Kinder artists study TEXTURE and FREE FORM SHAPES!

Kinder art students learned all about free form shapes.  We talked about how most free form shapes come from nature, and concentrated on the different shapes of leaves.  Students did a texture rubbing of different leaves with crayons, and filled their entire papers.  The next day, students learned how to paint carefully to take care of their brushes.  Students added a different color of paint to each leaf, so that each leaf now had two different colors.  Students were amazed at how the waxy crayon leaves resisted the wet paint! Students created beautiful, abstract works of art with the free form shaped leaves!

Check out the finished paintings here on Artsonia!  
http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=997760

1st Grade Abstract Paintings

First Grade art students are learning brush techniques in painting.  Students first learned about the different parts of a paintbrush:

Students practiced just using the "toe" of the bristles to create a very thin line.  Then we practiced painting with the heel and toe, gently pressing down all the bristles to make a really thick line.  Students were amazed that they could paint such different lines with the same brush! After practicing painting different kinds of lines, students then practiced painting large shapes with solid colors.

Next, students tried out painting shapes or lines on top of colors.  It was a fun experiment to see which colors could show up on top of the painted backgrounds. The final touch was adding a few lines around the border, and painting their names.  To see them all, check out our online students art gallery at Artsonia:   http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=926366

First Grade Free Form Shapes

First Grade students are also reviewing free form shapes.  Students first had to cut out a free form shapes from a piece of paper, then trace it seven or more times onto a black paper, making sure to overlap the shape in a few areas.  Next, students had to carefully trace their pencils lines with glue.  The glue dried overnight, and the next class students added color with construction paper crayons. The glue dried clear, leaving behind the nice outlines of their free form shapes. The completed drawings make wonderful abstract art works!

Kinder Free Form Leaf Paintings

 Kinder artists are learning all about Free Form Shapes in art class!  We talked about how free form shapes come from nature, and how they are different from geometric shapes: they don't have even, smooth edges, they are irregular, and they don't have specific names like geometric shapes.

First, students used crayons to rub on top of textured leaf plates, creating a print of the leaf on their papers. They repeated this step again and again with different leaves and colors until their entire paper was covered with free form shaped leaves. The we talked about painting, and how to use a brush gently. Students chose a different color paint to color their leaves, so that each leaf had two different colors.

The results are beautiful, abstract works of art! Look at them all on Artsonia, Zilker's online art museum: 
http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=834525

1st Grade Free Form Shapes

 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.

Kinder Free Form Leaf Rubbings & Paintings

 Kinder students are busy learning about free form shapes and texture rubbings!  We first talked about how free form shapes are different from geometric shapes because they do not have names or even, smooth edges, and they are found mostly in nature.  We then talked about how the seasons were changing from summer to fall, and discussed what happens during Fall: the weather is cooler, the leaves change color, and then fall from the trees.  Leaves are free form shapes, so we took some leaf texture plates, placed them under our papers, and used our large crayons to rub the leaf images onto our papers, filling all of the space with free form leaves.

 The next art class we added more color with paint!  We talked about how to use our brushes gently, and started adding color to our leaves. Students noticed that even though the paint stuck to the paper, it did not stick to the crayon.  We talked about how the crayons have wax in them, and how water will not stick to wax.  Students will finish painting their leaves next time, creating a wonderful abstract work of color!