for both assignments to see how the final products turned out!

Tuesday through Friday was spent learning and practicing drawing techniques, such as hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle to show value on a form. Next week, we’ll be utilizing these new skills to create our own class comic book!

Today, paper mache letter sculptures were sent home with students – so be on the lookout for the real deal to arrive!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade art classes also started out their week by turning in a sketchbook assignment: an Op-Art-inspired black and white drawing. The rest of the week was used to work on two additional projects: our monochromatic painting, and our third sketchbook assignment. The third sketchbook assignment is a comic panel enlargement using the “grid method” to reproduce an image. This drawing will be due next Thursday, November 7th.

Next week, we will finish up our paintings, and make one more drawing before the last day of art class (next Friday! Eek!).

8th Grade Art:


This week was clay-crazy! On Monday and Tuesday, we made mini mugs as a practice for our larger mug project. Wednesday was spent perfecting our sketchbook drawings (a black and white profile zentangle), which was due in class today. The remaining two days was spent on starting our final large-sized mugs, which will be decorated, fired, glazed, and fired again to make them functional! So cool!

Next week, we’ll be starting our next sketchbook assignment: a drawing of a favorite book scene. Can you tell we’ve got a whole literature-theme going?

In Other Art-Related News…

Tonight is the big “Arte at Nite” event in downtown Elmhurst! You can stop by Elijah’s Coffee and pick up a mini mug made by 8th grade art students for $5 – and all of the money will go to the UCCA Food Pantry! It’s a “win” all-around!

Can't make it to Elijah's tonight?  No worries - our mini mugs will be on sale throughout the holiday season, and you can purchase them at the downtown Elijah's location through January.  All proceeds will continue to benefit the UCCA Food Pantry.



Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp representatives will be visiting Sandburg and holding auditions/tryouts for summer camp scholarships. Any student who auditions will be considered for scholarship aid toward tuition to attend the camp. This visit will take place at Sandburg on November 18th and 19th. You are encouraged to visit Blue Lake’s website at: http://www.bluelake.org to learn more about the camp.

Art students will have the opportunity to audition during mornings and/or during the day by appointment. These appointments will be coordinated at Sandburg by Rico Vazquez, one of our band directors. For further info/appointments, he can be reached via email at rvazquez@elmhurst205.org



A new Art Institute of Chicago exhibit opens November 12! Art + Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine is the theme of this exhibit. Feast your eyes on the rich tradition of food and drink in American art with over 100 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts from the 18th through the 20th century and discover how American artists have used depictions of food to both celebrate and critique everything from the national diet to society and politics.

Thanks for another great week!

-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! October 21-25

Today (Friday 10/25/13) - I will be out of the building so that I can attend the IAEA conference in Lisle.  I'm pretty excited to get to meet up with my fellow art teachers and talk "shop."  I always come up with a bunch of really cool ideas to use in the classroom!

6th Grade Art:


Our letter sculptures are really looking good!  This week, we applied textural designs to the front of our letter sculptures using puffy paint!  Then, we began the first layer of acrylic paint, which will serve as a base coat for our tempera paint "wash," which gives our final sculpture an aged/antique look that really brings out the textures we drew on the front.

Today, students worked on their Sketchbook #2 assignment - the interior room drawing - which will be due this Monday.  If it didn't get finished in class, it's homework over the weekend!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students finally began painting this week (it kinda feels like we've been waiting forever)!  First, we practiced painting value scales in different colors.  This gives us the opportunity to choose from several different color schemes by seeing a "preview" first.  Then, we started painting our final portraits, which could be finished as early as next week!

We are also working on our second Sketchbook assignment (the Op-Art inspired black and white design), which is due this upcoming Monday - so again, if you did not finish it in class, it is HOMEWORK this weekend!  If you do not have Sharpie markers at home, you may use any kind of black markers that you have available (like Crayola, etc).

8th Grade Art:


This was the very first week of quarter 2 8th grade art!  We spent the first part of the week (after introductions and such) starting our first sketchbook assignment, which is a black and white zentangle profile drawing of our faces. Students are filling the space (inside and outside of our heads) with words, symbols, pictures, and patterns that all represent themselves.  These drawings will be due next Friday, November 1st.

We also started planning for our first ceramics project this week!  Students planned out and colored in a sketch of what they would like their glazed clay mug to look like.  These students will also make "mini mugs" as a practice before beginning the larger final mug... but that's next week!

Artsonia permission slips are also due from 8th graders today - even if you turned one in last year - because I will update email/contact information each year.

I still have the un-glazed clay mugs from quarter one students, in case you've been wondering where yours was... the kiln ventilation has still not been fixed, so if I try to use the kiln, it lets hazardous fumes into the classroom (which gives the students and I headaches... not so good!).  Therefore, for the safety of all, I will not glaze fire in the classroom until this matter has been resolved.  Unfortunately, it means we're playing the waiting game until then, so quarter one students will just have to hang on a little bit longer until their projects are ready.  I feel really bad about it, but the matter is now out of my hands - I've done all that I can at my level.

In other news...

Eighth grade Sandburg students from quarter one art classes will have artwork for sale at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst!  Our "mini mugs" will be available for $5 each, with all of the proceeds from this sale going to UCCA Elmhurst to support their food pantry.

The sale begins on November 1st, as part of the Elmhurst City Centre "Arte at Night" event, but we will be selling our mugs throughout the holiday season, too!  You can see the full list of participating merchants and their hours on the UCCA site here.

Also this week, the multi-needs class stopped by to make some fun and festive Halloween glitter spiderwebs and spiders made from pipe cleaners and pom poms.  A couple weeks back, we made skeletons out of air dry clay.  I wonder what fun holiday projects we'll be dreaming up next?

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Oct 14-18!

6th Grade Art:


We've been making a BIG MESS in the art room - applying paper mache to our cardboard letterforms!  We will finish this up next week, and start painting & decorating our sculptures after that.



We also began our second sketchbook assignment this week, which is a drawing of a dream room!  It will be due on Monday, October 28th.  You can see past examples of this project on our Artsonia gallery here.

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students only had ONE day of art this week due to Outdoor Ed!  It was a double-period and we worked on our sketchbook #2 assignment, which is a black and white drawing inspired by Op Art and zentangles.  This drawing will be due on Monday, October 28th.



Next week, we will go back to working on our monochromatic portrait paintings.

8th Grade Art:


Today was the last day of 8th grade art for quarter 2!  We ended our 8-Bit/Pixel art unit by creating our 8-bit Excel designs in perler beads!  Students who finished early also photographed and uploaded their creations to Artsonia.

It's always a little sad to see students go - I hope that everyone signs up for art classes at York High School next year!



In other news...

Sandburg students will have their portrait artwork on display at the Elmhurst Art Museum’s Education Center from October 21^st to January 10, 2014!  Here's a preview:

These artworks can be viewed during normal museum hours.  Fridays are FREE days at the museum, and it is open late – until 8 pm!  For full details on museum hours and admission, please visit the EAM website at www.elmhurstartmuseum.org

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Oct 7-11

6th Grade Art:

 

This week, sixth grade classes completed and turned in their very first sketchbook assignment: a 1-point perspective name design.  These drawings were due on Friday (10.11), so they will be graded and entered into PowerSchool very soon.  After grading, these drawings will be photographed and uploaded to Artsonia.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we began our very first major art project: a block letter sculpture, built from cereal box cardboard, which will be covered in paper mache!  We won't get to the messy (and fun) paper mache part until next week, but even now we can begin to see how cool these sculptures will be looking in the end - check out the photo up top for proof!

7th Grade Art:

 

Seventh graders also had their very first sketchbook assignment due today (Friday, 10.11).  In class, we've been getting ready for our painting project, which is a monochromatic self-portrait.  To start this project, we take digital photographs and alter them using Adobe Photoshop software.  You can see a preview of this process above.

Because next week is Outdoor Education, we'll be a little bit "stalled" in our painting unit for a week until everyone is back at school.  But when that time comes, get ready to paint!

8th Grade Art: 

Eighth graders have one week left of art class!  So it's the big push to get all of our projects completed and turned in by the last day.

Here's what's coming up:

• Clay mugs will be graded as-is.  The kiln is not safe for firing, so student projects will be graded with the glaze applied, but un-fired.  Once the kiln is fixed and projects are fired, I will contact students via seminar to come and pick up their finished pieces.
• There are TWO parts to the 8-bit design project: a colored pencil worksheet that requires students to complete four different design ideas, and a printout of one design (from the worksheet) done in Excel.  This will be listed as two different grades in PowerSchool.
• Sketchbook #4 (a promotion ceremony program cover design) is due next Thursday, 10.17.

Students will want to make sure that they have these assignments (as well as any other missing work) ready to be graded in order to close out the quarter.

Thanks for another awesome week!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! 9.30-10.4

6th Grade Art:

 

Welcome to art!  This was our very first week of art in 6th grade - and for middle school!  It can be hard adjusting to a new school, a whole bunch of new teachers, and expectations for all of the different classrooms.  On the first day of art, I send home an informational letter that includes a permission form for Artsonia - our online student art gallery.  These forms were due today, but students may still turn them in if they haven't done so yet.  Need another copy?  Click on the link above, or visit our 6th grade webpage for additional copies of any/all handouts from class, including grade sheets for assignments!

In class, we are currently working on our first sketchbook drawing assignment, which is a one-point perspective name design.  This finished drawing will be due next week on Friday, October 11th.  You can view examples of past student artwork for this assignment here.

7th Grade Art:

 

This was also the first week of art for 7th grade (UA Term B) students!  Besides the usual "welcome to art" presentation, we started our first sketchbook drawing assignment, which is a surreal landscape drawing that incorporates three boxes drawn in two-point perspective.

We looked at a lot of examples of Surrealism by famous artists, and even watched a cool video about it. We also checked out a free iPod/iPhone app that gives your photos a surreal effect: raining business men in bowler hats, a la Rene Magritte!

These drawings will be due at the end of next week: Friday, October 11th.

8th Grade Art: 

Eighth graders are nearing the end of the quarter... it's coming so fast!  We're working on some 8-Bit art designs on graph paper, which will then be re-created on the computer using Microsoft Excel and printed out.  These printed out designs will be used for one final project, which I'm going to try to keep a secret surprise until the last week!  This 8-Bit design project has two separate graded assignment pieces: the four-graphs design worksheet (pictured above, left) and the printed out Excel design (pictured above, right).

Our third sketchbook assignment (a copy of a "master," or famous artwork) was due TODAY.  Make sure your grades are in order by checking Powerschool every week - you don't want any missing assignments to pile up/sneak up on you at the very end of the quarter!

We will have one more sketchbook assignment to go (that's #4!) before the end of the quarter, which we will begin next week on Monday and Tuesday (10.7 & 10.8).

Lastly, have you checked out your "Pixelated Portrait" on Artsonia?  They're pretty awesome!

In other news...
I would like to give a super-huge THANK YOU to Mrs. Krueger and Mrs. Jardina, who came in this week to help me out by matting a whole bunch of student artwork for an upcoming exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum!  More info to come soon!

Thanks for another awesome week!
-Mrs. L.