Watercolor Paintings

Artists are in full swing with their watercolor paintings! Students have enjoyed being able to choose their subject, which allows students to pick a composition they know that they will be most successful in creating.

Last week, students created watercolor booklets where they demonstrated several watercolor techniques. I love book arts and find that the one-page booklet is simple to make, but is very useful as a study guide or a quick little booklet.

After the booklets, students created rough drafts and then engaged in a gallery walk critique where they gave feedback to help inspire their classmates with ideas.

The last two days students have been starting on their paintings. Students also have the choice in size of their paper, so I have artwork spanning from 9" x 9" to 18" x 24". Here are a few works-in-progress:

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Watercolor Slideshow

Happy Sunday! I know that Sundays are an unusual day for me to post, but I just uploaded the slideshow for the next project, and I'm really proud of this one. Check out the Watercolor Painting slideshow under the Creative Arts tab for examples, procedures, and rubrics!

Also, I'd like to give a huge shout out to YouTube because they have crafted a glorious function that allows me to add closed captioning to my videos SEAMLESSLY!

Happy Conference Week!

It has been so great getting to meet with parents and talk about the progress of their awesome students! Conference week is always crazy with the delay and early release schedules, but students have been keeping busy in the art room. Today students were briefly introduced to their next unit, a watercolor painting inspired by the artists of China and Japan. Students don't know it yet, but they will be pairing their paintings with some creative writing, either prose or poetry, so I'm very excited to see yet another creative side to these artists. In class today, students created collaborative dragon drawings. Without telling them anything about Chinese dragon iconography, students had to draw different elements on classmate's papers to create a dragon. Artists started with their own paper; most of them drew bodies or heads to get the activity rolling, and then they moved to a new table to extend the drawing. By the end of the activity, there were several wacky looking dragons (some pretty close to looking authentic), but it was a great way to pre-assess their background knowledge on Chinese dragons. Tomorrow students will be able to add finishing touches to their own dragons and will start to add color. Here are a few works-in-progress:

Check out my Twitter or Instagram tomorrow for more pictures of works-in-progress with color!

End of Term I

I apologize for missing last week's post! Students have been busy, busy in Creative Arts; I cannot believe that after today was are one quarter of the way done with the school year! Students have completed two units since my last post: African Musical Performance and Día de los Muertos Sugar Skulls. I will be updating the Virtual Art Show this weekend to show off a sampling of the fantastic artwork. 

The performances were great! Students collaborated in their groups to write a drum rhythm and choreograph a dance to go with it. I am so proud of the committed performances because several students were far out of their comfort zones by performing in front of others. The next group performance project students work on should be a little less scary since they took a huge plunge with this one!

In honor of the holiday, I decorated the classroom a bit! The door shows off sugar skulls and papel picado and the ofrenda pays tribute to deceased Mexican and Mexican American artists, including painter Frida Kahlo and singer/songwriter Ritchie Valens.

Yesterday students engaged in an in-progress T.A.G. critique, where they tell an artist something they like about their artwork, ask the artist a question about their artwork, and give a positive suggestion for their artwork. Critiques are a great tool because they help students share ideas and generate ways they could improve their artwork. Students gave great feedback to one another and have been working hard to complete their scratch art.

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend! Today is the last day to sign up for Parent/Teacher Conferences if you haven't done so already. I look forward to meeting with you next week!

Djembe Drum

Students are about halfway through creating their miniature Djembe drums! I'm excited to test them out tomorrow and get students started on learning drumming rhythms. I'll walk you through the process:

First students had to construct their armature by cutting out the bottom of two cups and taping it together. The armature is the base for their papier-mâché.

Then, students started the papier-mâché process by using strips of newspaper dipped in art paste. The goal was to apply several layers of the newspaper to the armature to create a hard cast.

In between two of the layers, students worked together with their groups to devise a plan for their drum decoration. I provided them with several ideas, including symbols, colors, and animals, and students collaborated on how to create a set of cohesive drums.

Once the drum was dried and sturdy (with about three days worth of papier-mâché), students are applying gesso to the drum. Gesso is a primer that covers the newspaper and provides a surface for painting their designs. 

In the upcoming classes, students will be painting their designs, with the exception of one class who are using colored pencils or markers to decorate a skirt that will be glued to their drums. I'm really liking the artwork these students are drawing; they are able to show more details with the dry materials than they would have with paint.

As tomorrow is Picture Day, students will not be painting because I do not want to risk anyone dirtying up their nice clothes before their pictures. Instead, students will be learning drum rhythms and then start creating the rhythm they plan to use for their performance.