Modern Art Class Roll-a-Miros

A little while back I posted about a neat project I saw on Pinterest (but couldn't find the source). The idea was to use a die and a chart to help students create Miro-inspired creatures. I did this project with my Modern Art homeschool artists and they loved it! Some of them said it was the best project so far this year! 

Here is the original post and the how-to for the Roll-a-Miro on my blog.

And here are some of the finished pieces from the home school group:

6th Grade Greek Pottery (Traditional and Modern)

While I was doing my long term substitute teaching at Amherst Middle School last spring, I wanted to tie a couple of art lessons to what the students were learning in their other courses. I had missed the Egyptian unit in Social Studies (they covered that before my time), but I was there for their study of ancient Greece. I thought they might like to learn about ancient pottery.

Look at this pot design-how cool is this?!

 I gave them a presentation on Greek pottery (a PowerPoint presentation that introduced styles such as Geometric, Red Figure, Black Figure and White Ground) and I found it helpful to give the students a double-sided graphic organizer that would help them take notes on the presentation. After my presentation, I left the following link open for the students to play around with: Greek Pot Painter from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It's an interactive website the students can use to learn more about Greek Pottery.

This double-sided graphic organizer followed my talk
exactly and was easy for the students to fill out
as I went through the slide show.

Students then created two pot designs: one traditional Greek pottery design using traditional pot shapes and imagery and another pot design using a modern pot shape and imagery. The students had lots of fun designing both!

I then showed them how to use oil pastels and watered down tempera paint to make their own scratch boards. When the scratch boards were dry, students could choose to scratch one of their designs into the scratchboard (this is loosely based on sgraffito where potters scratch designs into colored slip). The great thing about doing this project is that the 6th graders took a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts during this time and saw actual Greek pottery on display--they thought that was so cool!

These came out so neat--definitely a keeper!

Here's our Greek Cupboard full of wonderful Greek pottery!

The pot on the right was inspired by Minoan Pottery
(I showed the students the famous Octopus pottery from that region) 

I like how this pot has multiple layers of imagery.

These pots have some unique shapes and designs inspired by nature.

The middle pot shows an alien abduction! So clever!

Some students worked very hard to create detailed imagery
depicting soldiers or mythological beings and then painstakingly
scratched their designs onto the boards. So great!

Grade 6 Tasty Thiebaud Cakes

I have already explained that the school I was subbing for last year was celebrating its 40th birthday. If you haven't checked them out already, look at these great 3D cakes sculptures my fifth graders completed for the festivities.

I also wanted a little something for the background of the birthday display so I had this nice little Wayne Thiebaud-inspired drawing project for my sixth graders to work on as they completed their other work (I had actually left this as a sub plan one day when I was out, but that's another post for another day).

These were a fun break for them and they had a great time decorating the cakes. As you can see below, I put them in the background of the birthday display and they really looked cute. This is a nice project to talk about unity and repetition as well as color theory (and of course Modern and POP art).

I have done this project before with elementary school students and they have fun with it too. The directions for this project are here. The sixth graders used oil pastels to decorate their cakes, but construction paper crayons are a less-messy alternative.

Have fun creating your yummy cakes! ENJOY!

Inspired By Spring and Alma Woodsey Thomas

I posted a project idea about African American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas awhile back, check out the post here. Thomas was a art teacher for almost 4 decades, became a prolific Abstract Expressionist painter during her retirement, and had her first show at 80 years old! WOW! How inspiring!

Here's the group project: "Sunset Over the Ocean."

For my last Modern Art class with my homeschool kiddos, I thought we'd do a relaxed collage project based on Thomas' work. The children had fun and created some very beautiful pieces. It was also a great opportunity to use up all of those paper scraps I've been collecting all year!

When they were done their personal pieces, they could work together to create a group piece that will be on display at the Grande Finale next month. I love how the group project came out--so different than the one the group in the original post created (and I loved that one too!). Amazing!

Enjoy this one-day, earth-friendly project!

"Colours"

"Falling Fire"

"Falling Leaves"

"Flowering Meadow"

This one had a title,
but he wrote it after I took the picture!
I think the bits are falling stars...

"Color Wave"

Milton Glaser/Bob Dylan Inspired Self-Portraits

Back in college, I took a entire semester of "The History of Graphic Design." One of the designers and illustrators we learned about was Milton Glaser. He is probably best known as the creator of the iconic "I (Heart) NY" logo.

Another design of his that has always stayed with me is the illustration he did for Columbia Records showing a silhouette of Bob Dylan with his hair drawn in colorful strands. The color and movement in this piece is just so great. It says "creativity" to me and it really does look like Dylan!

Milton Glaser/Bob Dylan-Inspired Self Portraits

Supplies Needed: 

• A printout of the profile of the student (fill the entire 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper)
• Black piece of construction paper
• Stapler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• One 9" x 12" sheet of white construction paper
• Glue stick
• Black permanent marker (we used Sharpies)
• Various colored markers
• Scraps of colored paper for name, optional

Directions:

1. On the printout of the photo, use your pencil to draw a line outlining the body and the skin of the student (not the hair)--no inner details. Staple the printout to a sheet of black construction paper. Cut through both layers of paper along the pencil line (careful to not cut into the hair portion--you'll need that later).

2. Glue the black cutout of the head/body to the white piece of construction paper.

3. Cut out the hair from the printout. Discard the background. Place the hair onto the background and trace around it with the pencil. 

4. Use your pencil to divide the hair into locks. Refer to the printout of your hair to see the direction of how the hair flows. Once all of the hair area is divided up into "tubes" use a Sharpie to trace your pencil lines.

5. Add color to your hair using the markers.

6. Write your name on scrap bits of construction paper, cut out and glue to the bottom edge of the silhouette. 

Look at that funky, creative self-portrait!

Easy-Peasy Pizza Sculptures!

I'm always looking for a better way to do projects. I had done pizza sculptures a la Claes Oldenburg before (see here) and I thought that my Modern Art kiddos would like them too. I had originally had students create the pizza form from two pieces of newsprint stapled and stuffed with crumpled up newspapers ad then paint the sauce and toppings. While that worked out OK, the pizzas got a bit muddy with all of those toppings being painted over one another before they were dry. So, I got to thinkin'...

YUM! Bacon, sausage and pepperoni pizza!

I bought some red and kraft-colored wrapping paper at IKEA this past Christmas and thought the weight and color of them would be nice for the sculptures. I thought the children could cut a brown triangle for the bottom crust part and a top triangle from red for the sauce part...however, I used all of the red wrapping paper at Christmastime. Oops! But I had a plan...

I had the children cut both triangles for the pizza from the kraft paper, staple & stuff and then paint the sauce on with red tempera. While they were drying, the children created their toppings from construction paper scraps. This worked out great for timing and they came out great--love the bright red sauce!

The toppings are a study in size, shape and color! I had some take-out menus from pizza places and we made a huge list of toppings the children could use on their pizzas. I also made my "at least three" rule with the toppings: the children had to create at least three different toppings for their pizza (not including the cheese). Most of them were happy to oblige!

So have a no-calorie pizza party for your class or family and have fun using up all of those paper scraps you've been hanging onto!

Easy-Peasy Pizza Sculptures

Supplies Needed:

• Medium weight paper (large sheets or a roll of paper)
• Triangle templates cut from poster board (bottom crust template should be about 5" longer than the top crust so you can roll the triangle up and make the crust of the pizza)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Newspaper or paper scraps to stuff the form
• Stapler with staples
• Red tempera paint (or white if you like a white sauce)
• Paint brushes
• Water bucket, paper towels
• Paper scraps for pizza toppings
• Elmer's glue

Directions:

1. Cut two triangles from kraft paper for the top and the bottom of the pizza slice. As I said above, the bottom crust triangle should be about 5" longer than the top crust so you can roll the triangle up and make the crust of the pizza.

2. Layer the two triangles on top of one another and staple along the two pointy, side edges or the pizza, through both layers. Leave the crust edge open, creating a pocket.

3. Crumple up newspaper, lightly, and stuff the pizza slightly, to give the pizza slice some dimension. 

4. Roll the open edge of the pizza slice inward a couple inches to create the pizza crust and secure with a couple of staples. You now have a giant slice of pizza!

5. Use tempera paints to paint the sauce on your slice of pizza. 

6. While it dries, you can use paper scraps to create toppings. To create the toppings you can rip, or cut the paper, or even use different punches as you see fit. To create multiple shapes (for mushrooms or other unique veggies), fold the paper multiple times and then cut through all the layers--you'll make a number of uniform shapes at once. Much better (and faster) than cutting out individual mushrooms!

6. When the paint is dry, attach the toppings to your pizza slice with glue. I had the children dribble the Elmer's glue in a zigzag motion over the sauce and then sprinkle the toppings on. Lightly press the toppings into the glue (the glue will dry clear).

YUM! Let's eat!

Printmaking: Warhol Self Portraits

For my last after school Modern Art class I wanted my students to explore the work of Andy Warhol. Last time we studied Warhol, we did the Handy Andy prints (which are a popular one on my blog and with my students). This time, I wanted to have them try printmaking so they could explore the Pop Art  repetitive printed images of Warhol's. With this project we are using foam trays to make a printmaking plate similar to a linocut or woodcut, but without the sharp tools.

This student loves to create Manga-inspired art.
I love this piece because it shows her interests and
is definitely a POP art piece--Warhol would be impressed!

This was a great first "real" printmaking project and the results are always so bright and fun. Some children really embrace this technique and I had one student complete TWO projects with the class time since she was having some much fun. I also did the project one-on-one with my Kindergardener and he loved it too. Clean-up is great since I used water-soluble printmaking ink (although I would love to try something in the future that is more permanent so that the kids could add color with watercolors afterwards...).

This might be a bit of an expense to buy the roller (brayer) if you are doing this project at home, but once you have the supplies on had you ca make a bunch of great prints for gifts, stationary, etc. Give it a try!

Faux Linocut Warhol Self Portraits

Supplies Needed:
Adjust the dimensions of your supplies based on the size of the foam trays you are using...

• A few 4" x 5 1/2" pieces of white paper for drawing your design 
• Pencils and erasers
• Foam trays or styrofoam plates
• Masking tape
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• A scrap piece of cardboard or mat board slightly larger than your foam printing "plate"
• Water soluble printmaking ink
• Brayer (I use the Speedball 4" soft rubber brayer)
• A few 5" x 7" pieces of colored paper (smooth paper with bright colors work well)
• Glue stick
• Large piece of construction paper to mount the finished prints on

Directions:

1. Use the pencil to draw a simple self portrait on the white piece of paper. Make it unique--just like you, but don't get too detailed. 

2. Place the drawing onto the foam tray and tape down. Trace the lines of your drawing with a dull pencil. Press down enough to leave an impression in the foam tray, but not hard enough to poke all the way through the foam or shred the paper drawing. This takes some practice...using the pencil at a slight angle helps. Once you've traced the drawing, remove the drawing and go over the lines you made in the foam tray to make them a bit deeper.

3. Mount your finished foam printing plate to the cardboard using hot glue.

4. Squeeze some printmaking ink onto a spare foam plate or foam tray. Use your brayer (roller) to move the ink around, coating the roller with ink. You don't need it gooping with ink--a nice even coating works best. Roll the inked brayer over your foam printing plate. Lay a piece of colored paper o top of the inked printing plate and press gently with your fingertips. I had the children use one hand to hold the paper still while the other rubbed the image. Remove the paper to see the transferred image. 

5. Repeat as may times as you wish. I had the children make at least four copies of the image ad the they mounted them onto a larger piece of construction paper once the prints were dry.

Enjoy!

This guy is super-cute, too! 

Love the freckles!

And this piece is super-sweet! It makes me smile!

Fun Calder Fish

One of my private art students is open to any art project...while we work I talk to her about all sorts of art and artists and I've been letting her interests guide our studies. She had done the Calder Monogram Mobile project I posted here, but one of Alexander Calder's sculptures I showed her inspired her. So...one of our next sessions, I got out some wire (in a variety of guages and colors) and lots of different kinds of beads and I let her go to town! 

It was great talking about Calder's work with her and then watching her make choices for her fish mobile. This was also a great project for problem solving (How do you get the beads spaced evenly along the wire? And, How do you keep the vertical rows of beads still within the fish "frame"?). 

When she was done, we created a stand for her mobile using a cork with a clothes hanger stuck in it, glued to a piece of mat board (this is my standard mobile "base").

Enjoy!

Peace, Love & Keith Haring!

Right around Valentine's Day, I was having one of my Modern Art after school classes and I thought it would be a great time to have a Keith Haring-inspired lesson. When I look at some of Haring's work, I see social activism and I think he was also encouraging people to get along and join together to change the world. 

Peace, Love and ART!
(Although this artist is frustrated!)

I showed the children some of Haring's work and they had lots to say about the colors, style and message of the images. I then gave each of them a little articulated paper figure that was cut from card stock that they could use in case they needed help drawing the figures. I got the little figure here, on Christy Hale's website. I told the children that they didn't HAVE to use the figure, it was there if they needed help. I encouraged them to complete the sentence "Peace, Love, and..." We brainstormed a bit on how we could finish that sentence and they came up with some great ideas such as:

• Peace, Love, and Minecraft (of course!)
• Peace, Love, and Cheeseburgers
• Peace, Love, and Art

So, I set them loose. I had stacks of different colors of construction paper available for them to trace the figures onto and then cut out. After they had cut their figures out, they glued them onto a background paper and then traced around them with Sharpie. For the backgrounds, I had long strips of paper or squares they could use, depending on their composition. I encouraged them to add motion and voice lines, etc. with the Sharpie.

I kept this project VERY open-ended because I wanted to see what he students would do. I think I would maybe stress next time that the viewer would need to be able to SEE (ie. figure out) how they are completing the sentence "Peace, Love, and..." that might help them with the imagery a bit. I'll have another opportunity to try the project out with my homeschool kids in a couple of weeks so we'll see how they interpret the lesson.

Peace, Love and Dancing!

When the children were done their projects, I had black paper and chalk for them to create graffiti like Haring did in the subways in NYC. I wish I had had some black paper on a roll and I could have had them work really large, but this worked (and they could take their graffiti home with them afterwards!).

Other Keith Haring Lessons to check out:

• Again, this is Christy Hale's Lesson that was published in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of "Instructor." This link has the instructions for her project to make a frieze as well as a printable template for a little figure that can have either a dog, cat, or mouse head. 
• Dali's Moustache has a great lesson where students drawing and painting to create four figures per page with bright-colored backgrounds. Then she has them turn create 3D foam sculptures inspired y their drawings-WOW! I absolutely LOVE her bulletin board display!
• Sarah Ellis Traci has a great Haring lesson where children paint full size Haring figures and make a HUGE mural in the lunch room or down a hallway.
• Once Upon An Art Room uses pastels on black construction paper to create multi-colored gradient backgrounds (great negative space lesson!).

Stop by the above links, tell them Mrs. P sent you and give them some LOVE!

More Giacometti Figures

Last fall I did a foil project with my homeschool kiddos where they learned about Giacommetti, figure drawing and sculpture and they created figures out of aluminum foil. Here's the original post.

"I'm thinking...I'm thinking..."

They came out great! So, I thought my after school Modern Art kiddos would also enjoy making the project. I was really surprised when most of the kids DID NOT dig this project. I presented the same way, but that day, my after school kids had a case of spring fever and this project wasn't able to hold their attention (even with a bit of charades, gesture drawing and squishing foil). One longtime student said, "I hate this project, can I throw it away?"

Despite the bad reviews, the children created some really interesting pieces. One student worked and reworked his figure and finally got the idea to recreate Rodin's "The Thinker." WOW!

Here are the results, enjoy!