4th and 5th Grade Abstract Pattern Designs

To start off a new school year in art Class, fourth and fifth grade artists are getting into their "artist state of mind" by reviewing the Elements of Art.  Students arranged lines, shapes and colors in a repeated and planned way to create abstract patterns.  These bright artworks will decorate the cover of their art sketchbooks, which we use all year long.

Check out all of the amazing designs at Artsonia, our online student museum!

5th Grade: http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=985881

4th Grade: http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=985870

Kinder Fish Sculptures

Remember this post from a few weeks ago? 

http://zilkerelementaryart.blogspot.com/2015/01/winter-happenings-in-art-room-kinder.html  

Check out the finished Kinder Fish Sculptures that are brightening the Art Room Hallway!!

Winter Happenings in the Art Room: Kinder, Fifth Grade and Third Grade

 Kinder is creating amazing patterns that will be transformed from two dimensional pieces of paper into  three dimensional sculptures!

Fifth Grade has just finished studying the great Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, and have made horse sculptures out of clay.  Here are sneak peeks of students painting glazes onto their bisque-fired horses; next step, another round in the kiln for the glaze firing!

 Third grade artists are learning all about perspective and depth in two-dimensional artworks, as well as the art element of VALUE.  Here students are creating a winterscape, and using size and color to show depth.  They are mixing lighter and dark values of gray, and learning how to place objects in the background, middle ground, and fore ground.

Check back next week for an update on First, Second, and Fourth Grade artists!

Kinder Fish Sculptures

Pattern, Pattern Pattern!!  We are all about pattern in Kindergarten art class, using the elements of line, shape and color to create the principle of design: pattern.  Students started with a 12 x 18 piece of paper and folded it so that there were eight sections, and then added bright patterns with crayons.  Next, we painted watercolor on top of the patterns to create a crayon resist painting.

After the paintings dried, we cut and glued and transformed them into fish sculptures!   We added more line patterns to the fins, and stuffed the fish with paper so that they were three dimensional and not flat.  We also talked about how the patterns on the fish's bodies were a symbol for the actual scales on real fish.  Our next project concerns symbols, so this was a perfect introduction to our next big idea: Symbolism in Art!

Zentangle Letter Designs

This year we joined in on the Zentangle craze that has swept the art education world! Zilker fourth and fifth grade students have created amazing designs for their sketchbook covers.  They chose the first initial of either their first or last name, and drew that letter as a shape.  Then, they divided the space with four different lines, which created many different free form shapes.  Inside the shapes they drew patterns with a sharpie marker.  We looked at several Zentangle designs, and then students created many of their own pattern ideas.  It was a truly "zen-like" experience because students were focused and relaxed.

Kinder Patterns

Kinder art students have been busy creating beautiful patterns in the Zilker art room recently.  We used crayons first, pushing hard with our muscles to put down a nice layer of waxy color.  In these photos you can see students adding a color tempera wash over the crayon patterns, creating a wax-resist painting.  Be sure to come see our musical on March 7, and you will discover what the kinder students created out of their patterned papers!