We just completed these cow drawings on black Strathmore 500 paper. Cows are fun to draw because they are essentially made of two trapezoids. The pencil lines were painted out with black acrylic paint.
Then students colored the drawings with Cray-Pas oil pastels. They are beautiful! The artwork is on display on the wall outside of my classroom. This is an 8th grade project.
I invent all of my own lessons. This is one of my favorites! They are so pretty – I love them. I did the project with my 9th period A day class.
Materials:
Instructions:
My 8th grade accelerated Studio in Art students completed an intense nine weeks of creating these peace posters for the Chittenango Lions Club. The Lions sponsor an international peace poster competition for middle school aged children with a grand prize of $5,000.
It is an illustration lesson/editorial design project with some limitations – no words or characters of any kind, no trademarked items or advertisements. We used 16″ x 20″ white tagboard and Prismacolor colored pencils. The Lions Club generously donated enough sets so that my students could each have their own 48 color set. Thirty-eight students competed this year.
Students spent additional hours on these posters at home on the weekends to complete them in time for the contest deadline. The winning poster will go on to the regional competition and possibly the state one as well. The theme for this year is “We Are All Connected”. Now that we are all back in school full-time, this sentiment is truly apropos. <3
My Art-8 students created these fabulous Sugar Skulls. They came out of the kiln yesterday just in time for a Day of the Dead celebration. We used the slab technique over a plastic head mold. They added and subtracted clay. I helped them remove the sculpture from the form replacing it with paper towels, slashed the cheekbones to create the skeleton shape and added holes to weave a wire through them.
Projects were bisque fired then glazed with these great confetti style glazes. Now they can hang on a wall to be enjoyed for many years to come! <3
Two of my classes used hand-building skills to create these adorable clay lizards. We used the Sax Colorburst glazes. I love the colors, especially the Firecracker!!! The projects remain in the glass case in the Chittenango Middle School atrium.
We looked at the work of the Aboriginals of Australia for inspiration. Different patterns were added to the body, head, limbs and tail using a variety of techniques.
My Studio in Art students recently completed these still-life paintings based on photographs I took last year at Vince’s Gourmet Imports (440 S. Main Street, North Syracuse, New York 13212).
I have paired them here with the resource picture. Contour line drawings made on white drawing paper were transferred to canvas panel via the magic of graphite paper. Then students used acrylic paint. They had their own palettes and mixed colors by adding white and raw sienna to every hue, which gives the paintings a sense of unity (the colors “go” together). I encouraged them to maintain their own styles. This included the option of outlining in black, consistent brush work, removing or adding text, and creating a different background.
They are 8th graders taking this high-school level course for high school credit and the opportunity to take upper level art electives next year. We have one quarter left of the school year – I have plans for two more lessons to complete course work off-campus if necessary. The Chittenango Central School District is temporarily closing on Tuesday with an indefinite return date at this time.
A trip to Vince’s Gourmet Imports (440 N. Main Street, North Syracuse, New York 13212) inspired my new still life painting project. The Studio in Art students completed the course with these epic 16″ x 20″ acrylic paintings.
I have paired them here with their inspiration photograph. Students selected the picture then began with the contour line drawing. These were transferred to canvas with the magical help of graphite paper, placed onto gessoed and burnt sienna-stained canvas panels.
