Soda Cans Completed

Students completed their soda can project learning about ellipses this week.  This class consists of homeschool students ranging from 5th thru 12th grade, and I have a wide variety of skill and ability in the group.  I try to develop projects so that all levels can learn new concepts and build on concepts they may already know. Every student grows at their own level, and it is a beautiful thing to watch them progress and incorporate what they are learning into their work. This project was an excellent example of this.

Students learned about the proper perspective of circles, ellipses, and drew a soda can from life.  They also were learning about line quality, using thick and thin lines in drawing to make it more interesting and when/ where to add these.  I also wanted to use this lesson to teach layered colored pencil with complementary colors using a professional quality pencil, Prismacolor.  I love the framing done in recycled soda boxes. A big thank you to the parents who saved these for me for months in order to donate to the art room! Great work done by all students!

Soda Can Ellipses

Older students grade 5-12 have been learning how to draw circles in proper perspective, ellipses.  They learned how to draw an axis to begin and make all parts on the top of the can even before completing the entire shape (look closely and you might see the erased guideline).  They are really working hard on these as this is not an easy project and required precision.  They will finish next week with colored pencil layering and burnishing techniques and will post the final results next week. I love the recycled boxed for the frame on these as well. This project takes 3- 1 hour sessions to complete.

Fall Landscape Paintings

I wanted to show Elementary students how to draw and paint a landscape scene in watercolor. With the beautiful cooler weather we are having here in Florida, I thought a fall landscape would be lovely.  I used this lesson as my starting point (thank you, Kathy Barbro) and discussed foreground, middleground, and background when drawing landscapes of any kind.  Students learned about how the clouds look smaller as they get lower in the sky and closer to the land.  This is the opposite of how things appear on land. They also learned wet in wet watercolor technique and wax resist.  They are so bright and colorful. I love using the Crayola Educational watercolors because they teach students to learn how to prepare watercolor and mix them instead of using directly from the palette.

This young lady decided to the landscape to a desert scene and spatter painted part of it for texture, turning a drippy mistake into an advantage!

Painting Animals

Semi-private students are working on painting animals, pets in some cases.  They are using acrylic paints and working from photos.  Some took 2- 2hour classes to complete and others will take 3- 2 hour classes.  They are really learning to see the values and add texture with paint.

One of my examples...my dog, Mandy

Beautiful wolf in the moonlight!

Detail of the ear

Detail of the muzzle

Halfway done and coming along beautifully

Love this little guy!

A favorite pet, Buddy, as a kitten

Birds with Printmaking

I taught the elementary students how to be a shape detective when learning to draw birds this week. Looking at photographs, students drew the basic shapes on a dry erase board for practice.  They then connected with lines that made the outside shape of the bird.  They will use this method later as well when they learn to draw animals from magazine images.  After practicing a few different varieties of birds, they drew one on paper.  They used this to trace onto a foam printing plate.  They did need to go back and press in their lines again with the dull pencil to get a good impression before adding the ink. 

We then used white printmaking ink on black paper...the results are awesome!

Shoe with Emphasis completed

Students finished their contour line drawing of the shoe and added emphasis with color and line pattern.  Here are some of the results...

Negative Space Tools

Elementary students enjoyed working with contour line with tools.  They were learning how to see both the positive space (the object they are drawing) and the negative space (the space around the object).  It is important to learn to see both if you want to learn to draw accurately and this project takes concentration, especially when coloring it!

 Students choose real tools (yes, I did discuss tool safety) and began with a contour line drawing.  They were learning about good composition and filling the space well.  They then drew a rectangle on the page, going right over the objects they had drawn. Inside the rectangle, they were to color in the negative space, not the objects themselves.  After this step was completed, they were to work on coloring in the positive space (the tools) around the border using marker.  They were to use only one color to do both of these steps first.  Afterward they could color in all the white space with another color if they liked. 

Shoe Contour Line Drawings

Students in Middle and High School are learning about contour line.  They were required to draw the outer shape of the object and then go back and fill in all the details...harder than it seems and the results were quite successful.  Students were working from a photograph or from their own shoe.

We discussed Emphasis and what it means in art as well as various ways you can do this in art. Homework was assigned to add emphasis to their shoe using color, pattern, and rhythm. Students can do this using radiating lines around their shoe, angled line backgrounds, etc.  I have added examples at the bottom of the page.  Enjoy!

Sorry this one is a bit blurry but it was had such detail that I wanted to include it.