Fruit Monoprints

The sixth grade worked on monoprinting pictures of fruit. We first talked about how mono (monotone, monorail, monocle) means one. Usually, printmaking yields many prints (because you have a plate, from which you can print many images), but with monoprinting, it's a one-time deal. Only one print, then you start over. Also, to be successful, students had to work fast so that the paint wouldn't dry. It was a challenge for some of the more detail-oriented students!

Here's what we ended up with:

From left to right, these three avocados represent a student's first, second, and third try. Look how much better he got in just ten minutes! Amazing!

Another beautiful avocado.

 

Pear and banana.

 

 

Pineapple.

 

A (very) red apple.

Red pepper.

 

Wonderful watermelon.

 

This pictures shows the process. We painted on old transparency sheets, then pressed paper onto our painting, thereby printing the image.

Ancient Map Project

This project was completely inspired by the students (sixth grade). We finished a project early one day, allowing for some free drawing time. Students took this opportunity to invent a new group drawing game, the outcome of which resembled an old map. With this in mind, we created our Ancient Map Project. Students worked in groups, developed a theme, and co-created these beautiful works of art.

Some students chose to rip the edges of their maps to create an even more old-timey effect. We all dyed our maps with coffee and tea, and then added watercolor to differentiate the land, for example, from the water. Most importantly, students learned that by closely observing something they wish to draw -- for example, a picture of a sea monster -- they can (with patience) draw a beautiful sea monster. Amazing!

Imagination Nation

 

Island of Doom

Land of Goonevil (ahem... "Good" and "Evil".. get it?)

"Throw Me to the Wolves..."

A seventh grader brought this in to show me today. I asked her to write a brief paragraph about it so I could put it on the blog. Here's what she said: 

"I saw on Instagram a very inspiring quote: “If you throw me to the wolves, I’ll come back leading the pack.” My family is part Native American. I love my brother dearly and the idea of drawing a contour wolf came up when I thought of his name, “Howling Wolf.”

"I made a kind of contour drawing because we are working on that in art class. The whole wolf was made using mostly only one line. Everything is connected."

 

 

Leaf Art

The other day, I showed the seventh grade some examples of leaf art. Yes, you read that correctly: leaf art. Here are some examples:

 

The next day, one of my students came in and handed me this. She made it at home, after viewing the slideshow in class:

 

 

 

 

How awesome is that?! Come by the art room. It's hanging on the door, all laminated and pretty, for all to see.



 

Old Timey Silhouettes

For one of the first projects we did for Visual Art and Technology (a high school class), students created "Old Timey Silhouettes" of themselves using Photoshop. This project is really simple and works to familiarize students with basic functions in the program.

Here are links to the two tutorials from my YouTube channel that provide step-by-step instructions on how to complete this project. (And even though it's very step-by-step, everyone created a very different work of art, which was really nice to see.)

Step 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52m8HPaRirg
Step 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqeGkocBd8M

And here are some beautiful examples: