Robots!!

After reading the story Boy + Bot, about a boy and his robot, the students discussed that robots are made up of geometric shapes.  Circles, rectangles, squares, ovals and triangles to name a few.  They had to decide on 6 shapes to draw on shiny metal paper to create a body, head, 2 arms and 2 legs of a robot.  They then cut, peeled and stuck each shape to their background paper.  They used marker to add lines and shapes to add details like eyes, antenna, ears, mouths, nails, and screws etc..  If time allowed they could use crayons to give their robots a place to live.  Check out the artwork from our robot factory.....

Ghost Trees

We studied and analyzed pictures of real ghost trees from nature.  Children noticed that they were probably called ghost trees because of their empty branches.  These trees were bare and their branches were made of wavy and bending lines.  The were almost white in color.  We also discussed how color can make the viewer feel a certain way.  They were quick to note that using whites and blues in artwork gave a calm, even sad feeling.  They were able to draw their own ghost trees using cool blue/white oil pastels and wavy lines.  The artworks are all beautiful and a little bit mysterious....

Picasso Portraits

After reading a short story about Pablo Picasso, we discussed his artwork and how it was very different from other artists before him.  They learned he was an artist who was not afraid to try new things.  Later in his life - Picasso expanded his style from detailed realism to abstract and simplified art.  He even played around with placement of objects on his canvas.

Since the students worked really hard studying the realism of their own faces with the self portrait project, it was a nice change to let them loose and create a picasso style portait.  I had a lot of giggles and smiles as we discussed changing the shapes and placement of our facial features.  They results are quite unique and creative.

Self Portraits

It is the time of year when we practice really looking at the shapes that make up our faces.  For example, we have two lips that make up our mouths, and the outside shapes of our eyes are oval or football, with two smaller circles within.  After discussing different shapes for our features, we then got a chance to practice them.  We put all our practice together and created a finished self - portrait.  The final class was spent learning about how to use colored pencils to mix and blend colors to make skin, eye and hair colors.  When the portraits were completed, the students were then able to cut and mount them on "mirror" shaped paper!