A Bloom of Jellyfish

The technical term for a group of jellyfish is a smack or a bloom. Considering how beautiful and ethereal these kindergarten mixed media works are, I'm going with bloom. I did this lesson a couple years ago here and decided to give it another go. We broke down our jellyfish into 3 parts: the bell or hood which starts out with a simple curved line. We looked at pictures of all different colored creatures and learned these colors hide what the jellyfish has eaten to protect themselves from prey. So the children could use whatever color chalk pastels they wanted. Next came the oral arms which grab the food and feed it to the mouth on the underside of the creature. These often look like ribbons. At this point we switched to oil pastel and drew long skinny tentacles (where the stinging cells exist) in a variety of colors.  My kinders did a great job of carefully painting around their chalk pastel creatures and painting right on top of their oil pastel tentacles. They could instantly see the difference between these two medias. They sprinkled salt on top for a bubbly effect. Once these were dry, glued strands of yarn were added for more tentacles.

1st grade work

More Peacocks and Seahorses

Chalk pastel peacocks - 1st graders

As much as I missed your show tunes this class, your focus paid off!
Nice job Jenna!

"Now, you're welcome to add".., "No, I'm done!" :)
Minimal and beautiful Presley.

Ella was wearing most of this lovely shade of chartreuse
all over her sweater and arms. Lucky for me, her mom didn't
 bat an eye and told her she was being a "real artist". And she is!

Addison paid careful attention to our real peacock photo source
and referred to it often.

It is very important to Reese for things to be just so!

She seems to have a 5th grader persona. ;)

 Ella, 1st grade

Watercolor, oil pastel, and collage

 Jenna, 6th grade

Watercolor with salt effect background

Tristyn, 5th grade

Watercolor and acrylic seahorse

Liquid watercolor background with salt and plastic wrap

 Lacie, 5th grade

Marker, watercolor and salt effect background

Reese, 1st grade

Oil pastel, watercolor and collage

Is Monday Over Yet?

I did this Grumpy Cat on Mark Rothko inspired color fields lesson over a year ago. Their pitiful faces have a reverse effect on me - I can't help but smile! Wishing you All a Wonderful Week!

Kindergarten Pastel Peacocks

The theme for this month's class is Wings and Fins (birds and sea creatures.) We broke down the parts of this gorgeous creature in steps. I told my kinders they could create an imaginary peacock using whatever colors they desired or more realistic colors. I love seeing where fearless five year olds go from there. Most of my group were headed to get ice cream at Cold Stone with their Girl Scout troop afterward, so they were Extra Exuberant - as you can see! (Silly Miss Mary asked,"Now are you all Girl Scouts or Brownies?" We're Girl Scouts. We're not Brownies because we don't sell brownies." Lol!)  And despite all my little tips and tricks, most of these cuties were covered in beautiful hues up to their elbows and some great face smudges. It's not art class if you're not getting a little dirty!
Link to the original post of this lesson is here.

Beyond Direct Line Draw Lessons

 Abstract Collages

Jim Dine Valentines

Nature Contour Drawings with Bleeding Tissue

Mixed Media Abstract Collage

While the majority of my art lessons tend to be animal subjects using a basis of direct line drawing lessons, I do Love veering into more personal observation and abstract based lessons. Maybe because my personal art is so reality based, I tend to be drawn into the opposite direction. I think abstract lessons level the playing field so to speak, for those children who feel their drawing skills aren't what they'd hope, but have So much to say and a desire to create. 

The above collage student work (observational and abstract - with links to the original post) are some art lessons I've done without the aid of Miss Mary's white board and marker. I will continue to do direct line drawing lessons and make no apologies for it. But I hope to incorporate more observational and student driven thought into my art lessons. (Thank you Phyl! You are such a Great mentor to me.) 

Random Acts of Creativity

Alcohol Ink Tiles with Metal Embossing

We combined alcohol ink tiles and metal embossing for a twist

on Jim Dine Heart pieces. The tiles were a big hit a couple years

ago at my daughter's 11th birthday party here. 

Directions for tiles can be found here.

With a couple coats of Krylon Crystal Clear spray

these tiles can make great trivets or coasters.

Metal Tooling with Metallic Marker Borders

My piece is being gifted to my Mom and Dad

My students and I experimented with metal repousse or embossing on small squares of aluminum. I was inspired by this project from Georgetown Elementary Art Blog. We used dull pencils and ballpoint pens to create designs. We had the option of adding ink to our pieces or flipping them over to use the reverse raised side. It was a medium that my tween students and I thoroughly enjoyed. I offered pieces of black square construction paper and metallic markers to continue or add to their metal designs.

Gelatin Printing

The girls enjoyed experimenting with nature gelatin prints inspired by this post from Cassie Stephens.

They unanimously agreed that the "ghost" prints, (after the leaves were removed) were the most interesting, resembling x-rays.

A special thanks to my Tuesday afternoon group of girls! It was fun exploring new media with you!

Moonlit Giraffe Portraits

My kindergarten through 2nd graders looked at the illustrations by Guy Parker-Rees in the book Giraffes Can't Dance. They created their up-close giraffes using the wet on wet technique with liquid watercolors. Using all sides of their paper, they were encouraged to create a detailed jungle background of leaves, vines, flowers and a full moon in oil pastels. They could see how it resisted the blue watercolor that was then painted for the night sky. Last, they added stars with acrylic using the backs of their paint brushes.

 1st grade

 Kinder

 1st grade

Kinder