Sweet Still Lives

7th grade finished up their "sweet still life" projects. I found this project on one of the blogs I follow on the left and just loved the playfulness and character the paintings have. It was inspired by the Pop Artist Wayne Theibaud.

This project was assigned at a very strange time. It was right before spring break and as soon as spring break finished, my student teacher Jessica took over all my classes. So they didn't really have a solid amount of time to work on them. Also, we had absolutely no painting practice beforehand (NEVER assume that students automatically know how to mix colors, you will be VERY surprised lol) which was a *huge* mistake. I had to constantly remind and remind them "Use JUST A LITTLE paint!!! You can always get more but you can't put it back!!!" It would have also benefited them if they practiced drawing different types of food beforehand. Any teachers planning on doing this, I highly recommend practice, practice, practice!!!

Upcoming Lichtenstein Portraits

7th Grade is now studying Pop Art and we are emphasizing the style of Roy Lichtenstein. Their upcoming project will be to create a Lichtenstein-style portrait. Now I'm at a cross-roads here. I can't decide whether I want them to do a famous person or themselves. I think it will be a little easier to do famous people but it will benefit them better if they do a portrait of themselves. And it will also be a little bit more work for me bringing in my camera and taking snapshots of everyone. Hopefully I will make that final decision tonight...

Either way, to get them into practice mode I had students draw smaller style drawings of famous people (they had a coloring sheet to look at). Here are a few samples of their practice rounds..

Nicki Minaj

 

Justin Beiber

 

Taylor Swift

Future projects for the semester...

I feel like I am in a creative rut. And it ALWAYS seems to happen during the spring semester. Anytime this occurs I try to indulge myself in research with different art ed blogs, websites, books, Pinterest, whatever I can find that I really like. I hate this sometimes because I don't want to ever get to where I just can not come up with my own ideas and projects for my kids. I know that teachers shouldn't feel bad taking stuff that others have done. That is kind of the beauty of our jobs, our success is meant to be shared but as someone who strives to be original, these ruts are hard....

NEVERTHELESS...

I have been finding some wonderful project ideas to do for this semester. So just in case you are curious as to what will be coming up in art class----

6th Grade.

Positive/Negative Space Object Drawings

Value Drawings

Monochromatic Colored Trees

7th Grade:

Lichtenstein Inspired Portraits

 

"Sweet Still Lives" Pop Art inspired paintings.... I am so pumped for this one!

And finally, a Chihuly chandelier! Courtesy of Mr. E at Tulip Grove Elementary. I can not WAIT for this project! It will be a group/class assignment.

Keep checking back to see our progress!!!

Mrs. G