Blog Archives

finished value portraits (almost)

10/31/2011

8th grade students are mostly finished with their portraits.

There are a few who are still working on their finishing touches before uploading the final product on Moodle.

Once students are done with this assignment, they will be glazing their bottles. From drawing to sculpture, students have been exploring their personalities through portraits in art quite a bit this year (and will continue to do so for the rest of the term). They say that you should make art about what you know, and making self-portraits fits in perfectly with that concept.

kids art fairs

10/30/2011

Parents have the opportunity to purchase their student's work framed for a display planned on November 14th.

Kid's Art Fairs is helping us put on this event and proceeds from the purchased frames will go to our classroom for additional supplies.

If you would like to see the possible options for framing, please check out their website as well as our online gallery for the pictures that can be placed inside the frame.

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sooper art winners

10/29/2011

Although none of the WMS entries this year received recognition at Sooper Art 2011, I am very proud of the participation of the students from BC. In all, BCPS had 12 students receive recognition at this year's competition.

Check out the winners on this online gallery.

the farther away it is, the more clear it becomes...

10/28/2011

8th grade students worked on finishing up their portraits today. They worked on value for this project, as well as capturing an emotion through facial features. Students used traditional materials like pencil or paint, as well as non traditional materials like yarn and cut paper.

I will be posting the finished works next week, as soon as students finish loading them on Moodle.

value portraits finished

10/27/2011

7th grade students finished their pictures and uploaded them to Moodle.

As you can see, the focus of this assignment was the self-portrait and using value to show space and depth.

Students also worked with tissue paper and sharpie to decorate their backgrounds with patter and color.

For images from the entire class, visit our online gallery on Artsonia.

Our next task is finishing up our clay projects by adding glaze!

taking form

10/26/2011

Whether it is paint, oil pastel, crayon, or anything else you could think of (yarn, paper, sequins...), 8th grade students are showing what they know about value through the process of making portraits.

This project always makes me nervous. Time and again, as we work I look at the beginning moments and think to myself - "How is this going to turn out?!?"

Without a doubt, each time students tackle this challenge, they always surprise me with their inventiveness of ideas and choice of materials. From the pose, to the editing, to the positioning on the page, to the material to finish it, students have had the lead on what and how they wanted to compose this portrait.

The results, as you can see, are taking form as being very interesting and expressive portraits using all kinds of materials.

helping hands

10/25/2011

Every now and again you will come across those students who just want to help. It doesn't matter how daunting the task, they are up for the challenge.

Today it was Mike, Matt, Nelson, and Kyle who stepped up to the plate and offered their services to clean our room for the benefit of all.

Each of these students had the opportunity to do something else when they finished what they needed to for class; they could have made more art, went onto the blog, or even worked with paint and pastels. But instead, they saw a need for help and they decided to do so.

With their efforts, the paint bottles are all refilled, the clay tools are all clean from crusty dried up clay, the back counters are wiped down, and the floor is swept. This is only a few of the various tasks accomplished by this group of gentlemen, who really went out of their way to work together to accomplish a lot of good.

Now, when the next group of students walk through the door, they can thank the efforts made by Michael, Matt, Nelson, and Kyle for making sure materials are filled up and spaces are clean for use.

This really was a great way to finish out the day with my students and now we can look forward to making new messes together tomorrow!

pump up the value

10/24/2011

7th and 8th grade students continue to explore value today as they work on their self-portraits. I look forward to seeing how all of the students use their materials to capture the essence of their personalities and show the various values within the image. As you can see, even with a broken hand, Miguel works through the challenge - nice perseverance.

We will continue to work on these portraits throughout the week. 7th grade students will be finished with their work on Wednesday and 8th grade will be finished by Friday. When students finish, they will get to finally add glaze to their clay creatures (who all got fired over the weekend).

value

10/21/2011

7th and 8th grade students are working with value this week as they continue to create their portraits. 8th grade students get to select the material they work with and apply it to their value scale, whereas 7th grade students are working with pencil and shading using the pressure of the graphite on the paper to get their shifts of value. Both grade levels created 5-step value charts before applying it to their work.

transferring the image

10/20/2011

Some people say that in order to be a true artist, you must draw everything free-hand. This is not the case. From the camera obscura that is speculated to have helped artists like Vermeer, to the grid method employed by artists since the Renaissance, to both methods that are used by Artists like Shepard Fairey and Chuck Close today, artists throughout time have used tools and tricks to help them deliver their visual messages to the masses.

Our students are just following this centuries old tradition of using technology to create and transfer portraits on a larger scale. The real challenge will be what to do with those portraits once they are finally transferred...