Mrs Taryn's Art Adventures: Maret 2012

Portraits with Picasso

“I paint things as I think them…not as I see them.” Pablo Picasso

Teaching from Picasso is one of my favourite strategies. Students of all ages seem to appreciate the simple lines, abstract representations of reality and the bold colours. Not to mention the layers of meaning and interesting contexts that in which his paintings are established.

Anyway, grade 4 is a fantastic year to introduce Pablo Picasso at greater detail. After a short presentation on cubism and a time with a few interactive websites dedicated to teaching about Picasso, we explored synthetic and analytical cubism. Students then converted their own portraits into cubist designs...

Grade 4 oil pastel portrait

We completed these picture with either watercolour or oil pastel. Kids loved learning 'secret techniques' with the materials. With oil pastels, I recommend:

Smudging and blending- using fingers or cloth to smudge the colours together
Scratching - using a toothpick to scratch our colour and create intricate designs

Drawing techniques

My grade 7 art class are learning drawing techniques, such as cross hatching and stippling.

After practicing the techniques they were required to magnify (through gridding) and copy an image....

Grade 7 pencil drawing

I am really happy with the results however....next time I am going to do the unit differently. This took a long time and students were frustrated with the detail required. A less complicated image may serve the students just as well and teaching from established artists and student creativity (rather than purely technique base) is always my preference.

Magnification inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

My grade 6 art class began the year with magnification. I started with the concept of still life drawings by displaying a single flower in a glass jar. Other than the fantastic opportunities to teach drawing techniques and perception (such as showing reflection, how the stem appears through the glass, recognising curved and straight lines, etc), it is great introduction into magnification.

Students then selected an area that they wanted to magnify...

Presenting Georgia O'Keeffe's beautiful paintings is good at this point. Students are fascinated with how her paintings can be interpreted in a variety of ways....we know that they are generally flowers but could they be an erupting volcano or a mysterious forest, etc.

'Music - Pink and Blue II' Georgia O'Keeffe

Many students at this age level are started to beleive they can't do art, they are not good a painting or drawing, so I only give one simple instruction for their painting project.

1. Show gradients in your painting - a variety of hues of the same colour. Why? It gives depth and reminds the students about mixing and blending colours well.

Grade 6 art work