We had an exciting class this week! We finished our multi media peacocks!

We began by working on the black background paper. The kids drew a few curly, twirly vines up the sides of their paper with green oil pastels and then they glued leaves onto the vines to make them robust and lively.

After that the kids carefully cut out their peacocks and feathers, arranged the pieces and glued them to their backgrounds in whatever way was most pleasing to them. Then they designed and glued a few butterflies into the scene to keep their peacocks company.

I am delighted with these pieces! They came out wonderfully! I will be hanging them in the Bearville/Poohville hall at school for everyone to enjoy. Stop by and take a look at the kids amazing work. It's even better in person!

Peacocks!

Today we started a multi-class, mixed media project making peacocks!

We began with the body and face of the peacock. The kids were allowed to choose blue or green as their base background paper. Then we worked together to draw the shapes of the body and head, connected by a slender neck. We then added the details of the beak, eyes, legs and feet. Some children followed this up by adding unfolding wings and feathers atop the head. (Neat! Creative!) All the lines of the peacocks, which were originally drawn in pencil, were traced over in marker to make them dark and visible on the green and blue paper.

Then they had the fun of coloring their peacocks with a selection of oil pastels. As you can see, the oil pastels always look amazing over a dark paper. They really glow. The kids were delighted with the effect.

Then we set our peacocks aside and began work on designing and coloring their glorious feathers. For those children who wanted it, I did a demonstration designed give them a step by step way to approach the design aspect of the feathers. Some children were enjoyed the process of design, and some were more interested in pursuing color. Both work out beautifully in this project.

 Next week we will work on a habitat for our peacocks and then construct them within it. They should be bright, beautiful and inspiring. I hope to hang the finished pieces in the hall outside Bearville and Poohville late next week. Keep and eye out for them!

ROBOTS in action

We had such fun finishing our robots in class today! There wasn't much to this part of the project in terms of gaining skills in artistic expression. We really just had fun.

I provided the kids with glue and a bunch of exciting materials: tin foil, large sparkles, buttons, beads, paper clips, pennies among other things. They were free to add as many or as few details as they liked. There was no right or wrong approach. As long as the kids were generous with the materials (sharing with friends) and generally working calmly I was happy to let them have some freedom.

These robots are EXCITING.
Check them out below!

AWESOME!

Robots - Phase 1

Today we began what normally proves to be one of the favorite projects of the year: ROBOTS.

This is a project that focuses the children on using materials in a constructive, sculptural, three dimensional way. It is also a project designed to remind the kids that any material may be an art material, in this case repurposed cardboard! Armed with a wide selection of pre cut cardboard shapes, black paper and glue, I gave the kids a quick demonstration of how one might approach building a robot. We talked about adding the largest shapes first (body and head), adding whatever parts they thought necessary next (arms? legs? wheels?), and following finally with any details.

I was available through out to cut or alter any shapes as the kids required. As you can see, these robots are off to a great start. Next class we will have the opportunity to paint them with silver metallic paint and add details to our background. Enjoy!

Bee Hives!

Bee Hives!We had a great time over the last two art classes working on bee hives! We began by painting a single sheet of water color orange (as the background color for the inside of the hive). 

 While those were drying we discussed and practiced drawing bees. Once the kids felt confident we drew and painted bees using oil pastels and water colors. We began (in the usual way) drawing the outlines of the bees with black and painting with yellow watercolor. The kids have all used materials in this way before. The bees came out beautifully, but no surprises. 

 Next we drew bees with yellow and painted over with black watercolor. As you can see, these bees really popped. They were bright and beautiful! The watching the kids experiment and delight in the resistance of the oil pastel to watercolor was a real pleasure.

While those dried, we retrieved our (now dry) orange papers. Each child also received yellow paint, a large paintbrush and a square of bubble wrap. (Can you guess where this is going?) The kids painted the "bubble side" of the bubble paper and then printed it (flipping it upside down and pressing) onto the orange paper. Peeling the bubble wrap off, a beautiful honey comb print appeared!

The following class, we took the time to carefully cut out all of our bees and give them a home in their hives. Outstanding! Apologies for the lateness of the post!