Watercolor Paintings

I cannot believe it has been a month since my last post! My sincerest apologies for the radio silence.

The week of Thanksgiving, we took a little break from our Africa unit and talked about the American artist Chuck Close. Students learned several shading techniques and put their knowledge to the test by recreating a piece of a face. Each face was divided into tiny squares, so students have yet to learn whose face they were recreating. I have received almost all of the pieces and will be able to assemble the portraits over break. I know students are anxiously awaiting to see how their collaborative art project turns out.

Students put together incredible African Musical Performance! I am so proud of each student for breaking out of their comfort zone to dance or drum in front of their classmates. I have to load pictures of the drums to the Virtual Art Show, and hopefully I will have some groups who would be willing to allow me to post a video of their routine.

Last week classes started their introduction on watercolor. This is one of my absolute favorite projects because students are given choice in so many ways and it always yields beautiful results. Students choose between creating a landscape, an animal, or a dragon and build a composition of their choosing. I had students create a thumbnail sketch of each so they could give each other feedback and make suggestions as to which subject they should move forward with. It has been an exciting time in the art room the last couple of days because students have been coming up with such beautiful compositions! Only a few students have started painting, and I've reminded them that there is no rush to complete their artwork before break, so I won't be posting finished products until we return in January.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing winter break! I look forward to spending the final five weeks together with my students before the end of the semester.

Djembe Drums!

It has been a busy few weeks in the art room! Students are halfway through creating their own Djembe drums. I am so proud of the way students have been handling using art paste in my classroom; minimal spills on the carpet and students have been responsibly cleaning up after themselves and neighbors. I changed up the papier-mȃché process a tiny bit this year due to a brilliant idea from Mrs. Wetzel, the 8th grade art teacher. The final layer of papier-mȃché was made with paper towel instead of newspaper in order to create a solid canvas to paint on. Last year I had students paint a layer of gesso (canvas primer) as their base, which used less layers of papier-mȃché. With the final layer of paper towel, these drums are much sturdier than the ones my students made last year.

Today students began painting. A few weeks ago groups drew rough drafts of what they wanted painted on their drums, making their artwork cohesive in a way. First students drew their design on their drum, then they began to paint. Painting should last maybe one or two more days and then we will begin our dance and drum portions of this unit. I can't wait to see the performances come together!

Conference Week

Happy conference week! It was great getting to meet with so many parents last night and I look forward to talking to more today and tomorrow. Conference week is always a little wacky because we have such a short amount of time in each class, but we are being as productive as ever! 

Earlier this week students started brainstorming for their Djembe drum decorations. Each group needs to show cohesion through their designs, but each drum should be uniquely displaying characteristics of the owner. Yesterday we paused the drum project because the next step is to start papier-mâché (yay!) and there isn't enough time in the class to get materials out, work, and then clean-up efficiently. Instead of drums, students began prepping for their next mini-project, Día de los Muertos scratch art sugar skulls. Making scratch art paper is super simple and actually really fun. First, students are filling an entire blank paper with an assortment of colored crayons. Students have the freedom of deciding what colors to use and how to arrange them - some are making stripes, patches, or organic spots. It is important to press hard and fill the entire paper, leaving behind no white spaces. Scratch paper needs the waxy surface under the paint in order to be properly scratched off. Next, either today or tomorrow students will be covering the crayon in a thin mixture of black tempera paint and dish soap. The dish soap helps the paint flake off nicely when it is being etched versus crumbling in unwanted areas. Once the paint is dry, they are ready to be etched! Students will come back to this mini-project during breaks from their African musical performance. 

I'm trying to pass back artwork this week, too, so students can finally show off the beautiful work they've created so far.

Contests

Throughout the year I encourage students to participate in a variety of art contests in local, state, and national art contests. I will introduce the contest in class and supply the necessary papers and forms for students to utilize, but often time, students will need to complete the artwork outside of the classroom (unless specifically noted). I have a contest tab on my blog here that provides information about contests as they come up. Currently there are two contests (Reflections & "I Voted") that are taking submissions up until Tuesday, October 15th! If your child is interested in entering these contests, they need to create the art and I can help them fill out any forms and submit their work. Check out the contest tab throughout the year to stay updated on what is being offered!

Kaleidoscope Name Designs

The last two weeks have been quite eventful! Students learned about Islamic art through digital resources and put their knowledge to the test by creating an Islamic-inspired radially balanced kaleidoscope! The best part of the kaleidoscope is that it is created with students' names. This project took a lot of patience and problem solving, but the outcomes are gorgeous! This truthfully is one of my favorite projects because each design turns out gorgeous and is totally unique from the rest. Once the designs were completed, students chose a harmonious color scheme (a group of colors that are pleasing to the eye) to carefully color the artwork.

I've unfortunately been slacking and have not added photos of the balance drawing to the Virtual Art Show, but this weekend I will absolutely take the time to add photos from both projects to show off the beauty this group of talented students have created! In the meantime, here are some snapshots from what students have been working on:

Students have Doodle Calendars to complete each month. The September doodles were so fun -- I got to learn a little bit more about each student through their "my favorite..." drawings. Each month generally has a theme; some of them are goofy exercises just to get them drawing and some will have content-specific prompts to get students practicing techniques. The October Doodle Calendar has fun autumn-related prompts and so far students have been coming up with such creative ideas!

October DC

October DC

October DC

September DC

September DC

Week Three

A lot has occurred in the art room this week! I posted earlier this week about the Balance drawings students were working on and they are now complete and will be uploaded to the Virtual Art Show this weekend (as well as more images of the class flags). I believe I've said it before, but the VAS is used to showcase strong examples from each project and I try to take photos of everyone's artwork at least once.

Thursday students wrote their first artist statement. I explained to them that artists will generally write a few paragraphs about their artwork if they are exhibiting it in a gallery explaining to the viewers their thoughts about their work and why they created in. In creative arts, students will write an artist statement after every project for a few reasons: 1) To let the viewer know about their intent for creating their artwork. 2) To show me what they've learned about the culture or content we studied in order to create this artwork. 3) To further practice their ELA writing skills. Creative arts is a class that ties in to just about every other middle school content area, so I try to make the connections clear to my students!

I'm including a few photographs of completed drawings. I have a handful of students who are not quite finished, so I will be pulling them for ELT next week to provide them additional time to complete their drawings.

 

I'm excited for students to dive into their next project, the Kaleidoscope Name Drawing next week. Check out my social media pages for images of their progress throughout next week!

Week three of I&I had students building and testing their marshmallow launchers. I was impressed by the many different designs students came up with, all of which were successful! You can see some images and videos of the marshmallow launchers on my Instagram @msstrasserart_fcps. This was students' first experience using a design log and working through the design process. Thursday most students began working on a design process playlist, a mini-project that I'm excited for students to work through. The playlist allows for students to experience several different design challenges at their own pace and even selecting which order they would like to complete them in. Most of the lessons in I&I are designed for students to conduct their own research and spearhead their own learning, allowing for students to take their time and work at their own pace. Look for more snapshots on Instagram and Twitter as they begin sketching and building!

Class Flags

Good morning art loving people! Last week classes completed their class flags. I was able to hang them on Friday so yesterday was the first time students were able to see their artwork on the wall. Each class voted on an overall design for the layout of the flag, showing off just how creative each class is. Here are a few snapshots of what students created:

Students are currently working on creating their own composition that displays the three types of balance: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. I am impressed by the subjects and examples students are coming up with! No two artworks look the same because they have the freedom of arranging their composition as either one large scene or by dividing the page into sections. This project serves as a precursor to the Kaleidoscope Name Designs, where students take a deeper look into radial balance and Islamic art. This balance composition also helps students practice their composition arrangement and coloring skills, two techniques they will be using quite often in creative arts. Below are a few works-in-progress.

Follow my Twitter @StrasserArt_OMS and Instagram @MsStrasserArt_FCPS for more frequent updates! 

First Week

Happy Monday! Last week was a great first week. I enjoyed meeting all of my new students and I look forward to seeing their creativity blossom.

Our first project in Creative Arts is the class flag. We discussed culture and explained how we had a class culture among ourselves. Students created a list of topics that were most important to them as a class and began creating artwork to add to a flag. My favorite part of these flags is that the students vote on what the actual flag with look like, so once they are hanging you will be pleasantly surprised at the designs each class chose! In this first week, students were introduced to the planning process of thumbnails and rough drafts and even experienced their first critique, which is used to help one another generate further ideas before moving on to their final artwork. Below are a few images of the planning process from the first week:

Students also completed their first Draw Something last week! Draw Something is an activity I enjoy using to get students to think creatively. I supply them with a few lines or shapes for students to turn into a picture of some sort. I was blown away by the artwork I received on Friday because students thought of so many different objects to turn the lines into.

This week we are compiling our class flags and moving on to our next project - Kaleidoscope Name Drawings. Check out my Twitter and Instagram for more frequent updates!