Tingatinga Tall "Tails"

Tingatinga Giraffes

First Grade is learning about the art of Kenya and Tanzania.  They have been looking at Tingatinga paintings for inspiration. These colorful paintings, full of patterns and playful African animals, were primarily created by Edward Said Tingatinga.  He sold them to tourists who came to Tanzania to see animals on safari.  Many artists emulate his style today, creating this new art movement in the area.  We decided to focus on giraffe paintings, so we started off by watching a tall tale video with animation done with Tingatinga colors and patterns.  Watch here!  I had them watch it while I passed out supplies. They loved it and were singing the theme song for days.  We then painted the giraffes in black, waited for them to dry overnight, and then added outlines and polka-dots.  I tried to focus on brush techniques to get the various lines we needed for the work.  Here are some action shots and some finished work!

Brenna, Grade 1, Outlining and Adding a Pattern

Ava, Grade 1

Lila F.  Grade 1

Yalexi, Grade 1

Lila M., Grade 1

Blending Values and Creating Contrast

Brian, Grade 7

Danny, Grade 7

The 6-7th grade class used acrylic paint on canvas this week as they practiced blending colors into a gradient.  They created concentric circles of various values, and they practiced blending the colors without losing the multiple values.  I gave them freedom to choose what they wanted to add in the front of their picture.  I used a snow scene in my example, so many chose that, but we had an underwater scene, some city skylines, and a tropical sunset.  All were painted in black to show silhouettes created by backlighting.

Gabe, Grade 7

Quin, Grade 6

Lily, Grade 6

Daniel, Grade 6

Birds of a Feather

Birds by Charley Harper (click on link below to see more)

Charley Harper is the artist who inspired this week's Kindergarten lesson.  His stylized paintings simplify forms with shapes and lines.  The students created a collage scene using paper and some splatter paint, and then they built various birds from cut paper shapes.  I have been trying to find ways to give them more practice with scissors, and cutting these shapes was a fun way to do that.  Most of the birds could be made from circles and triangles.  Here are a few samples from the two classes.

Sophia, Kindergarten

Xander, Kindergarten

Eli, Kindergarten

Aiden, Kindergarten

Drawing the Figure from the Inside Out

Fourth Grade Figures from the Front and the Back

 As part of a unit on the Renaissance, our fourth graders have been learning to improve their figure drawing by considering the skeleton.  When thinking about the bone structure of our bodies, artists can draw the body in proportion.  The figures shown here are all examples of proportional figures drawn by the students.  They drew the skeleton, cut it out, and then used it as a template for drawing a figure.  I love how some of them got Christmas sweaters, and one had a Star Wars shirt.  We looked at work by Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, who studied human anatomy to improve the realism of their work.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one example of a Renaissance artist who studied anatomy to improve realism in drawing.

Greek Columns in Clay

Do you know the three main types of columns the Greeks introduced in their architecture?  The second graders have been learning a poem about them, and they used clay to construct various columns with the features mentioned in the poem.  They will display their work and perform their poems this Friday at their multicultural celebration.

Ionic columns are topped with scrolls
Doric columns are flat
Corinthian columns are much more ornate
And now you know all about that!

 Samples of student work:  They learned to join pieces of clay by scratching and using slip to attach the pieces.  They learned to roll cylinders, scratch texture, and to use water to smooth out their work. This was our first clay project of the year, and they did pretty well!

Corinthian Columns

Ionic Columns

Doric Columns

Weaving and Printing African Textiles

Greta's Kente Design

Anabelle's Kente Design

Sophia's Kente Design

Kindergarten students in 103 and 104 have gone to Ghana this week through art and literature.  They read about Anansi the Spider, and they have learned about Ashanti culture through their art and folktales.  In art class, we compared weaving and stamping.  We looked at kente cloth designs as well as Adinkra prints.  Students tried both!  They will wear their Adinkra creations next week in a multi-cultural fashion show. 

I made stamps from craft foam and cardboard, using scissors and a glue gun.

Kindergarten Adinkra Print Robes (printed on pillow cases)

Alexa and Grady work to weave patterns in their kente drawings.

Jillian works to create line and shape patterns using colors she observed in images of kente cloth.

Stephen and Arianna print with Adinkra stamps.

Colors of India

Henna Hands and Elephants on Parade

 The first graders are creating some masterpieces based on the culture of India.  They are learning about India in their classroom, and in art class we are making lots of designs that show radial symmetry and organic imagery that can be seen in the art of mendhi and rangoli.  Pictured here are three projects.  They cut colorful hands and decorated them with mendhi designs, using brown marker as their "henna".  They looked at photos from a parade in India that included elephants, and they made their own colorful elephant with crayon and watercolors before placing it on a colorful background with radial designs.  Below, you can see students trying to create sand designs.  They watched a video about rangoli artists before using traced shapes to create their own template to fill with colorful sand.  They will be making saris and Diwali lanterns for a fashion show next week! 

Radial Symmetry with Rangoli