Self-Portraits

The 8th graders have been busy working on their self-portrait project. I love this project! We start by making a 20 step value scale and then I take the kids’ photos. We put a grid over their photos and then grid a large piece of paper. They actually draw the entire picture with the grid and then paint the project with acrylic paint in a monochromatic (one color) color scheme. I have had several students in the past come back and tell me that they have their self-portrait framed and hanging in their homes! These may end up hanging in homes soon!

Art Appreciation

The students in Art Appreciation have been doing some of the neatest presentations on their art movements! We’ve learned how to create Prezi’s and Animoto’s. Some kids have even gone further with technology and have learned a cool program called, XtraNormal. All of these programs are on line and really neat to use. As a class, we’ve agreed that Animoto’s can’t be any easier to use and they create really nice slideshows of anything! Some of the kids have even used the program to create a slideshow of their family photos!

Animal Collage

The 7th graders recently chose an animal and created a believable environment for them to be in. Then, we made the project out of different papers and such. I liked these so well that all of them are hanging in the building. Here are some pictures of some that I thought turned out very nice! Joey’s snake even moves! Great job kids!

One Point Perspective

In 7th grade we learn about one point perspective by creating a room and then “building” furniture to go in the room. The kids each have a theme for their room and have some basic requirements. These rooms turned out very nice!

Color Wheel

The 6th graders walked through creating a color wheel as I taught them step-by-step how to properly mix each color. To make sure they know how to make all the colors, I only buy the primary colors. When I grade them, the student has to have all of the correct colors in the correct order and is also graded on the creativity of their project. I thought these turned out really nice!

I love teaching the 8th graders how to create a 2 point perspctive city! These usually turn out very nice and look so much more complicated than they really are. In class, we work on going step-by-step drawing the buildings and I show them a few tricks to create the windows, signs, etc. Then, the kids have a few days to add all of their special touches. I just love what Maddie did with One Direction!

The 6th graders just learned about learning how to draw a person in correct proportion. We used a drawing technique called, gestures. Gestures are a nice change for the students because they previously worked on showing lots of details in their still-life drawings, and gestures require very few details. Here are a few of my favorites!!