4th graders are revisiting an Art Movement that was studied in 3rd grade, except this time with a different artist. Last year we studied the artwork of Victor Vasarely, one of the founders of the art movement of Op Art. This year we are studying the artwork and the life of the artist Bridget Riley who was the Co-founder of Op Art. I think it is super important to study different artists within the same art movement because even though they are creating the same type of art, each artist has their own style. Being female in a predominantly male world at the time gave Bridget Riley major importance. In this art project students will create an artwork inspired by Bridget Riley's more organic style of Op Art. Students will create an optical illusion equipped with words that describe themselves giving this a little bit more personality (pun intended!).

Click here to watch the process of this project in this short video I created for your viewing pleasure!
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Here is a documentary based on Bridget Riley's influences and her creating her work in her studio as well as a powerpoint the students received while researching the artist. 

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! ​

​Students began by being introduced to the technique of one point perspective through a PowerPoint presentation of the artworks created by the inventors of this art technique. (Michelangelo, DaVinci and Raphael.)The students will understand that one-point perspective is creating artwork that is based on what the eye sees. The students will then create a 3D drawing of a cube and other shapes using a vanishing point and horizon line. During the next class the students will use their knowledge of one-point perspective and set up their papers for their own one-point perspective artworks through a guided drawing. They then will continue to draw the “ceiling” and floors of their one-point perspective drawings. After they have completed this component they will draw in their fish. The fish can be realistic or imaginary as long as they get smaller as they get closer to the vanishing point. They will then finish their drawings by using 2 different colors of blue to paint their “water” using color value to create more dimension within their artwork. 

ART WORDS:
One Point Perspective: What is Perspective?

• Drawing scenes in perspective means drawing them the way your eyes see them.
• Objects look smaller the further away they are.
• Far away objects will appear smaller and faded.

 
Artists used mathematics and close observation to invent linear perspective. Linear perspective allows artist to trick the eye into seeing depth on a flat surface.
 
Influential artists that were the first to use perspective:

• Michelangelo
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Raphael

click on the images below to see the artwork of these artists that we analyzed.

4th grade students were introduced to the still-life. A still-life is something that an artist sets up as a reference to draw or paint what he or she sees. We google searched still life drawings and paintings and discussed the differences and similarities amongst the ones we had seen. We also looked into the artist Pablo Picasso, who created monochromatic paintings depending on his emotion. The students were given the choice of a still-life to draw that was displayed on their tables. The students sketch out exactly what they are seeing in the still life in a contour line drawing onto bristol board. Using their knowledge of the color wheel, the students will then create a monochromatic painting, using tints and shades created by mixing one single color and gradually adding black and white to the color. 

Learning Objectives: Art History, still-life preparation and drawing, monochromatic painting, tints, shades.

ART WORDS:
Tint: Adding white to a color to create different varieties of that color.
Shade: adding black to a color to create different varieties of that color. 

4th grade students have begun to explore the element of color. Color theory is an extremely important part of art. The students have created color wheels beginning with mixing their primary colors to get their secondary colors. Once this dried, they then added in between their primary and secondary colors; their intermediate or tertiary colors. These are mixed using a secondary color with a primary color. On another sheet of paper, the students experimented with tints and shades. Tints are created by gradually adding white into one color and shades are created by adding black gradually into one color. The students will be using their knowledge of color in an extension lesson to this in order to create a monochromatic painting.

Primary colors: red, blue, yellow
Secondary colors: green, violet, orange
Intermediate/tertiary colors: blue-violet, blue-green, red-orange, yellow-orange, red-violet, yellow-green

4th grade have been introduced to yet another Pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was also creating artwork throughout the 50's and 60's, alongside Andy Warhol. Through a powerpoint presentation, the students learned about the life and artwork of the New York artist and we reviewed the the art movement of Pop Art. Lichtenstein was best known for his huge renditions of comic book characters and his use of Ben Day Dots. Not only did he create portraits and stories of people but he used the landscapes he found in comic strips that set the scene for the characters. 3rd grade students in conjunction are also learning about Roy Lichtenstein and are creating landscapes to set the scene for the 4th graders portraits. After the presentation, the students were told that they had to come up with a sentence of an action or expression. I then took pictures of the students creating an expression for their sentence. The students were given a print out of their image to use as a reference when creating their self portrait. The normal procedure for creating a self portrait is to use a mirror to look at yourself but it is not an easy task. They were then given a 12"x 18" paper after some guided instruction of how to properly create a self portrait. The students then got to work in creating a drawing of themselves using pencils. Lichtenstein often used very simple shapes and hard black lines. The students began their drawings in pencil and will finish them in a black outline with sharpie. Once those drawings have been finalized, the students will create dots inside some of the shapes they have created in their self portrait drawing using oil pastels and will paint over them using the same color watercolor paint. To complete their compositions, the students have created a sentence that they will put into a speech bubble to represent the emotion they are displaying in their facial features. Lichtenstein was famous for his speech bubbles and usage of words in his artwork. 

Learning objectives: Pop Art, art history, ben day dots, comic strips, word association, displaying expression through art.

ART WORDS:
Ben-Day dots: printing process, named after illustrator and printer Benjamin HenryDay, Jr., is a technique dating from 1879. Depending on the effect, color and optical illusion needed, small colored dots are closely spaced, widely spaced or overlapping inside of a shape.
Pop Art Movement: art based on modern popular culture and the mass media, especially as a critical or ironic comment on traditional fine art values.
Self portrait: a drawing, painting or artwork of a portrait of oneself.

Click on the link below to see the powerpoint presentation the students received in class.

4th grade students have been introduced to the Pop Art movement and one of it's most important artist's and creator's, Andy Warhol. The students were introduced to his life and art during a powerpoint presentation. It was discussed how Warhol's main intention was to create art for the masses by the masses. He did this by creating many art prints of the same image over and over using the art technique of printmaking. This caused the viewer to be unaware of which image was the original, decreasing the value of each artwork at the time. In this lesson, the students will be creating their own Andy Warhol inspired prints using the block printing technique. The students have sketched an image that symbolizes them into their sketchbooks. Once that image has been finalized, they transfer the contour line drawing of their image onto a styrofoam printing plate using a pencil to etch in the lines. In the style of Pop Art, students will be using bright colored printing ink and paper and will print multiple prints of that same image. The students will roll printing ink onto their styrofoam plate using a brayer and then pressing that plate onto a piece of paper. The students will then put together multiple prints to make a final outcome. 

Learning Objectives: Line, printmaking techniques and processes, creating an artwork in the style of an artist and art movement. 

ART WORDS:
Printmaking: the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.
Pop Art Movement: an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc.
Brayer: a roller used in the process of creating a print in the art medium printmaking.

Click on the link below to view the powerpoint presentation the students received on this artist and art movement. 
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