This Week in Art: 4.28 - 5.2

Remember: Ms. Heuel is currently our student teacher in the art room until May 9th. Mrs. Leban will still be blogging about what's happening in the art room in the meantime, but the day-to-day happenings and lessons are all being run by Ms. Heuel!

6th Grade Art:


This week, 6th grade students have been hard at work on their drawing skills. Ms. Heuel has had students creating two different sketches: the 3-dimensional name design using 1-point perspective (sketchbook #1), and a creative abstract "endless line" drawing where students demonstrate their knowledge of warm and cool colors and practice their colored pencil coloring skills. Both of these drawings will be due next week.

7th Grade Art:


This week, 7th grade students began their monochromatic painting unit. Work began by creating value scales in a variety of colors. Students will choose one color to create a self-portrait painting. Ms. Heuel took photos of students, which will be manipulated on the computer next week using Adobe Photoshop in preparation for our final paintings next week.

Also in art, students worked on their sketchbook drawings (surreal landscapes), which will be due next week.

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students started glazing their mugs this week! Yay! Next week, students will be finishing up a couple of projects, actually: pixel portraits will be turned in, glazed mugs will be finished and fired, and sketchbook #3 will be almost ready to go...

In other art news...

• Kailee67, one of our 7th graders, has been nominated for Artist of the Week on Artsonia! Please vote for her to win! You can vote once per day, per device. Voting ends on Saturday, so please vote and tell as many friends and family as possible. If we win, both the student and the school win gift certificates for art supplies from Blick!

• Art in the Park is THIS weekend! Please come and see our Sandburg tent in Wilder Park!

• Doodle 4 Google guest judges have chosen the 50 state winners. Now it's your turn to vote!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: September 16-20

6th Grade Art:

 

Sixth grade students finished their letter sculptures this week, and even photographed and uploaded the images to Artsonia - all by themselves using the art room iPads! Artsonia has a new feature this year, called "Classroom Mode," that allows students to upload their own photos to selected galleries.  The teacher then gets to review/approve photos before they are posted publicly.  It's super fun for students to be able to use the iPads in class!

Today, our second sketchbook drawing (the interior design/room drawing) was due.  So be on the lookout for updated grades and more Artsonia masterpieces real soon!

On Thursday and Friday this week, we started learning about drawing techniques using markers.  These new skills will be incorporated into a special comics-themed assignment, which we'll complete next week - because next week is our LAST WEEK of "A" Term art class!  Eek!  The time went way too fast!

7th Grade Art:

 

Seventh grade students have been hard at work on their "Pop Can Evolution" drawings.  We've been really focusing on our observational drawing skills, and practicing the steps to break down an object into simple shapes in order to draw more realistically.

Next week is the LAST WEEK of "A" Term 7th grade art, so we'll be finishing up our can drawings, and completing a quick version of the sketchbook #3 assignment before next Friday.  I can't believe the term flew by so quickly!

8th Grade Art: 

On Tuesday, eighth grade students turned in sketchbook assignment #2 (scene from a book).  These drawings have already been graded (check your progress on Powerschool!), and are awaiting photography/uploading via Artsonia.

Most of the week was spent working on our "pixel portraits" project.  These colored pencil portraits will (hopefully) be completed sometime next week.  On Wednesday, sketchbook assignment #3 (a copy of a "master" work of art) was introduced, and we spent time finding & printing out artworks to try to copy in a drawing.  This sketchbook assignment will be due on Friday, October 4th.

Thanks for another awesome week!
-Mrs. L.

This week in art! September 9-13

We need your help!  We have a student from Sandburg in the running for Artist of the Week on Artsonia!  Voting ends TOMORROW, so please take a moment (no signup/login required) to go over to Artsonia and vote for Erik1261 from Elmhurst!

6th Grade Art:

 

Sixth grade students are working on two assignments right now.  Our first project is the letter sculpture: we're in the process of completing them - the base coats of acrylic paint are being applied, and next week we'll finish them off with a wash layer in a contrasting color to highlight the texture of the puffy paint decoration.

Our second assignment is sketchbook #2 - an interior design drawing!  Students learned how to construct an empty "room" from a square sheet of paper.  They now have to fill the room with furniture, objects, and art to create a "dream" room!  This drawing will be due next Friday, September 20th.

Our "masterpiece" colored pencil practice worksheets have been posted on Artsonia.  Students insisted that they wanted their work online, even though this was only a smaller practice assignment - so go check them out!

7th Grade Art:

 

Today we finished up our monochromatic portraits, AND turned in our sketchbook #2 drawings!  Don't the paintings look amazing?  They'll be up on Artsonia soon, along with our Op Art sketchbook drawings, so be on the lookout!

FOR MONDAY, seventh grade students should bring in a canned beverage for our still-life project!  Students will be allowed to drink their beverage in class on Monday only.  We will be creating observational drawings of the can in various stages of being crushed.  Choose your beverage carefully, because that's what you'll be drawing!

8th Grade Art: 

Eighth grade students have begun a new project!  Students either brought in a digital (self-portrait) photo, or had a digital photo taken in class.  We used Adobe Photoshop to overlay a grid on the photo and print it out.  Now, we're transferring the colors of each grid square from the photo onto large graph paper; this creates a "pixel" effect on our final drawings.  This project can be tricky for some students, because we're actually "simplifying" the photo - not just trying to reproduce it - and letting go of the details and ideas of what something is "supposed to look like" is pretty challenging!

A quick reminder - eighth grade students have a sketchbook drawing assignment (scene from a book) due next week on Tuesday, September 17th!

Thanks for another awesome week!
-Mrs. L.

Weekly Update: February 4-8

This week in art... 
This is the 5th week of classes for 6th & 7th graders, which means that next week is the LAST WEEK OF ART for them!  So, be sure to check your grade via Powerschool and turn in any missing work, because all late/missing work is accepted up until our last day (Feb 15th), but after that, it's too late!

6th Grade:
This week, we read all about African textiles and became inspired by the patterns and textures featured on traditional fabrics.  We're going to use these patterns and textures to create animal outlines filled with pattern and drawn using pen and ink.  This week, we started choosing our animal subject matter, researching photos online, and sketching out our shapes.  Next week, we'll pull out the ink and finish them up!

Also next week is the due date for sketchbook assignment #3, which is a wooden manikin drawing.  Find full details on the 6th grade art webpage.  Due Wednesday, February 13th!

Lastly, our paper mache letter sculptures and our 1-point perspective rooms are all up on Artsonia to view!  Please leave comments and join the fanclubs of your favorites!

7th Grade:
We finished our pop can drawings this week!  I'm in the process of grading/photographing/uploading our drawings right now, but I'm super excited about how well they turned out!  I'm also planning a bulletin board display for them here in the school!

Our third sketchbook drawing was started this week, and will be due on the last day of class: Friday, February 15th.  It's a grid enlargement of a comic book panel!  We worked on them Thursday and Friday this week, so students should have a really great start to this assignment already!

Lastly, our Op-Art inspired sketchbooks and some awesome iPad altered paintings are up on Artsonia to view!  Please leave comments and join the fanclubs of your favorites!

8th Grade:
This week we made a ton of progress on our faux taxidermy animal head sculptures!  Monday and Tuesday were spent forming the armature (underlying support structure) from masking tape, newspaper, and cardboard.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all spent cutting and applying plaster to create the animal head forms!  Check out our progress above!

Our sketchbook #2/master work copies are up on Artsonia to view!  Please leave comments and join the fanclubs of your favorites!

In other news...
Grace7660, a 7th grader here at Sandburg, is a finalist for artist of the week on Artsonia!  Please vote for her today and tomorrow (voting ends Saturday) - if we win, she'll get a $50 Blick gift card, and Sandburg will win $100 Blick gift card!  This takes A LOT of votes to win, so please help by voting and by spreading the word on social media!




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.

Enlarging a Photo

In seventh grade art, we paint monochromatic portraits of ourselves.  To ease our self-consciousness over making ourselves "look good," we work from photos that we trace and enlarge onto large paper.

First, I take digital photos of the students (usually out in the hallway with a brick background), and we alter them using Adobe Photoshop.  The software allows us to transform our color photos to a 4-level grayscale image.  Once we print those photos, we trace them onto plastic overhead sheets using a fine point sharpie (see photo above).

The overhead sheets are projected the "old fashioned" way - via overhead projector!  I have a collection of seven overheads I've scavenged from teachers who were getting rid of theirs - when we received digital presenters (Elmos), many teachers ditched their old overheads.  Score for me!

Above are some photos of students working on their projections.  This is happening today and tomorrow in class.  Then we'll be ready to begin painting!  Hopefully we can finish them before the last day of class next week!

Do you want to see some of the results we've come up with?  Check out our past portraits on our Artsonia here, here and here.

Newsletter

I feel very lucky to have so many parents supporting Sandburg Art on our Artsonia gallery.  I love being able to store digital portfolios of students' artwork via the web, and it's so cool to see a student's work evolve over time!

Artsonia has a lot of really great functions.  One of those is the ability to send out newsletters via email to parents.  Last weekend, I sent out my first electronic newsletter via Artsonia.  If you are not signed up as the parent of a student, you would not have received one, so here's what was contained within:

Art Rocks 2010-2011!

from Mrs. Jennifer C. Leban, Sandburg Art Teacher

ARTSONIA - Thank you for your support in using and sharing Artsonia with your families this year!  With funds raised from Artsonia this year, the Sandburg art room was able to purchase an iPEVO usb document camera!

Sandburg Art Blog - Did you know that I have an art blog that I regularly post to?  On the blog, you can find photos of student work, information on general activities here at Sandburg, art opportunities outside of class (or school), contests, or even current art-related events!  Be sure to check the blog regularly.  You can also subscribe to or follow the Sandburg Art Blog directly from the site: http://msmillersartblog.blogspot.com/  Or, follow me on twitter for tiny updates: @msmillerleban

Evening with the Arts 2011 - This time around, our year-end all-school arts event (most commonly known as "Evening with the Arts") will be coinciding with our "Sandburg at 60" birthday celebration!  Sandburg Middle School is 60 years old, and there will be a special evening birthday party, complete with special performances by our choir, orchestra, and bands, along with an all-school art exhibition!  I've been saving one piece of artwork from each student (per term when I have them in class) for display at the event!

There is also a community art project in the works for that night where everyone who attends can be a part of the artwork!  Refreshments will be served, and a fun time is sure to be had by all.  The "Sandburg at 60" event date, originally set for April 18th, is currently being rescheduled - likely for some time in May.  Keep your eyes and ears open for further details!

Just for 6th Grade

Sixth grade art is currently nearing the end of it's fourth term this year.  Time is flying by!  In sixth grade art, students learn all about the color wheel and color theory.  Ask your sixth grader to name three pairs of complementary colors (and the trick to remembering them)!

We also learn drawing techniques, such as how value and shading work when drawing to make something look 3-dimensional (such as a sphere).  We practice drawing textures, patterns, and how to properly apply cross-hatching and stippling to a drawing using ink to create shadows.

Sixth grade art also completes a clay project, which varies.  Some classes make clay shakers inspired by Native American traditions, while others re-create Japanese "sampuru" food sculptures (sample fake food).  These projects may vary due to time constraints.

Just for 7th Grade

Seventh grade art is also nearing the end of it's fourth term this year!  In seventh grade art, students learn all about the elements of art and design, which are: line, shape, form, space, color, value, and texture.  We even take a pencil-and-paper test to demonstrate our knowledge.

Seventh grade art has a sculpture component and a painting component.  Our sculpture component (for most classes) is to make a clay cupcake sculpture that doubles as a mini container!  We are inspired by cake decorating shows on TV and specialty cupcake shops popping up around us.  While making cupcakes from clay, we learn hand-building clay construction techniques of slab, pinch, and coil.

Our seventh grade painting project is a self-portrait done in a monochromatic color scheme.  The students have a photo taken using the digital camera.  This photo is then altered into a four-level grayscale image using Adobe Photoshop software.  Our image is enlarged and painted using a four-level tints or shades color scheme, chosen by the student.  Not only do students learn how to mix paint values, we also discuss how color choice can effect the mood or emotion of an artwork.

Just for 8th Grade

Eighth grade art is a nine-week elective class, and we are currently right in the middle of our third quarter this year!  Because art is an elective course this year, we have a special sculpture concentration.

Our first unit of study is clay sculpture.  We read all about the artist Robert Indiana and his iconic "Love" sculpture and image.  Then, we create clay blocks emblazoned with our own one-word message.  Clay construction techniques are complemented with discussion and artistic decision-making regarding the choice of colors and fonts to best communicate the artist's message.

During the quarter, students will also participate in a pottery wheel experience.  A special guest artist from Ceramics Supply Chicago comes in to show us proper wheel technique.  Then, students take turns trying out the wheel - hopefully (but not always), the experience ends up with a finished piece!

Our second unit of study is all about plaster.  Inspired by the work of George Segal, eighth grade students will create plaster casts of their hand(s) and decorate the finished products according to a pre-determined theme that students map out beforehand.  What starts out as plaster often ends up as a mixed-media extravaganza, using all sorts of recycled and repurposed materials!  Therefore, we often end up discovering a lot about adhesive options and non-traditional art-making construction methods...

Our final area of study for the quarter is paper sculpture.  Eighth grade classes make a huge (but fun) mess when we marble sheets of paper using shaving cream and food coloring!  These sheets of marbled paper are cut and pasted into a star-shaped lantern, suitable for hanging.  If time permits, we also explore options for designing paper toys via PaperCritters.

The only downside to Artsonia newsletters is that I can only send them to ALL registered 6th, 7th, or 8th grade parents... and not to just the parents of current art students.  Artsonia is really good about upgrading and improving functionality, so hopefully soon they might develop a fix for this.  In the meantime, I'm going to keep my newsletter mailings to a minimum so as to not clog up your inboxes!

So far, this is the only newsletter I've sent out this year.  I do anticipate sending out one more as our "Sandburg @ 60" event date is solidified and draws nearer.
Thank you for supporting the arts!

Boredom.

Most of the time, the art curriculum stays the same for most of the year and I spend time repeating the same project across a grade level.  If you're a student, you never know because the project is always new to YOU.  However, I start to get bored after awhile.  It's not that the project isn't fun, I've just seen it way too many times! 

So, when it comes to displaying art, I have to be careful that my displays don't start to look like "the same thing, over and over" either.  I switch it up.  I have a few things that I do that I'd like to share, because it can help other teachers, or if you're a student, maybe you can use these ideas for decorating your spaces (like your room) or for making interesting school presentations!

Mrs. Leban's Tips for Non-Boring Displays:

• Have an interesting title.  Maybe the choice of words is interesting, or it's how you visually present it that's interesting.  I switch things up: sometimes I print it out on the computer, use a different font, use a different color paper - or don't print it out at all!  Sometimes I draw it, sometimes I cut each letter out of paper... you get the idea.
• Backgrounds.  Make that interesting too.  I have a bunch of old (donated) discontinued wallpaper that makes a great background for bulletin boards.  I also painted the cork on the bulletin boards black, and sometimes I make the background striped or checkerboard:

(Find out more about this project here and here.)

• Consider matting/framing each work of art in the display.  Sometimes its as simple as stapling a bigger piece of construction paper behind each work of art.  Make sure it's not the same color as the background if you do this, though.
• Unusual objects and 3-dimensional details: What can you add to a display that's unexpected and will make people look twice?  Once I used yarn to "sew" borders between each artwork so the bulletin board looked like one big quilt.  Do you have any interesting paper, like foil or holographic stock?  What kind of 3-dimensional details can you add?  Once I made a 3-D "film reel" out of cardboard for a display about student films.
• Do you have access to an electrical outlet?  If you do, congratulations!  Nothing attracts peoples eyes like a good string of twinkle lights.  I have an electrical outlet in my main display case outside the office, so I regularly switch out string lights.  I also have a small digital photo frame on a timer to run a slideshow of students working in the art room and student work.  Even when the display itself is empty there's something to see on the frame.
• Hang photos of students working on the project that's being displayed.  This helps people who haven't created the project understand how it was done.  Plus, I find that students like to look at pictures of each other and find their friends in group photos.
• Hang or include materials and equipment that you've used to create the work.  A display case of printmaking looks cool if you include a carved plate, a tube of ink, a brayer, and some carving tools.  People once again gain a greater understanding of how the work was done.
• Vary your display locations.  Because I repeat projects, I won't put one group of hand sculptures in a case right after another class' sculptures have come out.  If you do that, people sometimes don't even realize the work is new.  If you move work to another location, it looks fresher and people notice.
• Use negative space well.  I'd rather space out the artwork so it's pleasant to look at instead of cramming all the work on one bulletin board (if I can help it).  Sometimes I put up one main display, and then the overflow goes to a smaller board or case in another spot.
• Include a description of the project, at least the first time it goes up for the year, so people can read about the skills and concepts involved in the project.  Many people don't realize how smart art class is, so they need help - tell them!
• Have fun with your displays.  Some of my favorites have been hanging lanterns in the main office and library, large tape sculptures that sat in various locations throughout the school, or the typography display where I spent hours crumpling pages from books to make a really awesome textural background... yeah, that one might've been a little overboard, but it looked great!

Here are a few more examples of how to vary displays:

Above: Student portraits hanging on a strip along the basement hallway.  Pretty standard.  They look good, but...

...how about this version?  That's some of my old wallpaper background (I love this pattern) and each artwork is stapled on top of a paper "frame" I cut from larger construction paper.  Then, I took famous art quotes and pasted them into speech bubbles which were then printed and cut out.  It looks like the self-portraits are talking!

To see more about this self-portrait project, view our Artsonia Gallery.

Personalize your holiday gifts & cards!

Just a friendly reminder that Artsonia is a great place to buy holiday gifts for family and friends while supporting your school!  15% of all sales at Artsonia go back to your school for purchasing art supplies to keep the program running.

(I am currently saving up to buy an iPEVO camera for the classroom!)

Consider sending personalized student art holiday cards, t-shirts, mugs, keychains, or even ornaments with your child's artwork on it!

Portraits Video

I made a short video with Animoto featuring student work from 7th grade B Term art classes. These are self-portrait paintings, and I thought they turned out really awesome. This video is also posted on our Artsonia page. Looky!

Artsonia Update

I received this message from Artsonia on Sunday:

“Taylor11130 from Eisenhower Middle School has been named 7th-9th "Artist of the Week" for November 7, 2010 - November 13, 2010 based on the number of online votes received.  During the contest, your student Tess157 received 206 votes, while the winning artist Taylor11130 received 1947 votes.”

I’m thinking we never really stood a chance… I mean, 1947… REALLY?!

Oh well.