David Hockney Inspired Swimmers

3rd Graders learned about the artist, David Hockney, and his pool paintings.

Students then created their own underwater self-portrait in his style.

Charcoal

 The Friday Smart With Art Class led by Linda Romero-Kirschner learned about drawing with charcoal.

  Charcoal drawings remain an essential skill for budding artists.

Working with charcoal serves the dual purpose of building artistic creation skills and
developing art appreciation skills.

We worked with vine charcoal and used gum erasers and blending stumps to
create a still life.

 We learned the properties of charcoal and how to work with this material.

We discovered that erasing charcoal creates light areas; smudging charcoal
creates value; and drawing lightly with charcoal creates contour lines.

  We also discussed overlapping shapes, and where it exists in a still life set up.
 Students practiced on newsprint and then did a final still life on white charcoal paper.

2nd Grade Lizards

2nd Graders learned about form and sculpture and created paper sculptures of their own.

Monochromatic Landscapes

 Today we learned about monochromatic landscape paintings.
We learned how to mix colors with paints.
We created tints and shades by mixing white and black paint with the color (hue) of our choice.

We also were able to meet with the principal, Mr. Blomquist, and he showed us the color palette sample for the new school!  We saw how our new school has tints and shades of blue and brown. 

 We began our landscape drawings on a canvas board.
Objects that appear farther away are lighter in color and objects that appear in the
foreground are darker in color.

 We worked with acrylic paint on the canvas boards to create this large scale work of art!   We will be finishing these projects next Monday.

2nd Grade Ceramic Cupcakes

Here is a sample of the painted ceramic cupcakes that went home for Mother's Day.   Students painted the ceramic with acrylic paint and then they were coated with a glossy spray.

Watercolor Pencil Nonobjective Art

 Today we worked with watercolor pencils and
learned a variety of interesting techniques.

  We learned about symmetrical design. This visual art lesson integrated math concepts
to develop a sense of how to balance line, shape and color in a work of art.
We also learned what a non-objective work of art is.

 We used rulers in this work to create symmetrical reflections in our designs.
We could work with watercolor pencils by coloring them on wet paper or coloring with
them dry and then taking a wet paint brush to the art piece to create a different
effect.
We focused on our designs and lines when creating this work of art!

Chalk Pastel Cityscapes

 Today we created a cityscape with chalk pastels on black paper.
We looked at the painting, Houses in Munich, by Wassily Kandinsky for inspiration.

  He incorporated bold, vibrant colors into their work.
We designed a cityscape, creating a horizon line and using both vertical and
horizontal lines.

 Soft, hard and oil pastels are the most common but there are also water-based pastels
and pastel pencils.


They all can be smudged and blended during the drawing process.
Although pastels offer a little more control than paint; they need special treatment
when finished; spraying with a pastel fixative or framing under glass prevents further
smudging.

We learned the different properties of chalk pastels.  Our cityscapes are exciting and full of energy.

Our charcoal artwork is hanging in the front office and I hope to find a place to hang our cityscapes.  As a reminder, all artwork goes home on the last day of class.   I'm hoping to also have a little art show on the last day as well.

Next week, we will learn about symmetry and how to use watercolor pencils.
Also, you may be interested in:

First Friday Workshops: Falling Feels a Lot Like Flying

5:30pm to 7:30pm

Drop off your kids for an exciting art workshop. Students will tour an exhibit, enjoy a pizza dinner and snacks, and create a piece of art inspired by the exhibit highlighted on the tour. May's art project is inspired by Dirk Staschke's exhibit Falling Feels a Lot Like Flying. Open to students ages 5 and up.
$30 per child/$50 for two children

Enroll at www.smartwithart.net >