Collographs

 

The collographs were made from corrugated and regular cardboard.  We cut the desired shapes and glued them onto a larger piece of cardboard.  We then sealed the surface with modpodge. After it was dry, we inked the board with a brayer and ran it through the press.  I'm sure it would work just as well to use the back of a wooden spoon to transfer the image though.  Given more time, I think it would be interesting to work into them with another medium like colored pencil. Nevertheless, they did a great job!

Family Record Trees

 

Most of the family record trees are finished so I wanted to post a few more to share.
  The color palette and movement in the top artwork  is like an explosion of colored freedom, simply wondrous.

To see the original post click here

Plaster Masks

 

We've finished the masks!  They were constructed using plaster gauze, tag/thin cardboard, paint, hot glue and random collage items.
To see the the process click on video below

Plaster Gauze Mask Making from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.

Family Record Trees

 

The American Folk Art Museum provided the inspiration for this artwork.  By looking at and discussing
 Family Record for Andrew Bickford and Olive Clark we were able to understand that family histories were often created by hand in a variety of mediums such as embroidery or watercolor.

 

I wanted to incorporate a festive holiday feel along with a family record so I decided to combine the two. I'm so pleased with how thoughtfully each student worked on their piece.  I believe they really understood the personal significance attached to their work.  Thus far, these are the only two finished but  they are so dear I wanted to share them now.


Process after looking and talking about the artwork above:

• printed the tree with toilet paper rolls and added lights by finger painting
• on a separate sheet of paper, drew small portraits to go in the circles/ornaments
• cut and glued them inside of circles
• drew a background representative of their life

Plaster Masks in the Making...

Plaster Gauze Mask Making from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.

Working With Clay

All of the pieces were made using the coiling technique

 It's always such a pleasure to watch the kids be at first challenged by the clay and then watch them fall into their own path of cooperation with the clay. 

Story Ornaments

 

all artwork by 1st grade

source


  Children understand that through art, we can learn about other cultures, ourselves and  tell stories.   At this time of year, their hearts are already filled with memories of past celebrations as well as wishes for the ones to come.  As we looked at and discussed quilts, we learned how artists can be wonderful story tellers also.   Now it was their turn to use images or words to tell their holiday story.  


Process:
The first day they learned about symmetry as they drew and cut their ornament. Next, they painted a base layer.  On the second day, they drew their stories.  I wanted to make sure they had enough space to draw and explore so these are quite large, 9x12 or so.

Enchanting Owls

 

all artwork from 2nd grade

Owls can be so wonderfully enchanting and exciting to draw. When the chalk blends together the softness and glow almost make them come alive.
Working with chalk always seems to be an exploration of color for the kids.  We used the sides of the chalk for rubbing the base colors, the tip for the details and tissue to blend.  

Printing Holiday Trees

 

The holiday excitement begins...
The curved lines of the trees were printed from toilet paper rolls cut in half and the lights were finger painted. I demonstrated how to use the printing tool to shape the tree. I used the simplest technique of press and lift as  I wanted to leave room for the children to make their own discoveries as they shaped their tree. You see, it's quite challenging to create a triangular shape from a curved line tool.  I was very happy to see such unique outcomes.

We've done the before with a straight line tool, click here to see that process.

Kindergarten artwork

Kindergarten artwork

Printing Holiday Trees from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.

Meet the Paintbrush

Kindergarten  children have been exploring the paintbrush and painting.   They've learned different strategies for controlling the brush and for painting. In some images you will see an exploration of the blob and the outline technique along with different brushstrokes: curved, zigzag, straight,  etc.   The following week they painted an owl using the strategies learned.  Check out our video below to see the artists at work. 

Painting with Kinder from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.

Line Printing + Color

 

Looking closely at the artwork above you'll notice the images are all created with straight lines. Printing with a cardboard tool is always a fun challenge.  The simplicity is what makes it so open to diversity. It's wonderfully open-ended as the student may begin with a particular idea and it develops into another or the student may have no idea in mind and just start printing to find their mind making connections to create an image.   
Other variations of this idea and the process can be seen  here.

Birds

Sebastian, 4th grade

Natalie, 4th grade

Kinder-3rd grade artists

4th grade artists

Kindergarten artist

As you can see in some of my previous posts, we've been using a lot of paint lately as we are exploring color and tint making. Although various classes are exploring this, I enjoy posing a different  project or challenge throughout the week.
The challenge was to draw a bird, whether make-believe or realistic and paint it with tints.  The second day we didn't add white paint to our palette as the pure hues would contrast against the tints.  Patterns were added on the third day with markers or paint.

Tints+Chalk

 

The effect of chalk on top of paint is so soft, they almost glow.

3rd and 4th grade artists

3rd and 4th grade artists


The first day we drew the compositions and learned how to make tints by adding white paint to any color.
The second day we added chalk by blending it lightly with q-tips.  

Assemblage With Old Watercolor Sets

This was a wonderfully challenging project; you could actually see the thinking going on.

The Ever-Changing
by Reese

My assemblage is about a person's journey through life.  Sometimes we are struggling, sometimes we feel like we have the world in our hands, at other times maybe we are just at peace.  The silver piece represents how there is always hope and dreams in us. 

Esmae 

My assemblage is about being lost in the moment of doing something you love. 

Gabriel 

We've used old watercolor sets for the base of our assemblages. The materials were simple in nature but could be transformed depending on the artistry each student brought to the challenge. Hot glue or modpodge  was used to adhere the materials to the shallow boxes.  

Spooky Foam Characters

This student chose black foam on black paper.  I decided to have fun with the image since you couldn't see it very well once photographed.  

Materials:
foam
yarn
hole puncher
scissors
glue

Directions:
You may use the yarn in any way you wish, you may create any type of character-

...when they were finished, they wrote character descriptions and/or stories.