Organic and Geometric Creatures

To explore the element of art shape, sixth grade art students looked at organic and geometric shapes. Organic shapes are usually found in nature, and consist of irregular and curved outlines. Geometric shapes can be found in math class and usually have sharp edges and precise angles. 

 

After we learned how to tell the difference between the two types of shape, students created drawings of made-up creatures using only geometric or only organic shapes. The students were encouraged to think of outrageous creatures and come up with the most creative way to use shapes as possible. The result was really great. Can you tell which drawings are organic, and which are geometric? 

Notan Collages

Seventh grade students worked with the Japanese concept of Notan -- which deals with the relationship between light and dark -- to explore space, contrast, balance, and proportion. The collages turned out really nice. The students did a great job creating some really interesting symmetrical designs.

 

Weekly Update 9/16/13 - 9/20/13

This week in art we've been working hard...

Sixth Grade 

Sixth graders have been working with the element of art color. On Monday we talked about color families (primary, secondary, tertiary) and we watched this video to help us remember them:   

Next we talked about color schemes (warm, cool, monochromatic, and complimentary) and students began a painting of a landscape which uses one of the color schemes. The paintings should be finished next week.

Seventh Grade

Seventh graders have been working on grid drawing this week. At the beginning of the week they were working on a group drawing where each student gets a square of a larger image and draws that one section. Then as a class we combine the squares to reveal the larger image. 

Now we're working on detailed self-portraits using the grid system of drawing. These should be done next week.

Eighth Grade

Eighth graders have been talking about positive and negative space this week. We've drawn still life compositions which we are painting now. Instead of doing all of the paint in the positive space (the objects) like a traditional still-life, we are doing a lot of detailed work in the negative space. These will be finished next week as well.

Op Art

 

 

 

 Eighth graders recently finished a short unit on Op art, which we used to study line, shape, and most importantly value. They used value to create the illusion of three dimensionality in a flat drawing. By shading in the edges of each individual shape on their drawing the students create the appearance that the columns in their drawings are round and have bright highlights going down the middle. Great work eighth graders!

Weekly Update 09/03/13 - 09/06/13

Sixth Grade

This week sixth graders spent their time exploring the element of art shape. We discussed the differences between organic and geometric shapes, and then took that knowledge to create drawings of made up creatures using only geometric or organic shapes.

Seventh Grade

Seventh graders finished their abstract drawings from last week, and then worked on Notan collages. Notan is a Japanese design concept which means dark and light. Students took colored pieces of construction paper and cut out shapes along the edges. Then using symmetry students flipped the shapes out of the piece of paper so that there was a mirror image of the shape using positive and negative space. Images to come of these soon.

Eighth Grade

Eighth graders spent the week working on their coil built ceramics. The students did an excellent job building a small vessel which we will glaze in the upcoming weeks.

Digital Art

We finally began shooting our stop motion animation videos. Students have been working on their sets and characters for several weeks, and it was awesome to get to finally get out the cameras and begin shooting. I can't wait to see the finished products!

Radial Name Designs

For our first project in 7th grade art we used our names to create abstract designs which displayed radial symmetry. After spending some time working on creative lettering styles, students created a version of their names using their own style of lettering. Then we learned how to rotate and translate this image so that the letters of our names connect to each other and rotate around the page. By doing this the students created images which look  a lot like a kaleidoscope. Students learned about radial symmetry and made some great drawings at the same time. Can you see the names in each of the drawings?

Weekly Update 8/26/13-8/30/13

Sixth Grade

This week sixth grade spent time working with the elements of art. We looked at the elements line and texture, and completed activities about both. Students created different types of lines, drew contour line drawings, created rubbings to show visual texture, and used folding techniques to create actual texture.

Seventh Grade

This week 7th graders learned about line, shape, and value. We used this knowledge to work on abstract drawings. Students had to create a drawing using various lines and shapes, and using color pencils they added value throughout the image. These should be finished on Tuesday, so more images to come soon.
 

Eighth Grade

Eighth graders also learned about line, shape, and value this week, but they took that knowledge and used it to create Op art images. I didn't take any pictures of them yet, but they should be finished and uploaded soon.