Artreach...creates: October 2009

Comments are Welcome!

I hope that all PA Cyber students and families are enjoying the wonderful opportunity to view the ArtReach gallery and blog! I encourage you all to comment on the work and post your thoughts of the topics we explore. To protect the privacy of this blog, you are required to be a member to post a comment. You can do this by setting up a Gmail account. A Gmail account is also needed to become a blogspot member--you can even start blogging yourself! It's a great way to stay connected to friends and family. Once you're a member, you can become of a follower of ArtReach Creates as well.

Thanks to everyone who views the blog on a regular basis. Also thanks to everyone who donated recycled items: newspaper, containers, bottles...etc. I am anticipating jumping into some 3-D projects in the future!

Rouault's Royalties

In Creative Color we completed our very first painting project, which was inspired by Georges Rouault. Rouault was a French expressionist painter who began his artistic career as a stained glass maker. His paintings are very much inspired by the vibrant colored glass, which is separated by bold black lead lines. The subject matter of Rouault's paintings often focused on royal courts and other important people. The first picture, "Old King," is currently on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art!

Using Rouault's technique and subject matter to inspired us, we used the kings, queens, and jacks of several decks of cards to guide our paintings. Playing cards have exceptional detail and each deck is different, so they are great to practice your keen observation skills!

Supplies:

Face Cards from decks of playing cards

Canvas Panels

Acrylic Paint

Palettes or disposable plates

Brushes

1. Since these paintings were highly detailed, sketches were carefully drawn directly--and lightly for easy erasing--on the canvas panels. We only drew the top half of the card, rather than doing two faces, so they would look like portraits instead of cards in the end.

2. For this painting project our goal was to apply the paint to look like vibrant. swirling stained glass windows. We double and tripled dipped our brushes into several analogous colors--like red, orange, and yellow--and swirled them onto our canvases. This created a unique marbled effect.

3. After we painted our entire king, queen, or jack, we outlined all the details in black paint to emulate stained glass leading.

Here are some pictures of our works in progress.

Here are the "Royal" Results!

Emmalee

Erin

Hannah

Emily

Roman

Sydney

Giraffes Can't Dance!

In Art Through Children's Literature we read a humorous and heartwarming story called Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. This book tells of the story of a clumsy giraffe named Gerald who's legs are too skinny. The jungle is hosting a dance, and all of the other animals can do the tango, the waltz, and really groove. Gerald isn't the best dancer and the other animals tease him and this makes him very sad. A kind cricket plays Gerald some special music, and he realizes that sometimes if you're different, you just need a different song.

This story sends out a great message that you can excel and enjoy who you are even if, at first, the world does not play your tune. Additionally, it ecourages the validation and acceptance of a child who feels different--which is always a great message! Dance on!

Supplies:

White sulphite paper 12"x18" and 9"x12"

Colored Pencils

Tempera paint: blue, purple, white, green, yellow

Black Sharpies

Scissors

Glue Sticks

This project was completed in only two one hour sessions!

1. We began by creating a fabulous nighttime background for our giraffes to dance in. First using cups, we traced a moon on 12"x18" white sulphite paper with a pencil. Then in the bottom portion we drew a ground line where the grass would be/

2. Next we used purple, blue, and turquoise tempera paint to add a luxurious night sky. We painted everything but the moon and grass.

3. We painted the moon white and then swirled the paint outwards to make the moon glow into the night sky. We even added a few stars.

4. Then we painted the grass yellow. We counted to 100 together to allow the yellow to dry and then added green paint on top. We turned our brushes upside down and use the ends to scratch in some grass texture. Some students were not present during this part, therefore, they used oil pastels on black paper to create their nighttime backgrounds.

Day two:

1. The next class we tackled the daunting task of learning how to draw a dancing giraffe. We started with a simple oval shape for the belly. I demonstrated how to make the giraffe dance in two poses, standing and doing a somersault. Basically as long as the giraffe had 4 skinny legs, a long neck, and spots you were on the right track!

2. After drawing our dancing giraffes, we colored them with colored pencils using mostly yellow and orange. We outlined details like eyes, mouths and hooves in black sharpies.

3. We carefully cut them out and glued them to our backgrounds.

Here are our dancing giraffes--the children are so proud of these!

Jake Eddie

Chloe Victoria

Gaia Megan

William Yula

Luke Maddie

Adric Meredith

Nicholas Miss Vanessa

Creative Creatures

In Dynamic Drawing we discussed how making art and becoming a good artist requires much problem solving and tapping into our creative energies. Just as one must practice, stretch, and condition to play a sport or become a good dancer, we must "exercise" our art skills to become better artists! Using the following creative exercise worksheet, we were given the problem of using 12 artistic elements (simple designs) to make 7 unique and dynamic creatures. These creatures or characters must interact within a specific scene or habitat.

1. Students used pencils to lay out their characters and their background scene.

2. Next we practiced our colored pencil skills. I stressed the importance of heavily laying down the pigment and coloring in the same direction. We also practiced blending colors that were close to each other on the color wheel to add highlights and shadows. For example, yellow can make a realistic highlight on a green creature, while dark blue can make a great shadow.

3. For the finishing touch and to make our creatures "pop" we used black fine tipped sharpies to outline.

Hailey

Grace

Gaia

Brayden

Heather

Kenna

Yula

Maggie

Anne

Natalie

Kenna (she did 2!)

Miss Vanessa

In the Small, Small Pond

In Art Through Children's Literature we explored pond life by reading In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming. In this vibrantly illustrated Caldecott Award Winner, we looked closely at the pictures to learn about all the different animals that live in and around ponds. This book travels through the seasons, and explains where animals go in the winter. Each illustration features sounds that animals make such as splashing fish and wiggling tadpoles, so it's a really fun book to read!

This project was fun, easy and only took one class!

Supplies:

11"x 15" Watercolor Paper

Oil Pastels
Watercolors

After reading, each student picked an animal (or a few) that lived in or near a pond to draw using oil pastels on watercolor paper.
They were encouraged to add a pond habitat that included water, greenery, and a sky for their animals to live in.
We finished these pond paintings by adding watercolors to the water, sky, and land.