Pastel Compositions

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We started this new semester in middle school exploring the medium of pastel. I had the students try different techniques for applying pastel, including blending, colour mixing, stippling, scumbling and sgraffito. Seventh and eighth grade students chose an object to explore and created several thumbnail drawings before deciding on a composition. These compositions needed to be cropped in close to the object so that it touched at least three sides of the paper. Colour and value were added to the drawings using a chosen group of analogous (not local) colours, and the background with a complementary colour.

Fifth and sixth grade students created abstract design blocks, tracing their line design in glue. Each block had the same entry points on each side so they could connect into a collaborative work. Students explored blending with pastels, and used analogous colour schemes to fill in each section of the design.

Above is the collaborative work fifth grade put together as a present for one of their teachers, who is also my co-homeroom teacher.

Dear Miss Twa

I have returned to this assignment after a few years. I always enjoy learning new things about my students. They are such a diverse group of TCKs; representing a mosaic of cultural backgrounds, languages and experiences. I had them write artist statements in the form of a letter to explain the symbolism within the finished pieces.

This one, for me, seems to best illustrate the Third Culture Kid experience; in both the division and blending together of two identities.

Let Your Light Shine

We travelled to a country further east around Christmas time. It is not a country that celebrates Christmas, but this became a good topic of conversation in my classroom. In China, they DO celebrate New Year, which is more similar to what is celebrated here in Turkey.

First and Second Grade:

We looked at the Chinese lanterns used in decoration at New Year. First we practiced drawing different types of lanterns in a step by step guided drawing, and later worked independently to create our own composition of lanterns. We discussed drawing to fill the whole space on the page, with bigger lanterns in the front and smaller ones behind.

I introduced my students to value and analogous colours so we could create lanterns that popped off the page. The goal was to get them to use a light, medium and dark version of a colour within one lantern.

After tracing over all of our pencil lines and colouring in each of our shapes, the students painted the background with blue tempera paint. The pastel resists the paint, so we needed to make sure all the white space was coloured in!

The final step was to create dots/strings of light with yellow and white in the background. Students printed these with the end of a paintbrush.

Fourth Grade:

We studied the art of sumi-e brush painting. First we practiced holding the bamboo brush and making different types of strokes. The next class, we put our practice to the test and painted compositions of bamboo. The students chose one word/fruit of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, hope, faith- to write vertically down one side of the paper. Our final class, I had the students design a signature chop (from foam) to sign their finished piece, and then mount the finished works on construction paper.

Fifth Grade:

Fifth graders looked at the art of porcelain Ming vases. We discussed the variety of different shapes and silhouettes. I demonstrated how to create a symmetrical vase drawing with two sides that mirrored each other. These pencil outlines were filled in with different shades of blue pastels. The next class, we painted over the pastel layer with white tempera, and made drawings of design ideas for our vases. During the final class, designs were scratched into the paint to reveal the blue layer underneath. Vases were cut out and mounted together in a composition on black paper.

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Relief Assemblages

 

This was our final project in fifth grade, following bootcamps in the art elements and principles. We looked at Louise Nevelson’s work, trying to identify recognizable objects and discussed the idea of relief and assemblage (sculptures utilizing found objects). I gave each student a square of cardboard, asking them to fill it with an assortment of forms. This was a great way to get rid of those little bits I have been storing: popsicle sticks, bottle caps, pasta, shells etc. I asked them to make sure they filled the whole space, and had areas of both high and shallow relief.

The final step was to spray paint the pieces, unifying all the components together. I was able to get extra time to take the class outside so each student could paint their own piece. It was a lot more fun to have them involved than for me to do it myself. A few of the students said they felt so ‘cool’ spray painting, it makes me want to do a graffiti unit with them next!

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I photographed each piece as it was drying outside. The paper backdrop with the paint remnants and shadows created an additional element of interest!

The finished class arrangement of tiles

Candy Compositions a la Wayne Thiebaud

Whew, it has been a while… a lot has been going on in life and at school. We are almost at the end of the year and busy finishing projects! I wanted to try a project like this for a while after seeing many pop art inspired projects on blogs I follow. This ended up being another long, multi step project- but this time with the incentive of candy for finishing.  It was a good way to review what students knew about colour and value, and to continue practicing observational drawing skills. Introducing the grid to help enlarge compositions was a new concept for many.

Steps 1&2: Create compelling compositions using 5 candies. Choose the most successful composition and glue it to a cardboard grid.

Step 3: Draw the composition with coloured pencils on a larger paper, using the grid to ensure accurate proportions.

Steps 4&5: Paint the background using two or three analogous colours. Paint observed highlights and shadows with transparent yellow and blue paint.

Step 6: Paint overtop of highlights and shadows with a transparent glaze of local colour.

Step 7: Acrylic overpainting and shading with thicker paint, adding observed details.

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Series III

I have posted this project before, but I wanted to share some favourites from this past semester. I am always amazed to watch the student’s creative ideas evolve!

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Exploring Natural Forms: Repetition+Variation

Part A of a two part project. Students chose a natural object from my own collection to explore and worked in their sketchbooks at first to test out different mixed media combinations. They chose limitations for their piece in regards to the layout of their compositions and media, and created a grid of twelve compositions. These compositions were to show repetition and variation in exploring an object and throughout the piece as a whole.

I am so very proud of what they have accomplished and how far they have come!

And of course, I had to try it out for myself!

 

Negative Space Compositions

In my high school drawing class, we have been working with negative space. The students just finished this assignment: to create a triptych composition, drawing the negative space of three objects. The contrast of the black and white on these is so nice I thought I should share them! I included the ones done by last semester’s group as well.