This Week in Art: May 5-9, 2014

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 turned in their first sketchbook assignment (their 1-point perspective name design drawings), and began work on their block letter sculptures. Ms. Heuel has already begun to grade, photograph, and upload sketchbook drawings to our Artsonia gallery! Don't see your work? Make sure that you turned it in! Check your grade in Powerschool here.

Next week, Mrs. Leban resumes teaching art classes. We'll start applying paper mache on our cardboard letterforms, and we'll begin working on our second sketchbook drawing.

7th Grade Art:


This week, seventh grade students turned in their first sketchbook drawing (2-point perspective surreal landscapes), and began work on their monochromatic self-portrait painting unit. Ms. Heuel took photos of students with the digital camera, and students used Adobe Photoshop to alter the photos into only 4 levels of value. These 4 levels will be translated into 4 values of paint color that the students custom mix, and match up like a paint-by-number. We spent time on Thursday and Friday transferring the outlines from these printouts (shown above) onto white paper for painting, which will begin next week, when Mrs. Leban takes over classes again.

8th Grade Art:


This week, 8th grade students closed out a whole bunch of projects! Pixel portraits were turned in, large clay mugs were glazed and fired, and today, students spent the class working on sketchbook #3: a master copy. Check out this cool gif we made of Hollie working on her master copy! Mrs. Leban had fun showing students how to use "auto-awesome" on Google+ to take photos in succession and create an animated gif automatically! Sketchbook #3 is due on Monday, so don't forget to finish this weekend!

Next week, Mrs. Leban takes over classes, and we'll be starting a whole new project!

In other art news...

Our tent at Art in the Park raised $571.43 for the United Community Concerns food pantry last weekend! 

I want to make sure that I acknowledge 8th grader Ellie’s important contribution to our efforts. Ellie’s crocheted donuts are responsible for approximately $200 of the money that we raised. Also of special note is Mrs. Nancy Bensfield, who crocheted coffee cup sleeves for our tent sale, and who volunteered hours to man the tent on Saturday. Additional parent/student volunteers over the weekend were: Ellen & Beth Fazzio, Wendy & Natalie Rinchiuso, Betty & Mary Kritikos, Evan, Riley, & Shari Haug, Mary Brynn & Mollie Rosenstein, and Teresa & Amy Roberts.

I am overwhelmed and amazed with the generosity of our Sandburg community, and proud to be able to present the UCCA with such a donation!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

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: April 21-25

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 is the first week of Term F for 6th & 7th grade art classes. That's a big deal, because it's the LAST TERM of the school year! Whoa! It's hard to believe that we're this close to being finished with school!

Also making this week kind of weird was MAP testing. MAP tests are administered during Unified Arts/PE time, so students miss out on their UA/PE classes for two whole days (Can you imagine? Taking a 90-minute math or reading test instead of your art class, and THEN still having to go to your regular math/reading class that same day? Yep. That's what we do. I feel so bad for the students, and I've voiced my concerns many times. But... you can see what good that does...).

So anyways, back to art. Monday we had a "regular" first day of art class. Ms. Heuel (our student teacher) introduced herself and the class, and went over rules and such. Every student received a letter to take home that included an Artsonia permission form. We ask that students get these signed and bring them back, so that we can publish students' work on our web gallery! It's very cool - if you haven't checked it out yet, you really should.



We did not get to have art classes on Tuesday or Wednesday due to MAP testing. On Thursday, we only got to see half of the art classes for a double period (due to MAP), and on Monday, we will see the other half of the art classes for a double period (again, due to MAP). But Friday (today) is a "regular" day. Well, as much as "regular" can be...

During our double period time (Thursday or Monday), we're working on our first sketchbook drawing assignment: a one-point perspective name design using block letters. On Friday, Ms. Heuel has a fun 1-day creative drawing activity that involves creating symmetrical bugs from students' names. It'll be nice to have a little break from all this testing to do something loose and creative!

7th Grade Art:


This week was also the first week for 7th grade Term F art classes. Our schedule is just like the 6th grade classes (see above), so I won't go into all the details regarding MAP again.

During our "double period" classes on either Thursday or Monday, students will begin drawing surreal landscapes that incorporate 2-point perspective box elements. Students will have to have a minimum of three boxes: one above the horizon line, one on the horizon line, and one below the horizon line - to show the different points of view and faces of the form that would be exposed from those different angles. Above, I've posted some of the really cute and creative examples of student work from last term, so that you can see where we are headed. More examples are available on our Artsonia gallery.

Students from Term F will also have their artwork published on our Artsonia gallery once it is completed, turned in, and graded, so be sure to fill out and turn in the Artsonia permission form from the first day of art class!

Today (Friday) in class, students played a fun surrealist art game, called Exquisite Corpse, where students draw part of an image, fold it over, and then pass it on to another student to continue the drawing. This process is repeated until the drawing is completed, and then the crazy (often humorous) results are unveiled!

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade quarter 4 students are hard at work getting their ceramic pieces ready for Art in the Park! Unfortunately, they are also subject to the same MAP testing schedules as 6th and 7th grade students (see above - 6th grade - for full details).

We are trying to take advantage of the Thursday/Monday double period times to have students fully glaze their mini mugs (they'll have both a colored glaze and a clear coat) and to get them fired by the end of the week next week so that they'll be ready to go Saturday morning (May 3rd) when I'm setting up our tent!

When students finish glazing their mini mugs, they'll continue work on their pixel portraits. We just might get those all finished up by the time Ms. Heuel has to leave us on May 9th!

In other art news...

• Today is the last day to enter a design for the agenda cover contest! Details on this blog post.
• Don't forget Art in the Park is coming up! May 3rd & 4th - Wilder Park, Elmhurst! Our tent will have artwork for sale, with all proceeds going to the UCCA food pantry. If you're interested in volunteering to help us out, please email me.
• The Elmhurst Art Museum K-8 Exhibition is also happening the same weekend as Art in the Park! Museum admission is free for the weekend. Check our list of Sandburg participating artists on last week's blog post.
• Starbucks is having a contest to decorate their white coffee cups! (Too bad it's for ages 18+.)
• Here is an interesting article on why some art students almost never get high grades.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: 4.14-4.18

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!

Today is the last day of art class for Term E 6th & 7th grade classes. There is also no school on Friday this week!

6th Grade Art:


This week was the last week of art, so we spent our days working hard on our comic books so that the individual pages would be finished on Wednesday for photocopying. Today is the last day of art for 6th grade "E" Term classes, and we celebrated by assembling our final class comic books! Our theme is: "If I was the teacher..." 

Also due today is Sketchbook #3, our wooden manikin sketches. We cleaned out our art drawers and packed up all of our things for the year! Can you believe that the time flew by so fast? Seventh grade will be here before we know it!

Be sure to look on Artsonia for your final artworks to be posted on our gallery! There will also be a .pdf digital version of our comic on the 6th grade webpage for viewing on iPad/other e-readers very soon!

7th Grade Art:


This was also the last week/last day of 7th grade art classes. Students turned in their "Pop Can Evolution" drawings, and their comic panel enlargement drawings. Students who had finished all of their work early were able to try out a fun 1-day scratch-art activity from Ms. Heuel.

Just like 6th grade, be on the lookout for your final artworks to be posted on our Artsonia gallery very soon!

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students have been hard at work on their Pixel Portrait drawings, but this week was a little bit unusual for us... Tuesday was a short class due to an assembly, and Thursday (today) was no art class due to a field trip! So, with Friday off of school, this week was really only about 2 1/2 days long for 8th graders! But we make the best of it, as we always do...

Next week, we'll be finishing up our mini mugs for Art in the Park, because it's coming VERY SOON! See below!

In other art news...


May 3rd & 4th is Art in the Park! Sandburg Art will have a tent, and we'll be selling our mini mugs and crocheted donuts by Ellie for $5 each to support the UCCA food pantry. I am looking for parent/student volunteer teams to help man the tent for one-hour shifts. If you are willing/able to do so, please contact me via email and I can send you details.

Our annual K-8 art exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum will be going on at the SAME TIME as Art in the Park! Eighteen students from Sandburg will have artwork on display:

6th Grade: Natalie R.
7th Grade: Holly F., Riley H., Sam P., Michaela W., Emma C., Rachel S., Molly C., Jack R., Mary Brynn R., Kailee S.
8th Grade: Lauren V., Grace V., Julia R., Tessa V., Gracie T., Katharine B., Esther P.

Congratulations to all of these AWESOME student artists! You guys rock!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: April 7-11

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:


Most sixth grade students have brought home their block letter sculptures by now. Have you checked them out on our Artsonia gallery yet? I managed to grab about ten sculptures that were left over, and attached hanging wires to them so that they could be hung up in the library! I think they look pretty cool, so if you happen to stop by the Sandburg library, check it out!

Right now in class, we are working on our comic book project! Our comic book pages are due next Wednesday, April 16th. At the end of the day, Ms. Heuel will be photocopying and assembling our comic books for distribution on the last day of class (which is next week - whoa!). Be sure to check your grades on PowerSchool to make sure that you have all of your artwork turned in for art class!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students are currently working on their "Evolution of a Pop Can" still-life series drawing. Our last day of art is next week on Thursday, April 17th, so all of our work will be due at that time.

Not only are we working on our pop can colored pencil still-life drawing, we are also in the middle of our third sketchbook assignment, which is a grid drawing enlargement of a comic book panel. This sketchbook assignment is due next Wednesday, April 16th.

Be sure to check your grades on PowerSchool to make sure that all of your artwork is turned in for class, since our last day is coming up really fast!

8th Grade Art:


Check it out! Our clay is out of the kiln from our bisque fire! That means we'll be ready to start glazing our ceramics really soon! Woo hoo!

In class, eighth grade students have begun the pixel portraits unit. For this assignment, students brought in a "selfie" - a digital photo of themselves - which we layered under a grid pattern on Adobe Photoshop and printed out. This grid photo is matched up to 11"x17" grid paper and abstracted into a pixelated version. You can check out some awesome past versions of this assignment to get a preview of what this will look like on our Artsonia gallery here.

In other art news...
The semi-finalists AND six finalists have been determined for the 8th grade promotion program cover contest! Go check them out on Artsonia to see what the possibilities are!

Also, there is a contest going on right now for 6th and 7th graders to design the cover of the agenda for next year! Wouldn't it be awesome to have your artwork on EVERYONE'S AGENDA to be seen by everyone for the ENTIRE school year? Details below:



If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: 3.24 - 3.28

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 finished up their block letter sculptures. On Thursday, students used the iPads to photograph and upload their own artwork to Artsonia! How cool! Students are currently working on artist's statements, which will be uploaded along side their artwork on Artsonia very soon. On Thursday, students also turned in their second sketchbook assignment, a 1-point perspective room design drawing. After spring break, we have a fun activity to complete with these drawings, so be on the lookout! We'll also begin our comic book unit right after break, too.

7th Grade Art:


This week, 7th grade students finished up their monochromatic self-portrait paintings and matted their work on colored paper. They also worked on their second sketchbook assignment, which was due today, Friday. This sketchbook assignment was our Op-Art inspired black and white design drawing.

8th Grade Art:


This week, 8th grade students made the big push to complete all of their clay construction before spring break. This way, all of the clay can air-dry over break and be ready for kiln firing when we return. It's important for clay to be completely bone dry before going into the kiln so that it doesn't explode! Yep, that's a real thing.

On Thursday, students turned in their first sketchbook assignment: a program cover design for the promotion ceremony at the end of the school year. Usually, this assignment is completed at the end of the quarter, but it had to be flip-flopped this time around due to it being 4th quarter and needing to start getting decisions made and finalists chosen! And that's kind of exciting!

When we return from break, we'll be beginning a new unit on drawing, starting a new sketchbook assignment, and thinking about firing and glazing clay. We sure will be busy!

In other art news...
CREATIVITY CHALLENGE UPDATE!
This was the last week of the creativity challenge, and our winners were chosen this morning LIVE on Spartan TV! Congratulations to our winners, listed below!

• 6th Grade: Sophia R.
• 7th Grade: Kaitlyn T.
• 8th Grade: Alexis D.
• Teacher Winner: Mrs. Provost

I did also receive some awesome entries this week for our Youth Art Month/Creativity Challenge contest, so I thought I'd feature some of our final favorites here below:



The artwork above was all made by 6th grade students! The top three pencil sketches were made by Sophia R, and the digital cat portrait in the middle row was made by Isabella D.

The last two images in the middle row (above) are shaving cream "sculptures" made by a group of 6th grade girls (Corinn, Mikaela, and Gabrielle) at a very artistic and creative sleepover party! In the morning, they even made the cool rainbow waffles for breakfast (pictured in the bottom row above)! Great work!



Above: More cool artwork! The top three pieces are all done by 7th grader Scarlett. The middle row images are the bottlecap magnets (first mentioned in week 1) by 8th grader Georgina, and the last row is artwork by Erin in 7th grade, Ellie in 8th grade, and Billy in 7th grade.



Esther P in 8th grade sent me this photo of a mixed media artwork she created using newspaper collage and string to make a flower!




Gracie in 8th grade sent me this AMAZING speed paint video of a cat that she drew! I'm totally blown away! I'm trying to teach myself digital drawing on the iPad, so I'm familiar with how difficult it can be, and I am very impressed!

Thanks for another great week! And have a GREAT SPRING BREAK!
- Mrs. L.