Art Club 2012

My art club this year is comprised of five 5th graders, a second grader and a third grader.  My second and third graders are painting desserts.

2nd Grad (work in progress)

3rd Grade (work in progress)

The fifth grade students are creating scale drawings of American monuments/landmarks. First,  googled pictures of the monuments/landmark that they wanted to paint. I printed them out in color and and then they created a half an inch grid on the picture after I made them figure out the math. We also watched a video about how to create an artwork using the grid process. Once they completed the grid, they drew the pictures on the 18x24 grid canvas I received this year. We got as close to scale as we possibly could and they have been working diligently ever since to get their pictures to look accurate.

Wayne Thiebaud Inspired Dessert Paintings

My 6th and 7th grade elective class spent the past month working on Wayne Thiebaud inspired desserts. To accomplish this goal we discussed pattern, light, shadow, and forms. Then, we watched the following youtube videos: 

Wayne Overview we watched this one for a brief overview of his life and art. This video was created by a teacher for her class. I loved the way she broke everything down. 

Thiebaud 1 : This video helped to establish Wayne Teiebaud as a real person for my students. I believe it also encouraged them to realize that they can make a career creating or doing what they are passionate about. 

Ater we watched the videos I printed out several pictures of desserts for them to choose from. They spent two-three days sketching out their favorite dessert. Next, we spent a couple of days talking about perspective, and drawing shapes and forms at, below, or above the horizon line. Then we created a project rubric for the paintings. 

The class agreed on the following artwork parameters: 

To get an A each artwork must contain: 

• at least 3 desserts 
• shadow and highlights
• repetition and pattern
• a horizon line

Each parameter was worth 20 points and they earned four points a day (during the five class periods I allowed them to paint) for proper use of materials and cleaning up.

Below are some of their paintings. 

Plaster Gauze Masks

The students in my 8th grade elective class are currently creating plaster gauze masks. I began the assignment by doing an overview of face masks. We also looked at several examples on line. After discussing the masks and looking a several cultures who use masks the students designed masks using face templates. The students designed their own masks. I didn't want to limit their creativity so I allowed them to choose what type of mask they wanted to create. Most of them decided to create animal masks. 

I was initially going to make the mask forms on their faces but, I decided against it especially since they are in pubescent and the thought of putting all that vaseline on their faces was a bad idea. So I purchased some mask forms. 

Stage 1: Creating the basic mask forms: After they created the basic face mold they added on features using cardboard and newspaper and covered it in additional layers of plaster gauze.

Stage 2: Creating their images and painting it with gesso. 

Once they were happy with the way their masks looked we had a class critique and they offered suggestions and comments to help each other. The next day the students made adjustments and we covered the masks in several layers of acrylic gesso this took about two class sessions. Once they were dry the students started to draw their designs on their masks. 

Stage 3: Painting on their designs on their masks using acrylic paint:
In this stage of the process the students are starting to see their results and are really excited. So excited they don;t want to leave at the end of the class period. (I have this class at the end of the day so they really don't want to go home most of the time. It's flattering but I also run two after school activities so it make it hard for me to do my other jobs).

Stage 4: Class critique #2: 

We are going to have a class critique of their works in progress. I believe this is necessary for them to iron out the kinks and get awesome final projects. They are really doing a good job so far. 

Here are the final pieces, they came out really great.