Dots, Dots and More Dots!!

You may remember that I mentioned International Dot Day (which is today!!) in this post here. Well, 4th graders finished their patterned dots this week.

They are now posted in two hallways and in the Art Room.

The task for these students, using a color wheel for reference, was to paint their concentric circles in pairs of complementary colors with black and white line design circles separating the colors. This was an opportunity to revisit the color wheel, design line motifs for the black/white circle and practice brush control (as described here).

Students used cake tempera and Sharpie markers. This was a good chance to review how to clean their brush before changing colors ( "Swish, swish, wipe, wipe, dab, dab" (on the sponge). Everyone did a great job with this -- no messed up cakes at clean up time!!!

Most students were successful in using complementary colors, but a few did struggle with the concept as they painted their dots. Good thing we will be doing another project next week focusing on complementary colors!!!

Third graders are half done with their lollipop trees (last week's post) and will be finishing up on Thursday so we can add their contribution to our "Dot Day" bulletin boards.

Tints, Shades and "Lollipop Trees"

These great trees that are near our school will be 3rd graders' jumping off point for this week's Lollipop Trees.

The tree trunks will be any color of crayon (on old telephone book pages) and shaded to create the illusion of 3 dimension. This part of the project presents an opportunity to represent shapes students see in nature. (The photo will be enlarged on the Smartboard for all to see.)

The "lollipops" will start with a pure hue dot (in honor of International Dot Day, Sept. 15th) in the center, surrounded by concentric circles of two lighter tints. I hope that the kids have time to create 5 or 6 circles. They will be using tempera cakes for the main color, but liquid tempera for the white. I have white plastic palettes for students to mix their tints.

In this sample there are six lollipops representing the colors on the color wheel.

Here is another tree sample from another class where the lollipops were created using complementary crayon designs with a watercolor wash.

When I have the time, I like to teach the class Burl Ives' version of the song, "The Lollipop Tree." A great lesson for another day would be for kids to draw the story of the song as a storyboard!!

3-D Mondrian Sculpture

I'm sure we all have "great" project ideas that we end up not using for one reason or another. Well, this was one of those that turned out taking too many sessions (four -- because of drying time!!) for me to be able to use with my fifth grade groups at school, but I thought I would share because it might be fun for someone else with more time than I have to try.

The supplies are minimal, 2 sheets of newspaper for each "ring, newspaper strips, paper mache paste (I used a mixture of flour and water because it's inexpensive and works just fine), gesso and acrylic paint.

First, I rolled 2 sheets of newspaper diagonally and tucked the ends together to form a ring. I made 2 rings, bent them into interesting forms and paper mached them. Once they were each covered with wet strips, I laid one on top of the other and paper mached the "joints" so the two would dry stuck together.

I always have kids paper mache on a plastic plate or a meat tray  because it makes storing and carrying easier.

When the structure was dry, I painted it with white gesso.

When the gesso layer had dried, using images of Mondrian's Compositions and Frank Lloyd Wright's window designs, I painted the black lines.

The last step was to add small blocks of primary colors to some of the areas created by the black lines, leaving most of the sculpture white. Voila!!

This is a great project for kids to do at home!!! It provides opportunities to discuss color(primary colors and balance of color), line, shape, form, balance and repetition.

Dots with Line and Color

I love the messages in Peter H. Reynolds' books, particularly for older kids (4th and 5th) who suddenly decide they "can't draw". Makes me nuts!!! The Dot and Ish are a great way to start the school year and set the tone that we ALL can make art.

What I didn't know, until reading it on Hope Hunter Knight's blog here, is that September 15 is "International Dot Day"!! My art classes start on September 12 so the timing is perfect for a lesson based on The Dot.

I have the book so I may read it to classes or, it is also on YouTube, so we may just watch the animation.

There will be 4 classes of 4th graders and 1 class of third graders participating in this lesson focusing on the color wheel. I am planning on several different options of "dots" for each class. Some dot makers will be using colored markers and permanent Sharpies, some will use paint (tempera cakes) and permanent markers,

I like to tape over the black and white to limit the palette to the 6 main color wheel colors.

some will use just paint

I like this idea from the book to teach positive/negative space!!

One class may use oil pastels and baby oil (see technique here). I haven't quite decided about that yet. Whatever the media, I will be asking students to use their knowledge of the color wheel to plan their art AND for those using concentric circles and Sharpie markers I will be focusing on repetition of line patterns. This will be a good way for me to find out what students remember from last year.

It feels GREAT to be back in the classroom even if the kids aren't in here with me yet!!!

Vacation's Last Days

I spent the last few days of vacation in Carmel, California, where the Tour D'Elegance was in full swing. What a stunning display of beautiful cars!!

We spent time viewing the cars, eating, walking, eating, going in and out of art galleries and, you got it, eating!!

My friend let me try out some of his new Holbein water soluble oil paints. All I can say is that I on my way to Dick Blick's tomorrow to get some!!!!!

I did spend some time photographing examples of pattern and repetition (more on that later in the school year). I especially liked this line up of motorcycles in town for security during the car parade.

Summer Winding Down

We are having hotter than usual weather around here so it was time to "hole in" and finish a project that has been waiting patiently to be finished for quite awhile. The quilt top has been done for a year or two and I FINALLY quilted it and I'm ready to use it this Fall!!

And, sadly, last week I ate my last Blenheim apricot and baked the last apricot pie of the season. It's one of my favorite aspects of the summer! When that was done it was time to get my class schedule ready for the 2012-13 school year -- almost done with that!! It was a productive week!

Lines & Color

I still have some unfinished summer projects I'm working on (my classes don't start for a few weeks yet) but one corner of my brain has started thinking about school. I'm thinking of a review of lines and primary colors for primary grades.

Using tempera, the lines come first.
Next, when the tempera is dry, we add primary colors.

This could be finished here, but if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know I have what seems like an endless supply of pre-cut foil that I bought last year at Smart and Final. So, if I have an extra day to devote to this, we might cut our paintings, spread the pieces, and insert foil in the spaces -- like this:

We'll see....
Now, back to my quilting project....