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!