Japanese Kites & Native American Art

This has been a very culturally rich month looking at Japan and Native American art in the elementary grades. For the new year we created Japanese koi kites in 6th grade and K, and 1st grades. We looked at the national childrens day custom of flying the carp kite in honor of the family members in each home. The carp fish represents tenacity and strength in Japanese culture as it has the ability to swim against the current. Here are some finished examples...

 

The little ones made a windsock kite using tissue paper and tag board, making their koi fish more 3dimensional 

Speaking of flying objects, 7th grade is doing a beautiful job studying aerial perspective. For their first assignment we created skyscrapers from a birds eye view on the iPad. Then we used oil crayon to create a patchwork landscape with hot air balloons popping up. Here are the results 

 

Lastly, 3-5th graders have been studying Native American artwork from orca whales to dream catchers, and just recently, medicine shields. I loved learning about the animal symbolism and different superstitions of Native American culture! We could discuss the difference between worshipping the Creator vs. Creation, while still honoring the beauty of different people groups.

 

 

Junior High Art Club Update!

Grades 5-8 began the month of February creating a beautiful hot air balloon painting using acrylic on canvas. We looked at an aerial view photo of a landscape & discussed how "tints" are created by blending white into a color.

We covered our 16x20" canvases with lots of white acrylic using a wide brush and began to blend one color into our white paint with even horizontal brushstrokes. We gradually blended another color into our sky working our way toward the bottom of the canvas to create a smooth & 'airy' sky.

Most of us began penciling in our hot air balloons in different sizes to show distance. We painted each balloon in monochromatic values to show a highlight and shadow. Here is our progress! We will continue on February 18th to complete all the details...

There are many more still in progress! I am so proud of these talented artists! Amazing work 👍🎨😃✨🎈

7th Grade IPad Art

I am so impressed with the first few weeks of art class with my 7th graders! They are overflowing with so much talent this year! We began the semester using our iPad app SketchbookPro and experimenting with the tools  and multi-media options it provides. We began by uploading a picture of our eye into Sketchbook & completely covering the photograph with color & line. Here are our results!

The next week we had to create a design only using the square or circle tool in sketchbook with free reign to create what we wanted! These turned out so individually unique!

We are currently looking at aerial perspective and how to create 3D buildings from a birds eye view. Next we will venture into some aerial landscape drawings using oil crayon & pastel. Away we go! 🎈🎨✨