Ms. Edwards' Art Room

Andy Warhol's art was the inspiration for these next two projects. The classes learned about Andy's life and work and looked at many of his pieces. We focused on the pieces that used the same image and repeated it over and over in different colors. One class brainstormed pop images from their lives and came up with many modern subjects including recent technology, popular people and popular foods. After drawing a final copy in sharpie they were copied four times. Eacj copy had to be colored in using a different color scheme. We talked about different ways to group colors including color families, primary, secondary and tertiary and analogous colors. They used one color group for the image and a different one for the background. Other classes used images of endangered animals for their subject. These classes looked at Andy Warhol's endangered animal prints and brainstormed different endangered animals. They drew a rough draft or the animal of their choice and had to create

"The Dancer" One fifth grade learned about the human figure and proportions of the body. They practiced drawing each other using gesture drawings, quick drawings without much detail. After picking a specific action pose, each student posed for another and sketched out the form. We discussed wire techniques and they started bending and shaping the wire into their figures. When they were finished they had to create a 2-D or 3-D background for their figure. They used recycled materials to create their 3-D backgrounds and props and paper and markers for the 2-D backgrounds. Hot glue was used to attach some of the pieces and create interesting action scenes! "The Soccer player" "The Artist" "Dunking"

This project started off with a viewing of Ms. Edwards' Insect collection. After discussing the parts of an insect we selected an insect photo and drew a rough draft. We then made a stencil out of oak tag and traced our insect many times in different positions to create an exciting composition. We reviewed what we knew about overlapping and also used it in our compositions. For color we could use either warm or cool colors for the insect and then used the opposite color family in the background. We could choose between markers, oil pastels or watercolors and crayons to color our compositions. Check them out!

After looking at many examples of Japanese Textile designs and Japanese Woodblock prints, we created a list of common subjects found in Japanese art. We talked about combining three or more subjects to create interesting compositions. We also discussed different watercolor techniques and practiced wet on wet and wet on dry. We also talked about how using crayons with watercolors could help us emphasize smaller details and important parts of our compositions. They came out beautifully!

Four fifth grades looked at the book "Foods With Moods" where the artists used fruits and vegetables and carved them into having different feelings. The book is all about feelings, and the artists used many different fruits and vegetables to convey their message. After talking about different feelings we can have and what our expressions look like when we have them, the students chose a fruit or vegetable to draw and had to give it a facial expression. After learning about mixing paints, tints, and shades the students painted their foods. They could either draw their face on another paper and cut it out or paint around the face they drew on their final. We also talked about texture and some students used sponges to give texture while other painted on ridges or other details.

Two fifth grades learned about Adinkra Cloth from Ghana and the many symbols that are printed on cloth. The students picked one symbol that they identified with and learned about the process of printmaking. After drawing their symbols on a styrofoam plate the students practiced printing. They then had to make up a symbol that told me something about their personalities. They drew it on the styrofoam and printed. The final product was a copy of their first print and their personal symbol print with the meaning written below and glued to a piece of construction paper.

One lucky fifth grade class learned about contour drawing and practiced their new drawing skill on photographs of insects. They were then introduced to a bendable wire in which they were going to sculpt their insects out of. They experimented with different attaching techniques and discovered how the wire responded to different manipulations. After their insect was finished they had to create a background environment and attach their insect to it.

The fifth grades learned about the Japanese celebration of Children's Day, where parents celebrate their children by flying fish shaped windsocks outside their homes. The students designed a fish after learning about all the parts and created a scale pattern for the body. After transferring their fish to white paper they had to make two copies because they were eventually going to stuff and staple it to make it look like it was full of wind. For color, they learned about the crayon resist technique when used with watercolors. On one side of their fish they had to use warm colors for the details and cool watercolors to paint the rest of it and do the opposite color scheme on the back side. Their fish were then stuffed, stapled and hung.

Some fifth grades learned about the painter Georgia O'Keeffe and looked at many of her huge flower paintings. Using viewfinder they drew small plastic flowers and leaves very large. After practicing mixing tempera paints they painted their huge drawings.

Some fourth grades learned about the talented artist Frida Kahlo. We looked at her self-portraits and her use of symbolism. We talked about what symbols are and brainstormed some things we liked that we could use as symbols. They learned how to draw a face and practiced twice before starting a final drawing. They filled the background with symbols and places they liked.

A few fifth grade classes had a chance to experience the printmaking process. Using an animal and it's environment as a subject they created a printmaking plate on styrofoam sheets. using white ink they practiced printing on black paper. Once they got the hang of the process they experimented with different colored inks.

The second project some of the fourth grades completed was a combination of math and art! Taking what they knew about shapes from geometry we had a discussion about organic versus geometric shapes. They had to draw large organic shapes and fill them with different patterns. We then cut them out to staple onto black paper, making something 3-D that was originally 2-D.

The fourth grades started off the year by drawing underwater scenes using what they learned about overlapping, foreground, middle ground and background. They learned how to make home made scratch art and then scratched in their underwater scenes. Check them out!