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.

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...

Shell Contour Lines

Elementary students are learning about contour line and creating these beach-y shell pictures with their drawings.  Liquid watercolors are sprayed on for the textured background and they are using a variety of colored papers to draw their shells.  Students added 3D dots to raise the shells off of the page and give it some dimension.  These are very bright and colorful!

Zentangle completed

I just love the handcrafted look of these pieces of art.  Students worked hard for 4 one hour classes to complete and their diligence paid off!  These were small pieces of paper, too, at  4 1/2 X 6 inches. I have the students work with the Uni-ball Vision Fine black pen, and I love it because it it waterproof and works well on a variety of surfaces.When they had completed their line work, students were to choose one or two colors in colored pencil to shade after instructions were given for how to do this.  They could also choose to shade in graphite if they preferred which is traditional in Zentangle. They then mounted these onto colored construction paper that matched their colored pencil.  Beautiful work and I wish I could post all of them. These are all at various stages of completion.

Students who finished earlier were able to work on a Zentangle hand tracing.

Colored Pencil Sea Life

Students worked on colored pencil blending at the last class for the semester.  They traced a template of a sea turtle or fish and drew exaggerated the shapes you would find inside.  They did these on black paper which really makes the colored pencil illuminate.  They used analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel look really nice together and blend well) and overlapped the colors to create this effect.  They turn out really nice!

Norman Rockwell Magazine Covers

The last project the older students worked on this semester was to design their own magazine cover.  This was after we studied the life of Norman Rockwell and enjoyed his amazing paintings and how he was such a master storyteller in his illustrations.  Students were given a list of magazine ideas or they could come up with their own...great opportunity to be creative.  We discussed elements of good design and they had to use some of these in their layout.  Then came the colored pencil technique which I will explain here:

After drawing your design, it is very important to erase your pencil lines so you cannot see it thru your colored pencil.  You will still see the lines faintly after erasing but because colored pencil is permanent, you will not be able to erase your pencil lines later.  I showed the students the image of the eye that I worked on from a magazine picture and showed them the two techniques- layering and burnishing.  This worked best to show in small groups at  a table in the back of the room so they could see the details.  Colored pencils need to be very sharp to use this method.  We used Prismacolor(I recommend the 48 color set) because of their wonderful blending ability.  Students were required to use the layering technique (2-4 colors) in their magazine cover and not to go too dark in the beginning.  Choosing analogous colors works well for this method.   With practice, this technique can create depth and realism and created a lot of interest with the colors showing through in the under-painting.

Colored pencil- Top hats

Our class is working on learning how to blend with colored pencil using analagous colors.  The viewer should not be able to see blocks of color but see many different colors throughout the area.  I had the younger group do the negative space of these hats and the older students worked on the positive space of a Florida creature, exaggerating and abstracting the shape/texture they might see on the animal. I will post some of the Florida animals this next week.

Colored Pencil Yarn Bundles

This is a great project for students to learn how to create value with colored pencil.  I see yarn bundles, but other students have seen elephant trunks, abstract trees, Dr. Seuss theme, knees and legs with colorful stockings, layers of rock.  I find it interesting that many of the students were wearing the exact colors they chose for their project.  Working with analogous colors. Thank you to Art with Mr. E and they are beautiful!

Also, colored pencils were Lyra  for younger (harder lead but still blend-able) and Prismacolor for older students (leads break easier, but blend beautifully).