This Week in Art: November 4-8

6th Grade Art:


Today was the last day of art for 6th grade Term B classes.  It sure went by fast!  This week was spent creating our class comic book.  Each student was responsible for drawing one page in the final book, and our theme was "Best Day Ever." On the last day of class, we read our final comic book and collected autographs from our classmates!

Good luck on Monday in your next UA class!

7th Grade Art:


This was our last week of Term B art class.  Because our term was cut so short by Outdoor Ed, our usual still life unit (the pop can drawing) was cut short, and we chose to draw one large image of the pop can using oil pastels.

On Thursday, our final sketchbook drawing (comic grid enlargement) was due.  Look for those drawings to show up soon on Artsonia, as well as two other art projects: monochromatic paintings and pop can drawings!

8th Grade Art:


This week was mostly spent on clay, and finishing up our construction on our large clay mugs, which will be fired, then glazed, and then fired again.  On the last day of art (not 'til December!), we will have a hot chocolate celebration using our special new mugs!

We also started our second sketchbook drawing assignment, which is a drawing of a scene from a book.  This assignment is due next Friday, November 15th.

Next week, we will be starting our self-portrait project: students will have to bring in or e-mail me a photo of themselves for this project!  Full details to come on Monday.

In other art news...
The Rijksmuseum Holland had an idea: Let's bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more - at the museum. They took one Rembrandt painting from 1642, The Night Watch, brought to life the characters in it, placed them in a busy mall - and the rest you can see for yourself!



Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week In Art! Oct. 28th - Nov. 1st

6th Grade Art:


We started off this week by turning in our second sketchbook drawing assignment: a 1-point perspective room design. We then finished up our paper mache letter sculptures, and then photographed them for Artsonia! Thanks to the new classroom mode on Artsonia, students were able to use the iPads to take their photos and upload/title their work, all from one device! Be sure to check out our Artsonia exhibits for both assignments to see how the final products turned out!

Tuesday through Friday was spent learning and practicing drawing techniques, such as hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle to show value on a form. Next week, we’ll be utilizing these new skills to create our own class comic book!

Today, paper mache letter sculptures were sent home with students – so be on the lookout for the real deal to arrive!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade art classes also started out their week by turning in a sketchbook assignment: an Op-Art-inspired black and white drawing. The rest of the week was used to work on two additional projects: our monochromatic painting, and our third sketchbook assignment. The third sketchbook assignment is a comic panel enlargement using the “grid method” to reproduce an image. This drawing will be due next Thursday, November 7th.

Next week, we will finish up our paintings, and make one more drawing before the last day of art class (next Friday! Eek!).

8th Grade Art:


This week was clay-crazy! On Monday and Tuesday, we made mini mugs as a practice for our larger mug project. Wednesday was spent perfecting our sketchbook drawings (a black and white profile zentangle), which was due in class today. The remaining two days was spent on starting our final large-sized mugs, which will be decorated, fired, glazed, and fired again to make them functional! So cool!

Next week, we’ll be starting our next sketchbook assignment: a drawing of a favorite book scene. Can you tell we’ve got a whole literature-theme going?

In Other Art-Related News…

Tonight is the big “Arte at Nite” event in downtown Elmhurst! You can stop by Elijah’s Coffee and pick up a mini mug made by 8th grade art students for $5 – and all of the money will go to the UCCA Food Pantry! It’s a “win” all-around!

Can't make it to Elijah's tonight?  No worries - our mini mugs will be on sale throughout the holiday season, and you can purchase them at the downtown Elijah's location through January.  All proceeds will continue to benefit the UCCA Food Pantry.



Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp representatives will be visiting Sandburg and holding auditions/tryouts for summer camp scholarships. Any student who auditions will be considered for scholarship aid toward tuition to attend the camp. This visit will take place at Sandburg on November 18th and 19th. You are encouraged to visit Blue Lake’s website at: http://www.bluelake.org to learn more about the camp.

Art students will have the opportunity to audition during mornings and/or during the day by appointment. These appointments will be coordinated at Sandburg by Rico Vazquez, one of our band directors. For further info/appointments, he can be reached via email at rvazquez@elmhurst205.org



A new Art Institute of Chicago exhibit opens November 12! Art + Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine is the theme of this exhibit. Feast your eyes on the rich tradition of food and drink in American art with over 100 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts from the 18th through the 20th century and discover how American artists have used depictions of food to both celebrate and critique everything from the national diet to society and politics.

Thanks for another great week!

-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! October 21-25

Today (Friday 10/25/13) - I will be out of the building so that I can attend the IAEA conference in Lisle.  I'm pretty excited to get to meet up with my fellow art teachers and talk "shop."  I always come up with a bunch of really cool ideas to use in the classroom!

6th Grade Art:


Our letter sculptures are really looking good!  This week, we applied textural designs to the front of our letter sculptures using puffy paint!  Then, we began the first layer of acrylic paint, which will serve as a base coat for our tempera paint "wash," which gives our final sculpture an aged/antique look that really brings out the textures we drew on the front.

Today, students worked on their Sketchbook #2 assignment - the interior room drawing - which will be due this Monday.  If it didn't get finished in class, it's homework over the weekend!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students finally began painting this week (it kinda feels like we've been waiting forever)!  First, we practiced painting value scales in different colors.  This gives us the opportunity to choose from several different color schemes by seeing a "preview" first.  Then, we started painting our final portraits, which could be finished as early as next week!

We are also working on our second Sketchbook assignment (the Op-Art inspired black and white design), which is due this upcoming Monday - so again, if you did not finish it in class, it is HOMEWORK this weekend!  If you do not have Sharpie markers at home, you may use any kind of black markers that you have available (like Crayola, etc).

8th Grade Art:


This was the very first week of quarter 2 8th grade art!  We spent the first part of the week (after introductions and such) starting our first sketchbook assignment, which is a black and white zentangle profile drawing of our faces. Students are filling the space (inside and outside of our heads) with words, symbols, pictures, and patterns that all represent themselves.  These drawings will be due next Friday, November 1st.

We also started planning for our first ceramics project this week!  Students planned out and colored in a sketch of what they would like their glazed clay mug to look like.  These students will also make "mini mugs" as a practice before beginning the larger final mug... but that's next week!

Artsonia permission slips are also due from 8th graders today - even if you turned one in last year - because I will update email/contact information each year.

I still have the un-glazed clay mugs from quarter one students, in case you've been wondering where yours was... the kiln ventilation has still not been fixed, so if I try to use the kiln, it lets hazardous fumes into the classroom (which gives the students and I headaches... not so good!).  Therefore, for the safety of all, I will not glaze fire in the classroom until this matter has been resolved.  Unfortunately, it means we're playing the waiting game until then, so quarter one students will just have to hang on a little bit longer until their projects are ready.  I feel really bad about it, but the matter is now out of my hands - I've done all that I can at my level.

In other news...

Eighth grade Sandburg students from quarter one art classes will have artwork for sale at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst!  Our "mini mugs" will be available for $5 each, with all of the proceeds from this sale going to UCCA Elmhurst to support their food pantry.

The sale begins on November 1st, as part of the Elmhurst City Centre "Arte at Night" event, but we will be selling our mugs throughout the holiday season, too!  You can see the full list of participating merchants and their hours on the UCCA site here.

Also this week, the multi-needs class stopped by to make some fun and festive Halloween glitter spiderwebs and spiders made from pipe cleaners and pom poms.  A couple weeks back, we made skeletons out of air dry clay.  I wonder what fun holiday projects we'll be dreaming up next?

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Oct 14-18!

6th Grade Art:


We've been making a BIG MESS in the art room - applying paper mache to our cardboard letterforms!  We will finish this up next week, and start painting & decorating our sculptures after that.



We also began our second sketchbook assignment this week, which is a drawing of a dream room!  It will be due on Monday, October 28th.  You can see past examples of this project on our Artsonia gallery here.

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students only had ONE day of art this week due to Outdoor Ed!  It was a double-period and we worked on our sketchbook #2 assignment, which is a black and white drawing inspired by Op Art and zentangles.  This drawing will be due on Monday, October 28th.



Next week, we will go back to working on our monochromatic portrait paintings.

8th Grade Art:


Today was the last day of 8th grade art for quarter 2!  We ended our 8-Bit/Pixel art unit by creating our 8-bit Excel designs in perler beads!  Students who finished early also photographed and uploaded their creations to Artsonia.

It's always a little sad to see students go - I hope that everyone signs up for art classes at York High School next year!



In other news...

Sandburg students will have their portrait artwork on display at the Elmhurst Art Museum’s Education Center from October 21^st to January 10, 2014!  Here's a preview:

These artworks can be viewed during normal museum hours.  Fridays are FREE days at the museum, and it is open late – until 8 pm!  For full details on museum hours and admission, please visit the EAM website at www.elmhurstartmuseum.org

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Oct 7-11

6th Grade Art:

 

This week, sixth grade classes completed and turned in their very first sketchbook assignment: a 1-point perspective name design.  These drawings were due on Friday (10.11), so they will be graded and entered into PowerSchool very soon.  After grading, these drawings will be photographed and uploaded to Artsonia.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we began our very first major art project: a block letter sculpture, built from cereal box cardboard, which will be covered in paper mache!  We won't get to the messy (and fun) paper mache part until next week, but even now we can begin to see how cool these sculptures will be looking in the end - check out the photo up top for proof!

7th Grade Art:

 

Seventh graders also had their very first sketchbook assignment due today (Friday, 10.11).  In class, we've been getting ready for our painting project, which is a monochromatic self-portrait.  To start this project, we take digital photographs and alter them using Adobe Photoshop software.  You can see a preview of this process above.

Because next week is Outdoor Education, we'll be a little bit "stalled" in our painting unit for a week until everyone is back at school.  But when that time comes, get ready to paint!

8th Grade Art: 

Eighth graders have one week left of art class!  So it's the big push to get all of our projects completed and turned in by the last day.

Here's what's coming up:

• Clay mugs will be graded as-is.  The kiln is not safe for firing, so student projects will be graded with the glaze applied, but un-fired.  Once the kiln is fixed and projects are fired, I will contact students via seminar to come and pick up their finished pieces.
• There are TWO parts to the 8-bit design project: a colored pencil worksheet that requires students to complete four different design ideas, and a printout of one design (from the worksheet) done in Excel.  This will be listed as two different grades in PowerSchool.
• Sketchbook #4 (a promotion ceremony program cover design) is due next Thursday, 10.17.

Students will want to make sure that they have these assignments (as well as any other missing work) ready to be graded in order to close out the quarter.

Thanks for another awesome week!
-Mrs. L.