Kaleidoscope Name Design

This week was filled with a lot of art-making! On Monday we looked at examples of Islamic art and learned about radial balance - a type of balance where elements are radiating from a center point and the weight is equally distributed around the center. Each day this week the warm-up prompts related to radial balance to reinforce the concept. Students demonstrated their understanding of radial balance by creating a kaleidoscopic image of their name by tracing a stencil of their name as a flipped tessellation. I've been sharing in-progress photos this week of this fantastic project - each name kaleidoscope looks completely different!

Now that students have created the image, they are working on coloring the artwork using a combination of harmonious colors - colors that have a pleasing appearance.

I will post more pictures all next week and add completed artworks to the Virtual Art Show! The Virtual Art Show is where I showcase student work. There is a tab at the top of my blog where you can click to see the slideshow for my current classes and also the slideshows from all my previous students. Students can look at the slideshows from last semester/last year to preview some of the artworks they will be able to complete while in creative arts. The first thing I am going to upload to the Virtual Art Show are the class flags. It is great to have so much artwork on my walls!

Happy Valentine's Day & enjoy the three day weekend!

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! 

Rangoli

Unfortunately it has been a month since my last post, but this last month has been busy, busy! As of today I am back to teaching just 5-8 because Ms. Beverage has returned to work! It was a lot of fun teaching K-4 and getting to know the grammar school students, but I am shamelessly excited to return to my routine. I've been dying to share updates on my students' artwork, especially the 5th grade Rangoli.

To compliment the study of Ancient India with Mr. Kenny, artists have learned about the temporary art of Rangoli. I really like this project because students are learning three major (and somewhat difficult) art vocabulary: radial balance, tertiary, and analogous colors. Students really enjoy starting the unit by viewing Rangoli videos (which can be found here) to see how this art form is traditionally created. Then using several references, students are able to create their own radially balanced designs. We use chalk pastels over black paper for this project because the colors show gorgeous contrast against the dark paper and the softness of the pastel is pretty similar to the temporary nature of sand.

I've also started conducting in-progress critiques instead of critiques at the end of a project. I've realized that although it is important to be reflective of your artwork, it is more beneficial to the artist to receive helpful feedback mid-way. This constructive feedback could even provide students with ideas on how to proceed with their design because not all artists can see the same thing or have the same ideas. I love when students can help other students!

I am sharing a few artworks, both in-progess and completed. I will post updates to the Virtual Art Show next week once more of them are completed!

Rangoli

5th grade artists are in the middle of one of my favorite projects: Rangoli! Students started by creating a radially balanced design to simulate the beautiful Indian artwork, which is a temporary art created with colored sand, rice, or flowers to celebrate Diwali. Below is a video of someone creating a design using sand:

Check out the Rangoli slideshow on the 5Art page for more information and video examples

Once students finished their patterns, they chose 4 analogous colors (colors next to one another on the color wheel) to complete the artwork. Students used bright chalk pastel on top of black construction paper to create contrast. Here are some works in progress: