This Week in Art! Nov 17-21

6th Grade Art:

Ivan's paper mache letter "I" and his drawing plan for how to paint it!

"On Thursday we finished covering our cardboard sculptures with paper mache. Today we are going to start drawing... Woo! I waited all day for this. We are learning how to do it now. pretty interesting stuff."

- Ivan H, Period 8

7th Grade Art:

Sam's portrait outline and value scale are all ready to start painting!

"This week in art we started drawing and painting our self portraits. We first trace our faces with graphite paper. Then you label the different shades of color, and then you paint!"

- Sam R, Period 5

8th Grade Art:

Jessica's Pixel Portrait is off to a great start!

"This week in art class, we were introduced to pixel portraits. We worked with adobe photo shop to edit our picture for this project. We placed a grid over our picture and then made a bigger grid with sharpie over the top. Then we took grid paper and colored in half or full squares to make it look pixely. I mixed colors to make look more like the picture."

-Jessica D, Period 2

In other art news...


Special thanks to Mrs. Stezowski, our PTA President, for helping to hang yet another batch of 6th grade Dale Chihuly-inspired works in the cafeteria! Each installment fills the ceiling space even more - the pictures don't do it justice. So cool!





This is amazing and hilarious: Nerdy photo series turns superheroes into 16th century works of art.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Nov 10-14

6th Grade Art:

Sam is building his letter "S" sculpture from recycled cereal boxes!

"In art this week we did a lot of stuff. One thing we learned was how to function and how art class works. We are currently working on our 3D letter sculptures. Thanks for reading our weekly post and see ya next week."

- Sam S, Period 9

7th Grade Art:

Our giant poster prints! These will be painted soon.

"This week was our first week in art. Everyday we do the drawing challenge of the day. My favorite challenge was day five which was a superhero. We also took a selfie to start our big project that we will be doing. It is really fun!"

- Ian M, Period 4

8th Grade Art:

Kyle's awesome face mug has been fired, and is awaiting glaze soon!

"This week, in Art class, from Monday to Wednesday we worked on our ceramics projects. We had the choice of making a monster pot, a mug, a box with words on it, or a human sculpture. Once we were finished we got to make a project of our choice. On Thursday and Friday we started learning about our pixel portrait project, in which we draw our face on a piece of graph paper coloring each square one color. So far we have printed our face from Photoshop with a grid on top of it. We'll use the picture to decide which color to color each square."

- Kyle J, Period 2

In other art news...

Part of the reception is going up to receive your award and getting your picture taken with the IAEA president, and your art teacher, of course. And don't forget your awesome ribbon!

Last weekend was our annual IAEA (Illinois Art Education Association) conference, and I had a great time! Saturday morning was a reception for the Student Art Show, of which Sandburg had a representative! Congratulations Jack, on your awesome colored pencil drawing!

On Friday morning, Mr. Leban and I presented a session to art teachers all about Special Education in the art room. Are you interested in learning more? You can view our slideshow presentation here.



We are happy and smiley in this photo because we had just finished presenting and we're relieved! It was my first presentation at a conference ever!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: November 3-7

Please note: There are no student bloggers this week due to my absence on Friday for the IAEA convention.

6th Grade Art:

Andrew adds pattern to his classical posed photo.

Today was the last day of art class for sixth grade "B" term classes! We spent our last week of class studying a new artist, Kehinde Wiley. We watched a short clip from the Today show to learn about the artist, and then read some articles in Scholastic Art magazine.

We learned that Kehinde Wiley poses his models in classical poses after Baroque-style portraiture. We chose poses from classic paintings to be photographed in, and then used colored pencil to add detailed patterns to the background of the printed photos, a la Kehinde Wiley. The results were so cool!




7th Grade Art:

This is my work-in-progress... sorry, I forgot to take a pic of 7th graders in action before they left!

Seventh grade students continued to work on their pop can evolution drawings this week, and today (the last day of art for "B" term classes), they were turned in at the end of class. It was fun to get to drink soda in art class on the first day of the project, but even more exciting for me to get to see these observational drawings come to life! I think the seventh graders always surprise themselves with how good these images turn out!

8th Grade Art:

Dylan makes a clay pizza slice, and demonstrates how to securely attach pieces of clay together.

This week, 8th grade students continued to work on their ceramics choice unit. Students had the option to make:

• A monster "pot," with real grass hair planted inside
• A functional glazed mug - dishwasher safe!
• A sculptural or functional box in the style of Robert Indiana
• A figurative sculpture

We've been hard at work on these projects all week. If students finish early, they have the option of creating a second clay project of their choosing - I've been collecting clay inspiration via Pinterest and such, and put all the photos into a clay binder of ideas for students to flip through. Above, you can see Dylan's pizza slice sculpture. This will look really cool when it's fired and glazed!

Next week, we'll finish up our clay construction and get thinking about our next major project, which will involve colored pencils.

In other art news...
Did you know that the Mona Lisa has an Instagram account? It's pretty cool.

I'm out of the building today at the IAEA state conference, where I'm presenting to other art teachers with my husband. Fingers crossed that all goes well!

On Saturday morning, there will be a reception for the IAEA Student Art Show, where 8th grader Jack R. has an artwork in the exhibit! Congrats Jack!

You can follow my IAEA adventures this weekend via Twitter! #iaea14

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.