Kinder and First Grade Circle Paintings

 Continuing our grade level projects, Kinder and First Grade classes worked together to create some amazing cooperative paintings. Wassily Kandinsky was our artist inspiration. We started with basic shapes and painted right onto the large sheets of paper.  After the shapes covered the paper, students connected the shapes with different kinds of lines.

 Students then worked together to add lots of vibrant color.  These are beautiful - please come see them in person on Thursday February 6th at Zilker Family Night!  Our school will be open to visitors from 5:30 - 8 pm....hope to see you there!

 

4th Grade Recycled Art Group Project

It has been over a month since I have posted, and for very good reasons: We have been so busy in the art room, not to mention our TWO unexpected ice days in January!  Family Night at Zilker is on Thursday, February 6th, and Zilker art students have been busy working on group projects to be displayed for our parents and students' viewing. 

Fourth Grade Students studied the artist Louise Nevelson and her relief sculptures.  Here is one that we looked closely at, and discussed her use of shape, form, and shadow.

 We used cardboard that I have been saving from delivery boxes.  Each fourth grade students created a relief sculpture that had variety of shapes and sizes, as well as different textures.  Students also had to arrange the cardboard pieces so that they produced a shadow.  Here they are all together:

 Below is a side view so you can check out how the students created the "relief" part...lots of parts sticking outward to create shadows!

 I love these so much...please come by the Zilker Cafeteria during Family Night to see these in person!

2nd Grade Flower Paintings.

Inspired by American artists Georgia O'Keeffe, second grade artists are creating their own version of a flower.  First, we looked at many of O'Keeffe's paintings.  Students practiced drawing flowers close up, then picked their best drawing to create into a painting. We discussed how to create intermediate colors by mixing a primary color with a secondary color, and created our own color wheels with the six intermediate colors.  Students chose one intermediate color to mix for their large petals.

Check out the finished flower paintings on our online art museum at Artsonia!

http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=733690

Third Grade Cave Art

Third Grade Zilker artists just finished studying Prehistoric Cave Art.  We watched video of the famous Lascaux  cave in France, and were mesmerized by the huge paintings of animals made by people thousands of years ago. We practiced drawing some of the animals that these ancient artists first recorded: bison, deer, horses, bears, and cows.   Students choose their best drawing and carefully cut it out, adding it to a background that they first added implied texture to with texture rubbing plates and actual texture from crumpling the paper.  As a final touch, students added some prehistoric symbols and pictographs that were also discovered on the walls of the Lascaux cave.  Look for these to be displayed in the hallway in January!

5th Grade Art Gallery Drawings

 Fifth Grade artists are creating the illusion of a three-dimensional room on a two-dimensional surface - paper!  Students used six perspective techniques to help create their illusions: converging lines, overlapping, different sizes of objects, placement of objects, detail, and color.  A casual classroom poll confirmed that students' favorite part was designing the artworks and sculptures for their galleries.  Students were able to choose what style of art was in the galleries as well as if they wanted to have a matching theme for the art.  Outstanding attention to detail and color really invite viewers to take a closer look. 

First Grade Color Books

 First Grade artists have been hard at work learning all about COLOR!  We are creating our color books right now, and here are photos of students working on the color families: warm, cool and neutral colors.  We also created our own color wheel and used primary colors to mix and create secondary colors.  In addition we have studied the complementary colors, and the color order of the rainbow: ROY G. BIV.  Look for these outstanding color theory books to come home just in time for the holidays!

Fourth Grade House Sculptures

 Fourth Grade art students have the job of architects these days at Zilker Elementary!  They are hard at work designing two story houses out of cardboard.  For inspiration, we looked at photos of older houses, and discussed their texture and details.  Then we started constructing our houses. We have to use a lot of glue to make the house structurally sound.  We also had to think about the function of the houses and what they needed to be functional for living: four walls, windows, a door, and a slanted roof with an overhang to keep the house dry.

 Next, we are adding details and making our houses have a variety of textures and details.  We talked about having a variety of different styles of windows, and making different kinds of textures on different walls: bricks, stones, peeling paint, or boards.  Last, we will add little extra details, like porch lights, chimneys, or whatever else our imaginations come up with!

Third Grade Radial Designs

Third Grade Art Students are learning all about Radial Balance, when an object has two or more lines of symmetry, and the elements of design radiate out from a central point.  We looked at several different radial designs, including this one of a stained glass window at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.  Students then practiced drawing different radial designs using a variety of shapes, lines, and colors. We folded our square-shaped papers twice to create two lines of symmetry, and to find the exact center of the paper.  Students chose their best design to create their final piece on white paper with markers. Students are working hard to finish these this week - look for them soon in the Zilker Hallway!

Kinder Piet Mondrian Prints

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.