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

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

Creative Color: Warm and Cool Chalk Landscapes

On the first day in Creative Color we explored the fundamentals of the color wheel, specifically warm and cool colors.  We learned to identify which colors were cool "ice" colors (blue, purple, green, turquoise) and which were warm "fire" colors (red, orange, yellow). 

We started by using a black oil pastel to draw mountains and hills on black construction paper.  We then drew concentric circles in the sky to create a moon or a sun.  Next, we decided if we'd like warm land and a cool sky, or the opposite--both yield fantastic results!  We used vibrant soft chalk pastels to thickly color each shape.  The bold colors really pop on the black paper.  Finally we retraced our black lines with oil pastels.

Thanks to Patty for sharing this lesson on her fabulous blog, Deep Space Sparkle . Be sure to check out her website, as it has many creative, colorful art projects to do at home!

Here are some finished results...enjoy!

Marlee

                 
 Roman                                                                    

                                                                              

Emily

                                   

Emmalee

                                                        

Erin

    Sydney

Miss Vanessa