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.