First Art Projects of the Year (In Progress)!

Students at Valerius, Jensen, and Olmsted have dived right in and started their first art projects of the year!

- First graders are working on "Patterned Turtle Paintings". I love doing this first grade project at the start of school, because it really helps me see my students' art abilities and levels, and so many of my first graders are amazed that they can draw and paint these amazing looking turtles! I showed the students my example on the first day and asked, "How many of you think this will be hard to draw?" and nearly everyone raised their hand. Now, after being great listeners and following step by step instructions (plus, of course, adding their own creative touches here and there), they all are wowed at what they can draw!

- Second graders are working on "Chalk Pastel Lion Drawings". Second graders learned how to draw lions, drew their own, and added a jungle background all around their lion. We made sure to add a horizon line to our jungle landscape, and creatively added vines, different kinds of leaves, grasses, bodies of water, monkeys, snakes, tree frogs, bugs - you name it, we drew it! We started coloring these today with chalk pastel and the kids are having a blast! Chalk pastel can be pretty intimidating to work with, especially with younger students, but the second graders did great! We talked about how artists apply chalk pastel very lightly, overlap colors, and blend using small circular motions with a tissue or our fingers.

- Third graders are working on their "Paul Klee-inspired Castles and Towers". We started out by looking at Paul Klee's painting "Castle and Sun", which is a great geometric abstraction of a structure built with colorful triangles, squares and rectangles. On the first day, we used rulers to create tons of our own squares, rectangles and triangles. On the second day, we started painting them with watercolors. The third graders have had a lot of fun mixing their own colors. The only rules with painting are: 1) try to stay within the lines, 2) paint your shapes using mostly colors you have created and mixed on your own and 3) paint lightly, using watercolors correctly and not using too much paint. Next, we'll cut out our shapes, and assemble them into castles or towers and glue them onto our backgrounds.

-Fourth graders have looked at Gustav Klimt's work and have started their "Self Portraits with Quilts". Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was famous for his use of pattern in his portrait paintings and landscapes. We've looked at his painting "Baby", a painting of a baby all covered up in a patterned crazy quilt. We used that painting as a jumping off point, and drew ourselves wrapped up in our own creative crazy quilts. First, we learned how to draw our faces using correct proportions and learned how to draw each facial feature simply but realistically. Next we drew quilts and quilt squares. Finally, we're filling up each quilt square with different and creative designs that say something about who we are and what we like (to do). Some classes have started painting these already. We'll finish these in the next couple of weeks by adding gold marker overlay on top of the paint. Gold is Gustav Klimt's signature color!

- Fifth graders have learned about gesture drawing and started our Watercolor Experimentation Unit. We're having a great time learning all the different ways artists use watercolors. We've learned about the wet-on-wet technique, even washes, graduated washes, dry brush, and glazing. Next week, we'll learn about stippling, blotting, resist, scratching and even do some watercolor printing with cardboard, sponges and bubble wrap!

PHOTOS TO BE POSTED SOON- stay tuned!!