My husband has hobbies too! He is really into building Legos now and he even started his own lego blog. I think the title of his blog is cute and I love the picture he put on his heading. Let me tell you, between my art related and scrapbooking hobbies and his Lego/Magic/comic book collections, we have no shortage of STUFF around here! Anyways… there are no official Lego stores in Madison where we live, but one JUST opened an … Read more…
Finally! My copy of the magazine has arrived. Featuring magazine was started by the lovely Marit in the Netherlands. It is about art journaling, mixed media and other arts. She had a call for submissions and applications to be a contributing editor and I was thrilled when my article and application were accepted. After several months of brainstorming, interviewing and writing.. plus the countless hours Marit and her husband spent with layout, editing, printing and everything else… the magazine … Read more…
Here are some more of our painted fabrics. They doodled on the muslin fabric with Sharpies… graffiti-style! Then, we used liquid watercolor paints (with a little bit of water) in spray bottles and stencils to spray over them with color. These are all going to be cut up and used in fabric collages.
I was going through my old emails and I found this one from a parent. He had told me about this at parent-teacher conferences. His daughter had made some art using backyard materials.. all natural! She is a fourth grade student and very creative. “Backyard Sushi”
The first graders made these utterly adorable birds in nests this week. We first made nests. We used tinfoil to shape a nest-like shape. Then I mixed up some goopy paper-clay and the kids covered their tinfoil nests with the goop. Little sticks, hay and pebbles were added to the goop before it dried. Here are the steps we used to make the birds.We used Crayola Model Magic. A big secret I discovered is that if you squirt hand-lotion on … Read more…
Here are some scenes from the art room this week! We are using appliance parts to build assemblages. We are painting on wet fabric and will later cut the fabrics and sew theme together for a fabric collage.
The second graders drew a bug of their choice on white paper. I had photos for reference and showed them how to use the pencil to create shading and how to blend it with a blending stub. (I call them “smudgy sticks”). Later, they cut out their bug and glued it to another background page. The students looked at this image by Louise Bourgeois and answered some discussion questions about the artwork. Then, they filled out a sheet which prompted … Read more…
I love these monochromatic rhythm paintings! The lighting was weird when I took the pictures, so I’m not sure the colors are as vibrant as they really are. We talked about rhythm in art and how to create it by repetition. The students learned how to mix shades and tints of one color. Gold was added at the end for a final touch (so in the end, I allowed them to “cheat” on the monochromatic part, but the gold adds … Read more…
For this lesson, we learned about the artist Grant Wood and his painting “American Gothic.” The kids read a magazine article about this painting (It was from the 90’s and I think from the New Yorker). The students discussed what a parody is and saw many examples of parodies of this iconic painting. Then, the students drew their own version of the “American Gothic”. I highly recommend this series of books!
We made tiles for Mother’s Day with the Kindergartners… I know it’s early, and it’s a bit crafty, but it is something the parents love to get! Here is what we did: 1. I purchased a bunch of glossy floor tiles (glazed already) at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (which is like a surplus/recycling store for building supplies). Super cheap… like 25 cents each I think. I love these tiles and they are fun to just draw on also, … Read more…
Cross-hatching is fun, but a difficult art technique (at least in my opinion). The third/fourth grade class picked out some animals from Zoobooks magazines and drew them in pencil. Then, we looked at Brian Selznick’s books for inspiration. Wonderstruck His novels are full of beautiful cross-hatched drawings, alternating with the chapters. Plus, the two books I have read by him are charming and wonderful stories. Read them! You’ll love them too, I guarantee it. They are listed below. I think … Read more…
These beautiful bird paintings were drawn and painted by first graders. The students learned about the artist John James Audubon and we read a book about his life. I love this book about Audubon, because it has beautiful pictures and ties science and art together nicely. The students looked at pictures of birds and drew them with crayons. Then we painted the background with tempera cakes. This is a lovely picture.. too bad we didn’t use thicker paper, it wrinkled … Read more…
Here are some fun pictures we made by creating our own stencils. First, the kids looked at little animal figurines for ideas. I did not limit them to drawing just the animals, so some chose to turn their animals into mythical creatures or draw something else entirely. They drew their animal on tag board, cut it out and then used that as a stencil. The students traced their animal stencil over and over again, flipping it around and arranging their … Read more…
And the winner is….. Katie Morris! Email me your address and you will get a copy of the Pick and Draw game. I went to a party at my sister-in-law’s house and they had these very cute cupcakes there!
Are you bummed because you didn’t get to go to the NAEA Conference this year? Did you go to the conference and miss a session you wanted to see because you were busy scoring free samples? Have you never heard of the NAEA conference and want to know what kinds of things go on there? The session handouts are up on the NAEA website. So, if a presenter uploaded their session powerpoints or handouts they are there. It’s a great … Read more…
