3rd Grade Project: Chinese Dragon

Students worked with the theme of the Chinese Dragon. The students were given a brief intro in the cultural backdrop of dragons in different cultures around the world. Though we did return to the Chinese dragon as our visual guide for this project.

To help students create an organic line to base their dragon's body position, students were given a piece of yarn to place on their paper. Once students found the way they preferred the yarn to be arranged they then glued the yarn down.

After the yarn has been glued down the drawing portion of the project begins. Students are guided through a process that teaches them to use simple shapes to create an elaborate finished drawing. Students are allowed to choose their own shapes to make each dragon unique.

In this project after our pencil drawing is complete we then outline our dragon with black crayon. This outline protects the edge of the dragon as the students will be adding color with water-based paint. This technique is known as wax resist.

In the finishing stages of this project color is added to both the dragon and the sky. Students choose their sky color after we discuss the different colors the sky can be. Other details like clouds, sun, moon, or other things that belong in the sky can be added as well.

This project really gets the students excited, especially as they see their dragon and painting taking shape.

First Things First

Welcome back!  The DIS 2014/15 is underway!  Wow, it seems not too long ago we were at our Art Show at Strait's Quay and now we are back at the beginning of a new year.

This year we have new ESLR: Transformed Thinker - A transformed thinker recognizes the difference between the finite thoughts of man and the transcendent thoughts of God.  They also look at their thought patterns and decision making using biblical truth as their frame of reference.

More detailed descriptions available, along with our other ESLR's here.

Dalat's new theme this year is: First Things First.  Priorities will be examined across campus and in our community.  It is an exciting year ahead of us, I look forward to keeping you up to date as we work in our ESLR and our theme.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

6th Grade Project: Printmaking - Second Edition

We switched up our medium a bit on this edition.  Students were originally supposed to be printing to paper but were surprised (pleasantly so) to find that we were now going to print to foil.  It was a smaller printing area so some of the students needed to do some re-designing of their prints.  The benefits outweighed the cost and the classes agreed that this was a change that they were willing to make.

Unlike paper, foil allows paint to be moved around freely.  This freedom of movement gave the students a wonderful opportunity to really develop brushed on textures into their prints.  The example below shows the swirling purple sky background.  

Return to the First Edition.

Return to The Print Block.

4th Grade Project: Monumental Abstracts

The 4th graders are winding down on their work on Monumental Abstracts, to look back at earlier steps in this process you can visit: O'Keeffe Abstracts

The finished projects are beautiful.  The students have done so well and this project though lengthy has held the students attention so well.

Viewframe laid over abstract to zoom in on portion image.

Original abstract and Monumental Abstract.

A Monumental Abstract is a work that takes a portion of an image and zooms in to a point where the original image can often be lost - giving way to new image.  The work of Georgia O'Keeffe largely inspires this project, especially her floral abstracts.

6th Grade Project: Printmaking - First Edition

Students now begin the process of working with using their print blocks in creating a design.  These designs will not be limited to their own prints or to a single image, so practice begins on newspaper as students strive for 'clean' prints. 

The printing process is one which has many aspects.  The overall design will incorporate their own images, other students images, partial images, masking, and touching up a print.  This process is one that the students will approach one step at a time.   

As designs are made, the students continue with their work until their design is large enough to move to the full size sheet for their first edition final.

So once printed these first edition prints are then sketched out in the student's sketchbook to move into the next section of our printing unit.  Sketches are then colored using color pencils, this gives students an idea of what colors they will use in their hand painted print.

Next: The Second Edition.

Return to The Print Block.

5th Grade Project: Chinese Dragons

The 5th Grade have been working on their Chinese Dragons.  We started this project just after Chinese New Year ended.  Though once the project was announced the students really got excited.  5th Graders and Dragons are a good match I suppose.

We began work on our Dragons in our sketchbooks.  Students drew 4 Dragon heads, some of the students decided they needed 8 Dragon heads (remember they are excited).  Once the students settled on which head was to be their Dragon, we moved to our final project.

By transferring their images and outlining in black marker, students created a double-sided dragon.  Both sides are then painted with watercolor.

Once the head (page1), the body (page 2), and the tail (page 3) are completed, we then attach them.  First students must cut out and then join each segment of the dragon to the others.  Once it is all put together the dragon is 3 pages long and fully colored on both sides.

7th Grade Project: Depth Painting

The 7th Grade has begun their "Showing Depth" unit.  We spent the first month drawing four observation sketches that specifically showed a foreground, middle ground, and background.  

Once this was completed we moved to the next part of our unit, the Depth Painting.  This Depth Painting is taken from one of our sketches.  Once a sketch is chosen we enlarge the half-page sketch to a 15x11 page.

We then begin our watercolor work.  To use the watercolor effectively we begin lightly and then gradually work in our darker shades.

The students learn a lot about watercolor and how it is used in this project.  Some of the students worked too darkly too quick, though this was most likely an introduction to the medium for them.  As they continue in the depth unit we can focus on a more control of the watercolor. 

2nd Grade Project: Aztec Sun - Color Temperature

Warm and Cool Colors were the focus of our 2nd Graders study of the Aztec sun.  In this project we used the shape inspired by the Aztec sun to create pictures to be used in our color temperatures lesson.

Students began by drawing their own suns.  These suns needed to have a face, rays, and a background.

These three parts were divided down the center of the page by a curvy line.  On either side of this line students used different kinds of shapes to draw their sun: one side would be angular shapes while the other was rounded shapes.  After drawing and outlining were completed, students moved to coloring with pastels.

The students then colored with warm and cool colors on either side of our dividing line, alternating between warm and cool colors.

3rd Grade Project: Jasper Johns - Numbers

The 3rd Grade studied the works of Jasper Johns.  His artwork includes everyday items such as numbers or flags.  He famously drew his numbers over the top of each other to create new shape and unique divisions amongst his numbers.

Students drew their numbers, outlining them in crayon to resist the watercolors that we used later.

The results were wonderful.  The 3rd Grade really did a nice job with the concept of the overlapping numbers and the new shapes that were created.  

1st Grade Project: Paul Klee - Name Pages

The 1st Grade continued their study of Paul Klee.  In this project, students explored Klee's color techniques. We experimented with how colors looked beside each other.  The letters in our names became the canvas as we painted in the different sections of each letter.

This was a very fun project that yielded some extremely colorful results.  Students added symbols and also wrote things about themselves in their pieces.

Exodus 20:3-4 - The True God

There are many art projects that look back at historical pieces and take their inspiration from imagery that has meaning beyond just what is seen.  For example our 2nd graders have a project that uses the Aztec sun stone image.  This image is very popular, especially in younger art classrooms.  The purpose of this sun stone remains unclear though theories range from that it is a depiction of some deity to the stone itself was the surface used in gladiatorial sacrifices.

Exodus 20:3-4 reads:

3 Do not put any other gods in place of me.

4 Do not make statues of gods that look like anything in the sky or on the earth or in the waters.

When doing this project we look back at what the art was made for.  This is done so that we can look back at the origins of art and the truth of its meanings.  The sun is beautiful and it is easy to understand the majesty that inspired the Aztecs to look upon it with such reverence; but by no means do the 2nd graders now think that it is a god - nor should they.

To look at the sun, we can see God's creative hand.  We can also see this same creativity when we look at the moon, the stars, the ocean, the mountains, etc.  All of creation speaks to the works of His mighty hand.

There is one God, and he alone is worthy. 

2nd Grade Project: Piet Mondrian - Mondrian's Trees

In this project, we continued our exploration of the work of Piet Mondrian.  We focused on his beautiful trees.  We then took the lines of his trees and applied them to the strict color divisions of this Neoplasticism.
The results are these beautifully framed organic silhouettes pierced by color.

As you can see we began with a black tempera paint, this tempera paint as used to outline the trees we had drawn with our pencils.  The students were asked to take the limbs all the way to the edge of the paper to create walled off sections for each color.

The next step was to add the color.  Students chose the shapes of their trees and the colors that shone through the limbs.

5th Grade Project: Impressionism - Watercolor 2: Washes

As part of their work in watercolor the 5th grade tried different styles of washes.  They experienced wet paper and dry paper, as well as wet brush and dry brush.  These showed the students the very different results and how much water can effect the final product.

To help the students with their control of the media, they traced circles into each of the four sections of their paper.  They then applied their wash outside the circle first.  As they finished the area outside of the circles, they moved onto the next section to let the first dry.  This they repeated until the outside sections were all finished.  Once the outsides were all complete the students returned to the inner-circle sections of their chart.
They would then duplicate the wash inside the circle; paying particular attention to not letting their new paint mix with their older paint.

Exodus 25-31 & 35-39 - Diligence & Craftsmanship

In Exodus chapters 25-31, the Lord gives His instructions for the construction of the sanctuary and the priestly garments.  Then in chapters 35-39 Bezalel and Oholiab are tasked by Moses to complete these constructions.  

For five chapters God gave explicit instructions, here is a small excerpt:
Exodus 25:23-26
23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits [y]long and one cubit [z]wide and one and a half cubits [aa]high. 24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. 25 You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it. 26 You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. 

Bezalel and Oholiab worked on this construction from Exodus 35 through Exodus 39.  Then at the end of chapter 39 in verse 43 we see the result:
43 And Moses [ak]examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the Lord had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.

Moses blessed them.  

What they had done pleased the Lord.  They had been given a task which they completed to the best of their abilities, abilities given to them by God.  We can all please the Lord in this way, we can work to the best of our abilities, this often takes effort and care, we can see this well in the example of Bezalel and Oholiab.

3rd Grade Project: Wassily Kandinsky - Kandinsky's Concentric Circles

The color studies of Wassily Kandinsky remained our inspiration for this project.  We attempted the very same color study that Kandinsky himself did in his 1913 "Concentric Circles" as seen below.
 

Kandinsky - Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles - 1913

Using watercolors the students explored the different color combinations while trying to control the paint as they created larger and larger circles.  Once their circle reached the edge of the box, they then would paint in the background to complete that section.  Their compositions consisted of four of these circles.

3rd Grade Project: Wassily Kandinsky - Wassily's Silly Trees

As the 3rd grade continued their studies of Wassily Kandinsky, we moved into a cut paper project using Kandinsky's color studies as our inspiration.  These cut paper studies took the form of trees.  Students would begin by drawing a tree.  Once the tree was drawn and outlined, student would cut the trees out.

We then used the basic shapes: circles, squares, and triangles to complete the colorful foliage of our trees.  The students were encouraged to use a wide variety of colors in their compositions just like Kandinsky did as he worked on his color studies.

2nd Grade Project: Piet Mondrian - Cut Paper Compositions

Students again were focused on the work of Piet Mondrian.  In this project we approached his Neoplasticism in a different way: cut paper.  The 2nd graders used pre-cut black strips as well as primary color squares and rectangles of various sizes to create their Mondrian inspired compositions.

Students were given the freedom to choose how and where to place their lines and colors.  These choices resulted in a widely varied and extremely colorful collection of work.

See our first exploration of Mondrian in Colored Pencil.

4th Grade Project: Paint Charts

Controlling the brush and the paint is what the focus of this project is.  The 4th graders first created their charts using rulers to measure off the five sections that are used in this exercise.  The students used this series of measurements to complete the drawing of their charts.  Once the charts were drawn, we painted.

When painting we worked together through our sections.  These sections each building and sharpening specific skills.  These fundamental skills will be needed each time the students pick up a brush to paint. 

In the these sections students would learn to: adjust the intensity of their color by using water, to carefully paint rounded shapes, squared shapes, and sharp pointed shapes, and finally to touch up any edges or colors that look unfinished.  Manipulating the brush and paint with control is what we set out to do, as you can see our results were very good!

Exodus 28:33 - Creativity

Exodus 28:33 (NASB)

33 You shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material, all around on its hem, and bells of gold between them all around:
Concerning Exodus 28:33 - Francis Schaeffer observed:

“Christians . . . ought not to be threatened by fantasy and imagination. Great painting is not "photographic": think of the Old Testament art commanded by God. There were blue pomegranates on the robes of the priest who went into the Holy of Holies. In nature there are no blue pomegranates. Christian artists do not need to be threatened by fantasy and imagination, for they have a basis for knowing the difference between them and the real world "out there." The Christian is the really free person--he is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.”

Creativity is valued by God.  In being creative we honor Him who created us.  We have wonderful imaginations given to us by God, these He gave to be used; art is one of the vehicles in which our imaginations can be used to honor God.  

Psalm 139:13-14 - Uniqueness and Value

13 
13 
Psalm 139:13-14 (NASB)

13 For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.

In class we consider the fingerprint, the tongue print, and the eye.  These are only small physical earmarks of our uniqueness.  God made our delicate, inward parts; He wove us together in the womb.  These all speak to the value He places on each and every one of us.  These small reminders we bear upon ourselves, when we look out at nature we again see uniqueness - specifically in the snowflakes.  

God has put uniqueness upon us, around us, and most definitely inside of us.  He so deeply values His creation, His works are wonderful.  Let us know that very well.  

Kindergarten Project: Eric Carle - Christmas Ornaments

To celebrate Christmas the Kindergartners made ornaments.  These ornaments were made using our painted paper that we've been using in our Eric Carle unit.  

Once the string was attached the ornaments were ready to go home to be used for decorations.  The students enjoyed making something they could take home right away!