Op Art Towers/Caterpillars/Tornadoes...

When I stumbled across this idea on the Deep Space Sparkle blog, I knew I would have to try it. The pictures on-line looked amazingly 3D and it seemed a good way to teach use of lines, tone and shading. Sure enough, the kids loved learning about 'Op Art' and found the project rewarding - we also now have a very cool looking display outside our classroom!

Having read the advice from art teachers who had posted this lesson (I looked at several blogs - the one above, 'Art with Mr E', artisan des arts and Teach Kids Art to name but a few!), I thought it best to start small. I gave my class A5 paper for their designs (about 21 x 15 cm) to make things a bit easier and, as you can see, after a couple of lessons there are still some designs unfinished!

We went through the project together, step by step, starting with the central wavy line and (in theory) added six points along it. Pupils then built up each 'tower' of curves one at a time on one half, then turned the paper and did the other half. Using slightly thicker black markers and going back to the dots each time helped them to get a more '3D' effect.

Even before adding colour the designs were looking good. They all practised shading gradually from dark to light on the back of their designs and we spoke about choosing from different colour families. Adding in the work on colour wheels and colour families was a bit much for some - I think next time I would do as others have done and just use a few colours for the whole design. Will definitely be using this lesson again!

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).

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...