Space!

We're starting a project on space and we've been working on tone so this seemed like the perfect lesson! I got the idea from the very helpful 'Deep Space Sparkle' blog. Actually, it was searching for space-themed art that led me to this blog which then led me to discover art blogs in general!

Because I couldn't find any dark chalk, I resorted to oil pastels. This proved to be more of a challenge for blending but also gave nice bright results.

1. Pupils drew around different objects to make about 6-8 circles on white paper which they coloured in with pastel. Rubbing the pastel on lightly seemed to make the blending a lot easier later on.
2. White pastel was added (fairly thickly) to one side of the circles and black pastel (much more lightly) to the other. The white and black could then be blended in towards the middle. They then cut out the planets.
3. We made the backgrounds by splattering white paint mixed with water on to black card before gluing on the planets and adding finishing touches. We talked about having a light source and making sure all the planets were  facing the right way (most used an object on their desk to be the 'Sun' so that they could point the light sides of their planets towards it).

Miniature Rooms

Once we finally got our classroom looking like an art gallery, it was time to make the highlights of the exhibition - miniature rooms! Originally I had thought of making rooms in shoe boxes but that seemed a bit fiddly. Thankfully I came across a useful template on the fantastic 'smART Class' blog.

I let the children choose one of our artists - Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Colourists or Joan Eardley - as the inspiration for their rooms. Not sure if my Eardley example had anything to do with the number who chose her, or whether they just wanted to grafitti their walls, but they all worked away very happily over several lessons - first decorating the walls with the template laid flat, then adding bits of furniture and other details. After making the template with them, doing some planning together and going over some ideas, I basically just got out every kind of material I could get my hands on and let them go for it!

Joan Eardley

These lessons go back over the past few months but it's the holidays so I have time to post them! I discovered Joan Eardley one day while looking on the internet for Scottish artists. Her art is super interesting (the kids thought so too), especially as a lot of it shows the poor children who lived around her studio in Glasgow back around the 1950s.

For our Eardley-style art the class worked in pairs - each pupil had to draw a person and colour it in with pastels (we talked about drawing faces, adding tone and blending with the pastels - a lot of them didn't really believe where the eyes etc. should go even after a demonstration but nevermind). They loved that they got to 'graffiti' their backgrounds with chalk, pastels and bits of newspaper and foil before cutting out and sticking on the people. I think a large proportion of the class are now big Eardley fans!

Scottish Colourists

After looking at some still life by the Colourists, we arranged all the suitable objects we could find on tables around the classroom before sketching and painting them (ready-mix paint this time). It was the inspiration for my blog name and that's about all I need to say about that lesson!

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Chairs

This was a big challenge - especially because it involved symmetry as well as sketching and shading. I printed out lots of pictures of Mackintosh-style chairs for the children to use. They made sure that they'd drawn a line exactly down the middle of their chair before cutting the chair in half and sticking one half down on their paper. Then they just needed to draw on the other side of the chair - easier said than done, particularly when the chairs had arms, but they made a good job of them!

Rennie Mac Roses

After Christmas we started studying some famous Scottish artists with the idea of putting together our own art gallery. The obvious artist to start with was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The kids loved learning about him and his work - they researched his buildings, wrote biographies and kept bringing in Mackintosh-style things (everything from jewellery to napkin holders) from home.

For this lesson we looked at how Mackintosh used the rose motif and looked in particular at a stained glass window from the Mackintosh-designed House for an Art Lover. Pupils sketched their pictures first with pencil - some copied Mackintosh's design very closely (as in the photo), others did their own thing as long as they used the rose motif and line patterns.

Before painting with block paints we talked about the colour wheel and pupils filled pieces of scrap paper with different shades they had mixed - this helped a lot with the roses! After the pictures were painted and had dried, they went over the lines with a fine-tipped black marker as the final touch.

Mixed Media Illustrations

Back in the autumn we had a visit from a fantastic children's author and illustrator, Petr Horacek, which inspired us to create and make our own storybook illustrations.

Pupils came up with stories on an animal theme before designing characters. It was a fairly free task but they had to use different media for the character and background. Most did their characters with pencils or crayon and then stuck them down on a background made using wax resist techniques. They had a lot of fun trying things out, just a shame we never actually got around to making the books!

Paint and Pastel African-Style Art

These African-style pictures were part of a class project and made a for quite an eye-catching display. The idea is from a lesson I observed when I was still a trainee teacher. The art specialist used it to teach the children more about colour and tone and, when I did my version this year, it was the first time the pupils had heard of tone.

Pupils sketched out two or three women on their page (depending on whether their paper was portrait or landscape) before colouring with oil pastel (black plus a colour for the dress and jewellery). They then had to draw a line in a lighter shade down one side of the person and, I think, a darker shade down the other side to add some tone - this proved quite tricky for some!

For the background we used the block paints with plenty of water for an 'oil' resist effect, trying to blend gradually through different colours. If pupils had 'cold colour' dresses, they did 'hot colour' backgrounds and vice versa. Whether or not they got the hang of tone, the results all looked great! I will try to find more photos...

African Safari Silhouettes

Ok, so this was my example rather than one of the children's but their pictures actually turned out fairly similar. I'd had the idea of using crayons and paint to make silhouettes with a sunset as part of our African theme. However, then I saw a picture of something similar using tissue paper for the background and putting black paper shapes on top. Although in some cases the children found their animals tricky to cut out, overall the cutting and pasting technique worked really well. Plus, these pictures were lovely and bright for a wall display!