The Great American Solar Eclipse

August 21, 2017 all of North America will experience an eclipse of the sun. This event is a solar eclipse in which the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun for up to about 3 hours, from beginning until end. The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979.

In the art room, what better time to teach my students about the eclipse while also introducing them to white charcoal pencils!

Materials: white charcoal pencils, black paper, sturdy white paper, tape, scissors

Vocab: value, contrast, blending

Solar Eclipse Instructions:

1. Students will first trace and cut out a circle from heavy paper.
2. Tape the circle to the center of a sheet of black construction paper.
3. Trace around the circle with a white charcoal pencil.
4. Decide what phase the eclipse is in and adjust the circle and trace again.
5. Color heavily with white charcoal around the edges of the circle template.
6. Lightly shade out from the edge of the circle, fading into the black.
7. Use your finger to blend the white charcoal from the circle out.
8. Make sure the charcoal is blended and remove the circle template.
9. Label and date the eclipse design.

Partial Eclipse Examples

My middle school students...

POP ART

6th Grade Soda Can Painting 

Materials: Drawing paper, pencil, soda can, tempera paint, paint brush and water, and sharpie

Pop Art - Art based on modern popular culture and the mass media.

Based on Andy Warhol's soup can paintings!

 

We looked at Andy Warhol"s work and talked about the Pop Art Movement!
We watched the YouTube video by David Bowie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4sANPkk3ys


Students then watched a quick example of how to draw a soda can....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s78uLEkReLU

Referring to a reference can or a picture, students each drew a large, highly detailed soda can.


When the soda can drawings were complete, students painted their can. We discussed hard edge painting as well as color mixing. Each student mixed their own colors and created an individual Pop Art painting based on Andy Warhol's soup can series.

 

6th grade Pop Art Paintings!

My latest work...

Feeling inspired by this beautiful spring weather and looking forward to summer...

I have always been inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe and have always loved to paint flowers on a large scale. Georgia O'Keeffe is most famous for her depiction of flowers with over 200 flower paintings. O'Keeffe's floral paintings are large scale depictions of flowers, as if seen through a magnifying lens.

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty" -Georgia O'Keeffe

Illinois Arts Education Week

Celebrating this year's successes!

POINTILLISM

Georges Seurat     A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884

Pointillism /ˈpɔɪntᵻlɪzəm/ is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.

Pointillism is often considered part of the Post-impressionist movement. It was primarily invented by painters George Seurat. While Impressionists used small dabs of paint as part of their technique, Pointillism took this to the next level using only small dots of pure color to compose an entire painting.  
Pointillism reached its peak in the 1880s and 1890s after the Impressionist movement.

7th Grade Pointillism

Students will choose a picture that does not have a great deal of detail, but has lots of color! Still Life or nature pictures work best. (sunset, flowers, fruit, animals, birds, seascape, landscape etc.)

Materials: White drawing paper, a pencil, fine tipped markers and a colored photograph

Students will create a very light sketch in pencil on the white drawing paper.

I will demonstrate the technique of pointillism with the fine tipped markers. Students will begin dotting their pointillism composition when their drawing is complete. Please refer to the colors in the photo and try to recreate the composition with dots only. NO LINES, NO COLORING!  Blend and layer colors, fill the entire piece of paper!

DOTS ONLY! Steps in creating a pointillism...

7th Grade Student Examples......