Charcoal portrait enlargements using a grid

This is the first time I have taught the drawing technique of enlarging a picture using a grid. The Grade 5 and 6 student created these using magazine pictures and charcoal as the medium. They did sketch them in pencil first. The students in this grade are very hard on themselves and can't see how fabulous these are. I think they did a wonderful job especially as we have never used this technique before.

Comic book characters

Grade 3 and 4 students studied comic book art for the whole term this term and has a great time doing it. We looked at the art work of Marvel comic book artists for inspiration and learnt specific drawing techniques. They were asked to create their own character using their own photos as a starting point. They had to consider their characters personality, their super powers, where they lived as well as costumes. These final pictures became the cover of their comic book. They each created a comic strip using their character to tell a story which was compiled into a book for each student to take home.

They were so engaged in this activity that they worked on it for the entire term and did not get bored. The characters names were really funny!

3D recycled building constructions

I set the Grade 1 and 2 students a hard task this semester. Most of them rose to the challenge and if they didn't they learnt a lot about construction and persistence!! The challenge was to create a building using only recycled cardboard and tape. The construction could not be bigger than 30cm  and had to have one moving part. They finished off their buildings by adding the gorgeous building paper from ZART.

They absolutely love construction and it was such a joy to see them measuring and trying over and over to get it right. The results were mixed but it was such a big learning curve for them I know they all enjoyed the challenge.

Prep masterpieces continued

I have studied masters in art a few times with Preps and they never cease to amaze me so I have made this a part of my program for a few years now. We study a famous artists work for one lesson looking at content, colour, things that they notice that are special etc then they create a picture in response using similar techniques. Our first work was Vincent Van Goghs 'Starry night'. We discussed his small brush strokes and swirly unrealistic patterns, his use of dark colours to depict night time etc and this is what they came up with!

We then studies work by Vassily Kandinsky

We also looked at the work by Katsushuka Hokusai 

'The Great Wave off Kangawa' 

and created these fabulous prints.

Mixed media self portraits with Grade 5 and 6

I got this idea from another wonderful art teacher who is the queen of multimedia and printing. In this one project Grade 5 and 6 students learnt how to do paint scraping, pattern work, zentangles, how to make a stencil as well as sketching and drawing techniques. It took half the term but the results and the amount of skills they learnt was well worth it.