Moonlight Snow

Students learned firsthand about creating distance and shadows in artwork with this beautiful snowy landscape project. After viewing several famous winter wonderland paintings, Miss Newman taught students how to create different types of trees (in varying sizes to convey distance) as well as fence posts weaving through the land. Shadows were added according to the location of the light source, and fresh snow (white paint) finished off these peaceful, moon lit winter wonderlands.

 



The Great Wave Line Study by Kindergarten

Kindergarteners studied the famous work by Hokusai  titled, “The Great Wave” before creating their own great wave inspired by the lines and movement in the original work. 

Artists identified various lines on their own copy of the artwork and we named the lines together as a class. Students found curvy, jagged, pointed and wavy lines. Artists outlined the various lines we found on the smart board, too. 

We identified clues in the painting that told us the wave was probably off the coast of Japan (the Japanese signature in the corner) and found hidden fisherman boats maneuvering through the thrashing waves of this tsunami painted nearly 200 years ago. A small mountain was also discovered behind the huge thrashing waves. Students learned that this tiny mountain, is actually the infamous Mount Fiji. How small it seems in comparison to the waves!
 

 

Students were instructed to create movement in their wave emphasizing the dynamic power of water using line and color techniques.

2nd Grade Piet Mondrian Cities from Above

Second grade students were introduced to the painting “Broadway Boogie Woogie” without much context. What could it be?! Elevators, roads, buildings, a video game, bugs and a map were all things that we came up with.

In fact, the artist, Piet Mondrian, was inspired to create this painting after moving to New York City! It is a bird’s eye view or aerial view of a city. The artist used a vibrant palette of only primary colors, black, and white. We used just the same.

The primary colors are the three core colors that cannot be mixed (red, blue and yellow. )They mix to create all of the other colors in the color wheel.

Student artwork to come.

 

We used square and rectangular pieces of cardboard  to design a horizontal and vertical overlapping building composition with tempera paint and oil pastels before using paper to collage over the top for details. Some of our details include roof top swimming pools, restaurants, gardens, lounge chairs, air conditioning units, helicopter landing pads, yellow taxis, bus stops, and more!


Here is a link to an interactive animated version of the painting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b85UBqUy28

1st Grade Monster Poster Design Inspired by Dallas Clayton

First grade artists were read “An Awesome Book” written and illustrated by Dallas Clayton. The book was an inspiring narrative and illustrative tale about dreaming big and changing the world with our dreams and behaviors towards others.

We discussed authors, illustrators and publishers and their job descriptions. Using the theme and outlandish illustrations of the book as inspiration, students designed a poster of their own original creature or monster with a positive message. Students learned about the purposes of signs, posters in the media industry and how graphic designers and artists create specifically to communicate an idea or message to people. 

 The messages your children came up with for their posters are awe inspiring!