All Categories - P. S. 31 is Art Smart!

Contour Lines

9/29/2016

2nd graders are learning about the element of LINE. Line is so important to start the school year off with because lines are literally the basis of every drawing, painting and photograph etc. In the last couple of classes, we have discussed in review the many different forms of line. A very important type of line when it comes to art is contour line. Contour line essentially is the outline of an object. Searching for the contour line of an object while drawing helps the artist to REALLY look at the object they are creating and drawing in detail. 2nd grade students began by practicing finding contour lines through a worksheet in which they traced the actual image using a pencil. From their they transferred the lines from the worksheet onto a page in their sketchbooks. After we became pro's at finding contour lines, we set up a still life at every table. A still life is used by artists to depict mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects. In this case, we used school and art supplies. The students drew from life , meaning they had to really look at the objects they were drawing and created a contour line still life. We learned that if objects are blocking one another, we need to draw them behind or in front of one other. The students drew their still lifes using a white pencil on black paper. To finish these projects the students will add color to their contour lines by tracing what they have already drawn with the appropriate color.

Click here to view the contour line work sheet the students completed.

Contour Line Worksheet

Sketchbooks

9/29/2016

2nd Grade is currently creating the cover of their very own, hand made sketchbook! Sketchbooks are like an artists journal or notebook. 3rd graders will be utilizing these sketchbooks for taking notes, creating preliminary sketches or drawings and during "free-draw" time. On the cover of these sketchbooks, students have created a drawing of their choosing to decorate their sketchbooks. Some students have created a beautiful abstract drawings by just using colors and lines as their artwork and others have created a representational drawing of something of their choice. Sketchbooks are a great way to store ideas, drawings and notes about artists and artworks that they are learning about to later refer to after leaving 2nd grade.

Learning objectives: Techniques in using watercolors, listening to guided instruction.

ART WORDS:
Sketchbook: a journal or book used for ideas and drawings by artists.

2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR

9/29/2016

Welcome back students and welcome to PS31q to any of our new students! I am so excited to get creating in the art room! This year we will be looking even more closely at the foundations of art, the elements of design! We will also look at some of the more difficult foundations that are called the Principles of design. In each lesson we will be learning about a different element or principle as well as learning about some artists too! I can't wait to get messy with you all!

Folk Art Landscapes

10/28/2015

To begin, the students were introduced to the artwork of the Folk Artists. In the presentation, we google image searched Folk Art from different cultures and they identified the different shapes, lines, colors and patterns that they see in in the artwork. They then created a pattern grid in their sketchbooks that they will later use in the creation of their Folk Art landscapes. During the next class, students brainstormed all the different types of landscapes that they can think of. They then began to simplify a landscape by creating a drawing that is using only simple shapes. Inside those shapes they then used their pattern grids to fill those shapes with different patterns. After they finished their drawing, they colored in the shapes of their patterns, playing close attention to the fact that color is an important factor in creating a pattern. They will also use the oil pastels to color in solid areas of color in their shapes to add contrast. The students then completed their artworks by painting their backgrounds using watercolors. When they have completed this task they will create a story about their landscapes in a written assignment.

Click on some of the images we looked at during our google search below:

Sketchbooks

10/28/2015

Students started the year by discovering themselves through art through creating the cover of a sketchbook. The students created a drawing of themselves through the use of a symbolic self-portrait. They will use the space of the cover to create a drawing of all the things they love in the effort to describe who they are as a person. This drawing will be used as the cover of their sketchbooks in which all note, sketches, writings and free draws will be stored throughout the entire year. By the end of the school year, the students will be able to take this sketchbook home to use as reference the following year in 3rd grade.

Japanese Hand Scrolls

1/30/2015

Our 2nd graders have been introduced to the Japanese history of creating hand scrolls. After researching on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage, we came to learn that Japanese paintings come in a variety of ways, including large screens used to partition a room, hanging scrolls that are displayed against a wall, and bound books and albums. The illustrated handscroll or emaki, has traditionally been a format that is particularly used for narrative painting. Like a book, a handscroll is an intimate object that is held in the hands and is ideally viewed by only a few people at a time. Composed of sheets of paper or silk joined horizontally and rolled around a dowel, handscrolls are rolled open one segment at a time, in sections about two feet long. We also spoke about some of the images on the website and how each one told a story. On the MET's page, each of the images accompanied an explanation of the scrolls and what each image means. Before I read them to the class, we tried together to figure out the narrative on each. Cherry Blossoms are one of Japan's most famous tree's and we looked a little further into the meaning of them. We learned that there are several varieties of the cherry blossom tree, and while most of them produce flowering branches full of small pinkish-hued flowers, some of them produce actual cherries. In Japan, the cherry blossom is more than just a beautiful flowering tree. There are thousands upon thousands of cherry blossom trees in Japan, and each year the Japanese people closely anticipate and follow the blossoming of the trees. When the trees are in bloom, people come in large groups with their families and friends to view the flowers and to enjoy festivals with food and music.
The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it also short. When the cherry blossom trees bloom for a short time each year in brilliant force, they serve as a visual reminder of how precious life is. So, when Japanese people come together to view the cherry blossom trees and marvel at their beauty, they aren't just thinking about the flowers themselves, but also about the larger meaning and deep cultural tradition the cherry blossom tree.
The students were then given a 9" x 18" piece of white paper, they used a wash of watercolors or chalk pastels in 3 different sections to create a sunset. Once their paintings were dry they were given "india ink", which is what was used to make Japanese Handscrolls, (in our case just some black tempera paint and water mixed together) a straw and an eye dropper. They used the eye dropper to squeeze out little puddles of "ink" onto their paper and blew into the straws to create the branches of their own cherry blossom trees. They then will mix together some red and white paint and paint on their flowers to their branches. A finishing touch will be to add the dowels and a red stamp of a Japanese Iconic stamp to create a beautiful handscroll.

Learning objectives: Multimedia art, Japanese Art History, internet research.

ART WORDS:
Wash: watered down water colors to create a tint of a color.
India ink: type of ink used to create Japanese Handscrolls.

Here's the link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage that we used to research Japanese Handscrolls:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jilh/hd_jilh.htm

Cubist self- portraits: Pablo Picasso

11/14/2014

2nd graders have been introduced to the artist, Pablo Picasso. Through a powerpoint presentation, we have studied the life and artwork of one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century. The students were then introduced to Cubism, the art movement in which Picasso was one of the creators. Cubism is the art technique of creating images that have been rearranged into geometric shapes to create an abstract artwork. The students discussed what they thought Cubism was and we revisited how this type of abstract was different from the abstract artwork that other artists create, like Piet Mondrain. (whose artwork they studied last year.) Picasso created representational abstract which just means we know what the image is but still, it doesn't look like real life. Non-representational artwork like that of Piet Mondrain is a compilation of just colors, shapes and lines and doesn't resemble anything is real life. The students were then given a piece of paper and with first a pencil, were guided through a drawing of how to create a portrait. This is a self-portrait, so they were able to make changes to their portraits according to how they look. The students were given the option of different ways of drawing facial features (frontal nose, side nose, open mouth, closed mouth etc.) and created somewhat of an abstract portrait. When their drawings are finalized, the students will outline their drawings in black sharpie and color them in using oil pastels with bright colors, not natural to normal colors.(Picasso often used bright colors and hard black lines in his portraits.) They will then paint their backgrounds with watercolor paints. Once their portraits are complete, they will cut them up into 4 equal parts and rearrange them onto another piece of paper. Picasso was able to do this in his head without cutting while he painted a portrait of someone believe it or not! The result will be a bright colored, Picasso inspired, self portrait! Stay tuned for images of their process...

Learning objectives: Art History, Drawing, painting, collage, guided drawing.

ART WORDS:
Cubism: the art technique of creating images that have been rearranged into geometric shapes to create an abstract artwork.
Non-representational (abstract): artwork that completely consists of only line shapes and colors and resembles nothing of real life.
Representational (abstract): we know what the image is but it is distorted or created with colors that are not like real life. (i.e. a portrait of someone with purple skin.)

Value Extension- Value Scale

10/21/2014

I was so incredibly impressed by the 2nd graders this week. They created what is called a value scale using pencil and 1 single color. My friends who teach in the High-school level told me that their 9TH GRADERS have a problem with this! Well, our 2nd graders got this without me even repeating a word! As a page in their sketchbooks, the students were given a value scale sheet. After a demonstration with a light, a cube, a cone and a sphere to show that when light hits something directly, it actually changes the color of the object it is projected on. They first took a pencil and shaded a gradient chart from dark to light and then picked one crayon color to do the same. The students learned that you can change a color just by adding or taking away pressure to the pencil or crayon. On the bottom of this sheet was a cone, a sphere and a cube that they had to shade in with pencil or a crayon as well. Value, which is one of the principals of design, is used in art to create a 3D look to something that of course is 2D. It creates an illusion that an object has volume and isn't flat.

Learning Objective: Value, value scale, shading from dark to light

ART WORDS:
Value: The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes is called middle gray.
light source: the sun, a light in a room, a lamp etc.
shading: the process used in drawing for depicting levels of darkness on paper by pressing harder for a darker shade for darker areas, and less pressure for a lighter shade for lighter areas.
value scale: A scale or gradient that shows the change of a color from dark to light or light to dark.

Value Pumpkins

10/10/2014

2nd graders have moved from color mixing to working on the value of one color. I like to start talking about value as early as the 2nd grade to gear them up for learning about color theory in depth in 4th grade. In the theme of the fall season, students are walked through a guided drawing of a pumpkin on black paper. We then discussed what the word value means in art vocabulary. When light hits an object, in theory, the color changes to the eye in a lighter shade of that color. The further away it gets from that light, the darker the color. After outlining their drawings of the pumpkin in black oil pastels, the students were given 4 different "shades" of orange. (sienna brown, orange, yellow and peach) Starting from the darkest the students colored in their pumpkins, using oil pastels, in a gradient to the top of their pumpkins. They mixed the colors by overlapping them. They then were given to shades of green for the stem and white for the stars/moon in which they rubbed to get that glowing effect. They used the green or brown to create a grass or dirt area in which the pumpkins are laying in and mixed black into those colors to make a drop shadow of the pumpkin. I was truly impressed with the way these came out! The students did a great job! And they make for a beautiful halloween/ fall display in our lobby.

Learning Objectives: Value, color theory

ART WORDS:
Value: shading or the gradient of a color from light to dark according to a light source.
Shadow: a dark area or shape produced by a body coming between rays of light and a surface.

Color Mixing Cirlces

9/19/2014

2nd graders were introduced to color mixing. As 1st graders last year, students were introduced to primary and secondary colors. In this lesson, students paint overlapping circles with all different colors. Where the circles overlap, the colors mix. Using a circle template, students traced circles that overlapped each other. (I usually refrain from using any sorts of templates, but making a perfect circle by hand was not an intricate part of this lesson and would be more time consuming.) Students used water colors to paint the entire circle one color and then paint the one beside it another color, painting over the area where the circles overlap. This caused the colors to mix right before their eyes, almost like magic! By now the students understand that primary colors mix into secondary colors but during this lesson, analogous (colors next to each other on the color wheel) and intermediate (colors across from each other on the color wheel) colors were introduced. This lesson is a bridge to the next lesson where they will use these colors for their next project. Analogous and intermediate colors were not studied in depth, just introduced. We get a much more detailed look at those colors in older grades. It was really great to see the students experimenting and speaking to their table-mates about what colors they were using and what colors they were getting when mixing them! Like little scientists!

Learning Objective: Color theory.

ART WORDS:
Primary Colors: colors that cannot be mixed. (red, yellow, blue)
Secondary Colors: colors that are created when mixing the primary colors. (orange, green, purple)
Analogous Colors: Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel (red-violet, red-orange, blue-green, blue-violet, yellow-green)
Intermediate/Tertiary colors: colors across from each other on the color wheel that when mixed are brown.
Overlapping: when one line cross or goes over another.