….this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is circle
WPC – Circle
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Category Archives: Art
Bench Series #49
….. for the month of December Jude from Travel Words challenges us to post a bench of our choice
When I saw that I could post a photo of any bench that I liked I remembered coming across two very unusual benches in the park that I frequently walk through. These two benches are part a memorial garden for the former patients of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital that closed its doors in the late 1970s. They look more like sculptures but you can sit on them.
Imaginary Creatures Created From Sidewalk Cracks
….I can’t tell you how much my students loved going outside and sketching the cracks in the pavement
Today my grade two students took their favourite sidewalk crack and using it as the starting point drew an imaginary creature. I can’t take credit for this idea. I’m taking an on-line class with Carla Sonheim called Imaginary Creatures and one of the assignments was to pull out images from cracks anywhere you could them.
Here are some of the creatures that my grade two class created today. I included two of the original cracks that inspired the finished project. I hope you enjoy them!
Blindly Drawing Lines to Create an Abstract Masterpiece
….with their eyes closed my students started to draw lines randomly across their paper
I didn’t want students to have a preconceived idea of what they wanted to draw so I asked them to close their eyes, and start drawing one continuous line all over their paper. When they opened their eyes they were allowed to add some more line if there was a lot of untouched space or if some of the shapes that they created were very large.
They rotated their paper to see which way they wanted to orientate their design and then they chose a variety of pencil crayon colours. I encouraged them to start with one colour and fill in spaces in different areas of the paper. Then they moved on to the next colour and then the next. When they had used all their colours they re-examined their work and decided where more colour was needed and determined if it was balanced.
After all the colour had been added I suggested to some that they go over some of the same areas again so that the shapes were fully covered. Once that was done they were allowed to take a black fine point Sharpie and start adding some line detail to their shapes. Some students found animal shapes and added eyes, noses and scales, while others made random lines and dashes.
I think they did an amazing job. These samples were done by my grade 1 and grade 2 classes.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge – Horizons and Horizontal Lines
….week 6 of Cee’s new photo challenge
Starry Nights in Oil Pastel and Watercolour
….children in grades one, two and three create their own version of Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night
Once again I was inspired by Carla Sonheim’s Free Kids Online Art Classes. In week two Diane Culhane introduced the kids to a crayon resist night sky.
The children loved how the watercolour brought up the crayon designs, especially the white marks. They also loved sprinkling salt over their creations. The concept of cutting out a black silhouette of a city or country skyline was a bit more challenging, especially for the grade ones. Here’s a collection of paintings created by my grade two class.
Warm and Cool Picasso Dogs
….this will be the last group of Picasso Dogs that I post
Carla Sonheim has inspired me to teach my students about Picasso. Each grade level was approached slightly differently to meet the curriculum expectations for that grade. This gallery of Picasso Dogs was done by my grade three class and the emphasis was on cool and warm colours.
How Would You Look if You Played a Part in the New Peanuts Movie?
…..this is fun to play with
Chris Donner over at Cee’s Photography introduced my to Get Peanutized. The new Peanuts movie is coming out this November and this website lets you create your own Peanuts Character. Of course I had to have long blonde hair and those cool red heart shaped glasses. I also loved school so my setting is in front of the lockers with my sidekick, Snoopy. Give it a try!
Grade 2s Love Their Picasso Dogs
….same process as the grade 1s but we learned how to mix primary colours to make secondary colours
Thanks to Carla Sonheim’s free kids on-line classes for this terrific lesson.
Click on each image to get the entire picture.
Finger Painting Brings Out the Child in Me
…thanks to Carla’s recent on-line mini class in finger painting
Using only your hands to paint is very liberating. I loved the simplicity of it and the feel of the paint on my fingers. I’m hoping to do more and I haven’t even tackled the third assignment that let’s you get really messy.
The first assignment was to create a palette of colours using your fingers to mix the paint and apply them to the paper. The second part was to paint a vase of flowers but I decided to use two of my photographs that I recently posted and try to recreate them with this finger painting technique. Jill Kuhn actually gave me the idea after she commented on the first photo, suggesting that I paint it with watercolours. Instead, I used acrylics and my fingers. What do you think?
