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.

This week in art: August 26 - 30

6th Grade:


In sixth grade, we've been working hard, constructing 3-dimensional cardboard letters.  It was really fun to see how our knowledge of drawing 2-dimensional block letters (from sketchbook drawing #1) could be useful in another art project.  Today (Friday), we began applying paper mache to our cardboard forms.  We'll finish that step next week, and start the decorating process, too!  This week, we also turned in our first sketchbook assignment (it was due Thursday) - so be on the lookout for our first Artsonia gallery uploads coming very soon!

7th Grade:


Seventh grade is well into their first painting project.  On Monday and Tuesday, we used Adobe Photoshop to alter digital portraits that will be used for our paintings.  By Thursday, we began mixing paint colors and practicing painting in value scales.  We explored tints and shades, and saw the sometimes surprising results when colors mix!  By Friday, most students had begun painting their final self-portraits.  Want a preview?  You can check out last year's paintings here.

We also turned in our first sketchbook assignment on Thursday, so be on the lookout for grades to be posted and artwork to be uploaded on Artsonia real soon!

8th Grade:


Look how far we've come on our clay mug projects!  These clay pieces will be fully functional by the end of the quarter!  After the bisque firing, we'll paint our mugs with food-safe glaze, so we can actually enjoy beverages out of them.  Pretty neat.

Today (Friday), our first sketchbook assignments were due.  Stay up-to-date on your art grades via Powerschool, and watch out for our first 8th grade Artsonia uploads very soon!

In other news...


Have you seen our Sandburg student artwork on the "blocks" sculpture in downtown Elmhurst City Centre? It's right in front of Brainfreeze, on the south side of the train tracks!



All of the artwork is from last year's 6th and 7th graders (aka this year's 7th and 8th graders!).  It's a project that's been in the making since last spring!  I was so excited when I finally got to see it in person!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

Friday Update: October 1-5

Welcome new students!  This week was the first week of art classes for "Term B" 6th and 7th grade classes.  Remember, if you need more time to work on a project (outside of class) and you're unable to work at home, I'm available in the art room twice during the week:

• Tuesday morning during extended seminar (homeroom) time from 8:25 to 9:05 am
• Thursday afternoons after school from 3:20 to 4:20, with prior notice

6th Grade
This week we learned all about 1-point perspective!  We're working on name designs with a 3-D effect using our 1-point perspective skills.  The most fun part is the coloring and decorating:



On Thursday in class, we reviewed our 1-point perspective knowledge with a quick worksheet that assessed our skills.




7th Grade
All week, we've been exploring SURREALISM.  Our very first sketchbook assignment (due next Thursday) is a surreal landscape that incorporates 3 boxes drawn using 2-point perspective drawing techniques.  We even watched a really fun video all about surrealism.  You can check it out here:

8th Grade



This week, we finished our plaster animal trophy heads!  We painted them using acrylic paint, and punched holes into the background plaques using a hammer and awl.  A bit of wire created a hanger for our sculptures.  Our plan is to hang these up for display in the library! Yayy!



On Friday, we experimented with watercolor paints to create interesting washes and effects.  These "experimental paintings" will become the star points for our 3-D paper star lanterns, which we'll continue next week.

In other news...
I dressed up the Mona Lisa for Halloween.  What do you think?!



Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

Week in Review: September 10-14

HAPPY NATIONAL ARTS IN EDUCATION WEEK!!!

Week four of art is at its end!  Can you believe we only have two weeks left of art for this term's sixth and seventh graders?  Eeek!

6th Grade:
We viewed our sketchbook #1 drawings on Artsonia!  Have you checked out the gallery yet?  Be sure to leave comments and join the fanclubs of your favorite artists!

In class, we finally got to apply paper mache our cardboard block letter sculptures!  It was very messy and slimy, but super fun.  We're also working on the pencil drawing for our pen & ink pattern drawings inspired by African Art.  Next week, we'll be working on both projects at the same time so that we can complete all of our work by the end of the term!

7th Grade:
On Monday, we completed our monochromatic still-life paintings.  Because of Outdoor Education this week, students had a double-period of art on either Tuesday or Thursday, depending on which half of Outdoor Ed they attended.  During that double period, we worked on sketchbook assignment #2, which is a fun black and white op-art design.  It's due next Tuesday (the 18th of September) and you can get more details on the art website.

8th Grade:
Our plaster sculptures (faux mounted animal heads) are in full swing and they're looking AWESOME!  I'm so excited about this project!  Here's a little preview of student work-in-progress:

Also, our clay mugs are being fired in the kiln literally as I type this blog post!  So... soon we'll be glazing, and by the last day of art, enjoying a beverage in our functional art!  Next week I'm planning on pulling out the pottery wheels, so that is another super fun experience for 8th graders to look forward to!

Phew - we've been busy!

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.