Artsonia

I am such a terrible blogger!  But, I am great at posting my students' artwork to Artsonia!  Check out our AWESOME artwork here instead!  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=102678

Knight Prints

To go with our clay castles (and to sneak in learning human figure proportions without the pain of re-living facial proportions) we made Knights.

I saw this done on a larger scale with middle school students and I think it probably works better that way; however, our knight prints turned out just fine too.

First I used the cheap brown butcher paper and cut it into 18x10" pieces.  The students measured 2 inch broke their paper up into 2 inch sections so they could draw their knight exactly in proportion- they started with the blobby marshmallow person and slowly transformed him into a knight.

Then we rolled out the ink on the table (yes, right on the table!) just like if we were printmaking- we spread out the ink and gently laid the paper DRAWING SIDE UP (you must not write on the other side as that will be the final product).  We retraced the knight with a regular pen and lifted him up to see the print on the other side.  The trick is to not touch the paper while redrawing the knight.  Some students had to trace again in a different color if their first color turned out too blotchy.

Here are some examples- there were many more than 4 good ones but I think you get the point:

Here is a double colored knight- he was done in white, then let dry, then done again with black

Front and back of the same paper

Clay Castles

My example of a standing slab castle
(not as good as some of the student work!)

My New Year's Resolution is to actually blog some projects, starting with some amazing 5th grade clay castles.  Because some of the classes were interrupted by field trips and half days, we did this project 2 different ways; both were very successful.

If the classes only had one art time to do their clay project, they simply did a castle facade. Some were able to add towers to make their facade stand and some just did flat slab castles.

Some classes had two art periods to work with clay so they did 3D clay castles with 4 sides and towers.  These turned out amazing.  I gave each student a template to cut their pieces from but otherwise they added their own ideas and details- I originally got this lesson from MIDDLE SCHOOL (7th grade!) but my students are so amazing I knew they were up for the challenge.

Ethan's standing slab castle

Lauren's standing slab castle (oops, glaze drool)

Blake's standing slab castle

Katherine's 3D castle

Avanti's 3D castle

Thomas's flat slab castle facade

Victoria's 3D castle

Ethan's flat castle facade

Sriram's 3D painted castle in progress

Fran's 3D castle

Hello, Goodbye!

Hello all!  This year I have started a new adventure, I am the new art teacher at Wild Horse Elementary School!  Out with the old, in with the new- here is my new art blog!  I can't wait to share some of my lessons with you- you may see some from previous years and you'll probably see a lot of new ideas!  To all art educators visiting my blog: feel free to share ideas and steal my lessons!  To all parents: thank you for letting me teach your lovely children!  They make my job easy!  Enjoy browsing through their beautiful artwork!  Don't see your child's artwork?  You can also find their artwork on our Artsonia website (coming soon!)

Look for more updates soon!
-Mrs. L