Kinder art students have started studying the Element of Design of COLOR! We looked at Dutch artist Piet Mondrian and discussed how he used the three Primary Colors: red, blue, and yellow, as his main colors, and then added black and white to his compositions. We also identified some basic shapes in his artworks: squares and rectangles, as well as straight lines. We started with different sizes of red, blue, and yellow squares and rectangles, and tried to arrange them on our white papers in a satisfying way. Once we had our shapes arranged, we glued them down. The next art day, we added straight black lines using a stamp print method. These photos show students using a piece of cardboard and black paint to stamp their straight black lines in between the rectangles and squares.
Fourth grade artists are learning all about the Australian Aboriginal dot paintings. We looked at many different examples, some very old and some from modern Australian artists. We talked about how the Aborigines depicted animals in their artworks, and how important the animals are in their everyday life.
Students then each had to choose a native Texas animal to depict in their own artwork. We talked about how to create a silhouette of the animal, or outline, on black paper. After students glued down their silhouettes, they then had to draw two different x-ray drawings of the animals' bones or internal organs. X-ray drawings are a very unique feature of many Aborigine dot paintings. Finally, students had to start adding color dots with sticks. This was trickier than most students imagined! Students added patterns, a dot outline around the edge of the animal silhouettes, and concentric circles in the background. These are outstanding paintings! Look for the finished versions on Artsonia! http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=105385
First grade artists are learning all about free form shapes! Students drew one free form shape, then carefully cut it out and traced it many times onto a black piece of paper. Students made sure to overlap their shapes many times on the paper to create new free form shapes. Then, students had to put glue on top of all of their pencil lines...a very tricky technique! The glue had to dry overnight, and here are photos of students adding color inside their free form shapes after the glue had dried. The bright colors are from construction paper crayons, which work really well on darker paper.
