This Week in Art: Sept 8-12

6th Grade Art:

Sergei's blue letter "S" (left), and other 6th grade creations...

"This week in art we finished our paper mache letter sculptures. Then we started painting them. My sculpture is blue, and it is the letter S."

- Sergei M, Period 9

7th Grade Art:


"My project is creepy because I didn't realize that I had to crop it , I actually wanted to Photoshop it to make it look like a demon (Epic Fail)."

- Alex B, Period 5

This week, seventh graders tried to make as much progress as possible on their large monochromatic portrait paintings. Students are at a variety of different stages: some still transferring their designs to paper in order to be painted, while others are closing in on a finished portrait! Hopefully next week, we can use the little time that we have (it's Outdoor Ed week) to get everyone finished up!

8th Grade Art:

Owen's mug, waiting to be fired...

"On Monday, we worked on clay projects that I really enjoyed. I made a clay mug that is dessert themed. On Tuesday, we continued to work on the clay projects, and we had to finish today. On Wednesday, we discussed our new project the pixel selfie! On Thursday, Mrs. Leban showed us how to use our selfie in Photoshop and create the grid on our pictures so we can draw them! Art has been a blast! We are taking selfies, and making clay projects! Art is my favorite UA and would love to have it the entire year!"

- Owen D, Period 2

In other art news...


The Art Institute of Chicago has released a FREE app called "Unthink Magritte" in connection with their Magritte exhibit, which continues until October 13th. In this app, you are invited to share your impressions of Magritte's artworks through the use of images, words, or audio - and to share your "unthinks" via social media.



Next week is Arts In Education week! The NAEA (National Art Education Association) is inviting you to express why ART MATTERS to you via social media, and using their hashtag #naeaartmatters!




Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! September 1 - 5

This week was MAP testing week at Sandburg, so art students only had class for one (double-period) day. Naturally, we didn't make a ton of progress on our projects due to this short time frame. Students are still eager to share their work and what happened in class with you! Enjoy our guest bloggers from each grade level:

6th Grade Art:


"In art class for this week we did paper mache over our cardboard letters that we previously made. Once it drys we are going to paint and decorate them different colors. I made a letter T for my name and I plan on making it green and purple (my two favorite colors).And on top of that art class is really fun and we (students) all like it!"

- Tylor S, Period 8

7th Grade Art:


"This week we worked on the painting value scale worksheet. The painting worksheet had us work on painting different shades of the same color. They turned out really cool! It looks like we used totally different colored paints. We also worked on our faces. Some people are coloring the back with pencil, or outlining their face with pen. Some are even starting to paint. I just finished outlining and I chose green for my painting color. It looks really cool!"

-Maggie C, Period 4

8th Grade Art:

"On Friday in art class we worked on our clay creations. We had a double period on Friday and some students got there creations finished and I can't believe the creativity in this class. Some students even finished and did a second project. I even made a killer snail! I can't wait until Monday to see the rest of the projects. :)"

- Christopher J, Period 1

In other art news...
I got a shout-out on Twitter from iPevo this week! We've won a bunch of stuff from iPevo for the art room via their Wishpool program. Our latest win was a supercharger for our iPads that charges four devices at once! I love this company!

Planning to make a how-to video for your art class? Here’s how @mrsleban did it with Articulating iPhone Video stand. http://t.co/mh0FEg9s1w

— IPEVO (@ipevo) September 4, 2014

Thanks for another great week!

- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! August 25-29

Our first full week of art is over! Even though classes were short (we had extended seminar every day), we made a lot of awesome art. This week I have some guest blog posters in the form of student volunteers from 7th and 8th grade who are going to tell you about what we did in art class this week! Thanks for all of your help guys!

6th Grade Art:


This was a very busy week! Besides working on our daily sketches, we began making block letter sculptures! Today we just started to work on paper mache! We'll have to try to finish it up next week amidst MAP testing, which means we'll only have art class for one day next week. But, we'll try our best!

7th Grade Art:


"This week we started everyday by taking 10 minutes to do the drawing challenge. Then over the week we worked on photo shop to create a picture that we then printed. We are still working on graphiting our picture and some of us are tracing our pictures now."

-Andrea G, period 4

These large self-portraits are going to be painted in a monochromatic color scheme. They are MUCH larger than last year's paintings, so I'm excited about how cool they'll look hanging up in the school!

8th Grade Art:


"Monday and Tuesday, we got to plan a big clay project. We had the option of choosing between making a monster pot, a coffee mug, or a box with words on it that was inspired by a art piece made by Robert Indiana. Wednesday, we got to draw out our plan that we were going to make out of clay later in the week. Thursday, we started working with clay and forming the basic shapes of our project. Finally, today we are finishing up forming the shape so we can fire it in the kiln."

-David H, period 1

In other art news...
Kids, teen, and adult art classes are now available at the Elmhurst Art Museum! There are some awesome classes being offered - check them out!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

Welcome Back!!!

Welcome back to a new year of art! We've only had school for three days, but a LOT has gone on, including the flooding of the art room on Friday, which pushed us up to the library all day!

No matter - we used the time to try out our new technology - "Photoshop Phriday" for 7th and 8th graders, and an intro to Chromebooks for 6th graders!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Wednesday was the first day of school for students. We all received our "Welcome to Art" letters that should have been taken home to be signed/return, so that we can get our Artsonia digital student art gallery up and running again!

On Thursday, we honed our drawing skills by undertaking a new 30- or 45-day "Drawing Challenge!" Every day in class as a bell-ringer, students are asked to do a quick sketch on a topic of the day. At the end of our term, we'll do a little one-on-one student-teacher conference to see how our drawings measure up collectively. This activity REPLACES our old "sketchbook" assignments, and is designed to give LESS HOMEWORK in art class! Woo hoo!

This is pretty new: students no longer have to bring a sketchbook to class each day! Instead, all students should have a binder for class (sometimes referred to on the supply list as a "UA" or "Music" binder), and we'll be keeping all of our drawings and papers in this one binder for the duration of art. Our binders stay in the room, too - no need to bring them home - making our loads a little bit lighter!

Next week, which is a full week, we'll be beginning our first major projects in class: a little clay, a little sculpture, and a little painting!

Welcome back everybody!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: June 2-4, 2014

This is the last week (and today is the last day!) of school for 2013-14! 
Our eighth grade students had their promotion ceremony last night, and today they're off on their activity day! Most of the day today is going to be spent signing yearbooks and reminiscing about all of the fun times we've had this year...

Earlier in the week, we spent our two free days playing with chalk in 7th and 8th grade! If the weather was nice, students had the option to go outside and draw chalk murals!

  


Unfortunately, it did rain a bunch the past few days, so we made the best of it and did some chalk drawings indoors as well... on giant paper on the floor, and on the chalkboard wall and door of the art room:




Oh boy - a One Direction mural. Just what I always wanted. :)

Before I take off for the summer, I wanted to say a quick congratulations to 6th grader Autumn E. for winning the agenda cover design contest, and to Katerina S. for winning the 8th grade promotion program cover design! Take a look:



Autumn's agenda design for next year (above).



Katerina's promotion program cover (above).

Have an awesome summer!
- Mrs. L.