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!!!

"Tints and Trees" final projects

Here are some of the finished projects for the 6th grade Tints and Trees. This was a very successful project and the kids really loved it!

Silhouette Tree Paintings

6th grade is now painting their monochromatic grid for the background. I made a mistake by giving them their color, white AND black. In my mind, I figured they could do medium, light and dark shades as well for the background. Silly me didn't think about their tree being black. So at first their background consisted of lots of dark, dark shades and some of them even looked grayish. They were getting to be too dark so I just had to put the black paint up altogether and just give them their color and white.

I broke down and actually bought purple paint instead of having them mix to get their color. I think it enhances their skills but its such a frustrating color to mix. I also told them the importance of taking their time and  staying in between the lines. Overall they are doing TREMENDOUS with these! My 6th graders *JUST* might be better painters than my 7th and 8th grade kids. Can't wait to see the finished products!!

Monochromatic Tree Silhouettes

My 6th grade A day classes started their monochromatic tree silhouette paintings. They began by drawing their background grid and I told them to "place different shades and tints of your color in random places". That did NOT work with them... They acted so lost and they ended up not making enough shade changes. And many of them honestly did not know how to properly mix paint. They would dip their brush in the black, then the white, then the color itself. Then they would get upset when it came out looking like "mud". After many tears were shed, I decided to spend a day practicing monochromatic scales, something I should had done to begin with!

Also I decided for paint palettes to just use Styrofoam plates. I was blessed to find a massive amounts of washable paint palettes last semester and I used them every time my classes did painting. I will go ahead and admit it, the cleaning process with those palettes was TERRIBLE. It took SO much time and effort to wash out those things and half the time they weren't even washed properly (amongst middle school kids too- surprise, surprise). I decided to put those aside and just use plates. We just throw them away once we are finished (after we save the leftover paint of course). I know in the end I'm saving more money by reusing the plastic palettes but, to me it's not worth the headache.

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

Art Club Bubble Painting

Our after school workshop today was called "bubble painting". This was another idea I stole from Pinterest. We bought cheap bubbles from Dollar General, filled them with different food colorings and blew bubbles onto white paper causing a cool abstract design. First and foremost, I can not tell you how much of a MESS I made getting the colored bubbles together. My hands are so stained right now I dread having to get all the coloring off! But they had a blast with this! It definitely is messy but it's manageable. No messier than regular painting. Be sure to tell them to blow slowly and also that if they get too close to the paper, the bubbles WILL splash in their face, giving them colored freckles. hahahah!

Some snapshots of the day. As you could tell, we had a full house!!!

Olivia showing off her awesome work. 

We were pretty crammed in my room but we made it!!

Cade showing off his awesome black and green painting!!!

Kinley and Ellie posing their work.

Some of the finished products.

Now time for A NAP!!!!

Laterz!

-Mrs. G