Watercolor Landscapes

I think I say this about all the projects, but the 6th grade watercolor landscapes might be my actual favorite project. I was so resistant to using watercolor paints almost my whole life, but after taking a watercolor exploratory class at Hood College (shout out to Gary Cuddington being the BEST painting instructor), I realized that watercolor wasn't scary. What I like most about watercolor painting is the variety of abstract techniques that artists can use to create subject matter. Watercolor is meant to be loose and fluid (hence the name watercolor), but it doesn't have to be; it is up to the artist to decide.

I always start this project by discussing what makes up a landscape. I have a slideshow with images of Chinese watercolor paintings and students practice drawing several elements in their sketchbooks. After they have experienced the elements that make up a landscape, I introduce watercolor techniques. As I discuss the different techniques I like to give them ideas about which techniques would work best for the different landscape elements. It also allows students to think about which techniques they want to use while they are planning their rough drafts. Students are provided a list of landscape elements and must incorporate at least five of them into their painting while demonstrating at least three of the watercolor techniques.

Students try out flat wash, gradient wash, wet-in-wet, dry brush, wax resist and what I call "lift off," which  makes me think of rockets every time I say it, but the name fits the technique well. I have students put crumpled up tissue paper on top of wet paint so when they lift it off (see, lift off) it leaves behind a textured appearance. For this particular project, lift off is a great technique for rocks. Anyway, after students learn the techniques, they created rough drafts in their sketchbooks, which were quickly turned into watercolor paintings.

It looks as if the whole class will be finished their paintings on Monday or Wednesday next week, so I will be updating the Virtual Art Show shortly. I look forward to sharing their finished masterpieces!

Da Vinci Drive

I haven't posted any pictures of the beautiful art hallway (recently fittingly named Da Vinci Drive) lately! Hanging currently are the fifth grade Rangoli, sixth grade African masks, and eighth grade Cubist still life collages. Unfortunately, seventh  grade's last project was a delicate book and I have no way of hanging them securely, so you can find pictures of them on the Seventh Grade Virtual Slide Show. Fifth grade is nearly complete with their Terracotta Soldiers, so photos of those will be coming next week. Enjoy!

Triptych Update

Students have been working hard on their paintings. As of today, every student has completed their value scales and are about to or have already started painting their portraits. I like that I chose such a small scale for this project because artists have been able to work through this quickly. Maybe we'll even have time for another mini-project before the school year ends!

Terracotta Soldiers

A couple of weeks ago I introduced a lesson to fifth grade about Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army. What I like most about this project is the process: artists create their own soldier relief print! The first year that I taught this I allowed students to create either a human or an animal, since the tomb contained soldiers, government officials, acrobats, and exotic animals, just to name a few, but this year I decided that all students should create a human of some sort. I provided them with several reference photos, but they all still look completely different! Here are a few rough drafts from 5B:

Once students planned their artwork, they drew their soldiers onto foam and etched into the surface. In a relief print, all the etched areas show up "empty" when they are printed, while raised areas are printed with ink. Traditional relief prints are created by etching into a hard surface, like wood or linoleum, and use printmaking ink (I prefer BLICK), but in the FCCS art room we use tempera paint. Students spread tempera paint along their relief block, carefully flip it paint side down on to paper, gently rub and press the back of the stamp, and slowly peel the soldier off the page to reveal a relief!

When my first group of students worked on this project, I had them glue the smaller colored papers together to create a collage (inspired by Andy Warhol, to show the same image four or so different ways), but this year, I'm not sure how I want students to arrange their artwork. Perhaps the small prints are complete the way they are? One student proposed stamping their soldiers in another color, so maybe next class I'll let them choose other colors and they can collage their soldiers using a wider variety of color. Check back in a couple of weeks to see the final artwork on the Virtual Art Show or follow my Instagram for more frequent pictures!

Pop Art Triptych

After completing their Cubist Still Life collages (pictures are now updated on the Virtual Art Show), 8th grade artists began creating their Pop Art Triptych. I am really excited about this project because it is one that I have been dreaming of teaching my students since I was student teaching at TJ Middle (2/5 internships). I started by showing the students this slideshow with two amazing Pop Art/Andy Warhol videos. Together we brainstormed a list of the important characteristics of both the Pop Art movement and the artists Andy Warhol. I had students make a list of three celebrities or famous figures that they would want to use for their artwork, and then I went on to find the images and posterize (transforming the color photo into very few tones) them. *If students had access to their own technology in the art room, I would have had them search for their own reference photo so that they found the perfect one that suited them. I would have shown them how to posterize so that they could complete that step themselves and use that tool in the future if they ever needed to again. Another idea for this project would be for students to find a selfie on their phones (because we know all eighth graders have them) and use that for their project. Allowing students the use of their own technology would have provided more options for the students.* 

Once students received their famous photos, they transferred the image three times using carbon paper. I love carbon paper for many reasons: 1) It allows many students to trace at multiple times since I only have one window and no light tables. 2) Students do not need to stress about making all three drawings identical because they are tracing and can follow the same guidelines. 3) Tracing the photographs make for less erasing, creating a smooth coloring-page-like outline for students to paint. 4) Students can make their outlines as detailed or as simplified as they would like, based on their evaluation of their own ability. Most students made it through all three drawings without any hiccups. It is so easy to move the paper around accidentally, so I made sure students had tape to tape their photo to the carbon paper and their carbon paper to their artwork to make sure that the faces were being drawn in the correct places. Once the paper moves, it is difficult to line up the the photo to the artwork to continue, but I was impressed to see that many students were able to fix the mistake.

Now that most students have completed the outline, they are working on painting value scales in order to find which colors they would like to paint their artwork. Students will choose three different colors and have to choose either a tint or shade of that color to paint within the same face. They will get to choose whether they want the original hue as the positive or negative space, placing the tint/shade in the opposite space. Ultimately, their artwork will look like this, but with three (triptych) faces instead of four:

I will be posting many pictures on Instagram and Twitter as students start painting their faces, so keep an eye out!