Decalcomania

Bumblebee, Bryan

A Surrealist Technique

Decalcomania is a technique that inspires creative thinking with art that is largely made by chance.  We poured glue paint onto a sheet of paper that was folded in half. Closed the paper, burnished with our palms and then opened it up to reveal an image.  From there, you search for hidden imagery in the abstract patterns and develop it into a finished work.

Vegetable People Coming Up From The Ground Plus Friend, James

Angels, Chloe

Interaction

3rd grade artwork

3rd grade artwork

Discovering a way for your hand to interact with your art was the challenge for this lesson.  First we have to think about all the things we do with our hands.  Next, we have to consider size and placement so the drawing and the hand become one.  

Monotypes

 

2nd grade monotypes

We had a great experience making monotypes this week.  We actually painted the plate on our tables and
used a q-tip for drawing the image.  We then placed a piece of paper on top, burnished with our palm and pulled the print... voila!
The bottom image shows the process.

Kindergarten Monotypes

Transforming Ink Blots

Predetermined outcome is a closed door. 

Mitzi Scott



 

Artwork by 3rd and 6th grade students

Second and 3rd grade artwork.

The students loved this project.  I got the inspiration from the Field Elementary Art Blog. They added color which really added a wonderful element.  I've seen these before but it was more or less used for a Halloween lesson on spooky trees.  If you go to Teacher Tube, and search dailymonster.com, you will find videos of Stefan Bucher, the man behind dailymonster.com.  The kids loved watching his time lapse videos of his ink blot drawings.  We did this first and then went to the tables to create our own.  I put ink in a spray bottle and sprayed just a tiny bit on each paper.  The kids used straws to blow a couple of times and then pen or marker to continue the image. Super fun!

Dressing The Part

The Banker
Designer: Clair, grade 3

The Samurai

 Project Runway anyone?
 Challenge:   Choose the appropriate fabrics and construct an outfit for a particular person. We had bankers, fashion models, ninjas, surfers, you name it.  This lesson was both fun and challenging for the students.   Determining which fabrics work best for their character, visualizing what size to cut the pieces and making adjustments were all part of the creative process.  I still have some students working on camouflage outfits!

The Ninja, The Surfer, The Super Hero and The Fashion Model

The Technology Guy
Designer: Conner, grade 4

These are on 5x8 (or so) poster board.  I had small tubs of fabric at each table but they could "browse" the selections from other tables!

The Way of Collage

There's a wonderful tension that exists between the artist, the mind and paper.  Ah, but when the moment arrives, hands cut, papers fly, imaginations soar.  This is the way of collage.

The collages were made by first making the "material" for the collage and then cutting it to build a character.  Texture plates were used to created the illusion of texture.  The following week we cut the paper into 4  pieces that were used for body parts.  I also placed solid colored paper on the tables that could be used for contrast.
  One of my main goals was for the kids to explore the endless possibilities of this imagined character.   I showed a wonderful piece by  Miga de Pan (link and image below).  I also demonstrated the process of making a character while intentionally cutting free form or odd shapes. This way, the kids could see that it was not necessary to cut a "proper" head, body, legs, etc.
                                                                   

Miga de Pan

Beyond Invented Insects

This was an amazing lesson-
Inventing Insects

As they were painting,  I encouraged them to name their insect, based on the characteristics.    I decided to tap into their musical intelligence by having them compose a sound for their insect.  How could that sound be symbolized?
 They could map it! (video above) One thing that blew me away was seeing the collaboration among students.  Transcending any limitations of spoken language, the map became the tool of communication.  And in its use, students traveled from the abstract to the concrete and back again.  What a journey!

Inventing Insects

1st Grade Invented Insects

I think insects are such an engaging subject for study.  Did you know there are nearly 1 million known species? Ah, but this lesson is not about the known species, it's about the unknown species.
To deepen our understanding of this amazing part of life,   I'm planning on doing a few lessons on insects but just vary the media .  




great insect source here

We started by discussing how artists often find inspiration from nature.  We looked at images of parks and forests and talked about what you might hear or see there.  This led us to the world of insects. Adult insects have the following characteristics: 6 legs, 2 or 4 wings,  a segmented body including a head, thorax, and abdomen, antennae, proboscis and eyes.
 I demonstrated painting the 3 body parts first and then going back to add eyes, antennae, legs, wings, etc.  A  wonderfully challenging  part of this lesson is for the kids to free themselves up and create a new species of insect.  Many of the students also gave their insect an amusing name.


This is one of my favorite sites: Encyclopedia of Life

Celebrations

Winning the Corn Festival Race
1st Grade Student

I love this celebration artwork because it makes you visually anticipate what's going to happen next.
Kindergarten Student.

Happy Day
4th Grade Student

This is the celebration of the departure of the Titanic.
3rd Grade Student





Concept: Celebrations
Essential Questions:
Why do we celebrate?  Who celebrates? How do we celebrate? How does art help us understand celebrations from other cultures and our own?  Is it important to celebrate? Do celebrations bring us closer as a whole?


That's how we started this lesson, by looking at celebratory artworks throughout history and sharing our own stories of celebrations.  I tried this lesson with various classes from K-4th.  I must say it was successful at each grade level because the students were able to connect the concept of celebrations to their own life experience and what is important to them.