2nd Grade Still Life Paintings

Armed with the knowledge and awe of color mixing, 2nd grade students went on to paint their drawn still life.  I asked them to paint the background first, a single color of their choice.  I requested that it be a tint because then it would not stand out quite as much as the things in the front. 
Students spent a long time painting these.  Most students were very engaged the entire time.   They spent a lot of time mixing colors that they wanted for each object.  They referenced photographs of the still life when they wanted to. 

Other students struggled to stay engaged in painting, partially because they are such young kids.  Next time, I think I will have students draw and observe a still life, but will have them use watercolors instead of tempera paint.  

The best things to come out of this project were the students' profound interest in color mixing and their interest and confidence in drawing from observation.

Below are come examples of paintings both in process and complete.  Those students who were able to fully engage and persist made come absolutely fabulous work.  Keep in mind that the students mixed all of the colors you see from only the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and white. 





Along the way the students learned about brush strokes and how artists use lines to show how forms are round or flat and to lead the viewers eye in the right direction.  We also learned that each object has many colors in it, not just one.  There may be 20 kinds of green in just one pasture!   Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin were some of the artists we learned from. 

Carlie did an amazing job color mixing as she tried to match the colors she saw in some objects. 

 

Observational Drawing by 2nd grade

Students in grade 2 are learning to look closely at objects, and to draw what they see, in preparation for creating still life painting. 

 We talked about how the secret to drawing realistically from observation is looking very closely at all the ins and outs and bumps and lines, and also, drawing very slowly.  Students were encouraged to move their pencil at the speed of an ant crawling along the object.  They were also told to look up a whole lot more than they looked down.  In most cases, the kids were really happy with the level of detail and realism in their drawings.  They surprised themselves, and now they know the secret to drawing that adults seem to forget!  

 
 

3-Day Portrait Sculpture Challenge

Students in grades 7-8 learned about busts and portraits as an introduction to sculpture and clay.
The first day they learned how to create the generalized proportions of the human face. 
Next, they each received a photograph of a famous person, and embraced the challenge of recreating that famous face to the best of their ability in clay. 

Students had to observe the famous faces closely, and notice all of the small things that makes each face unique.

Both myself and many of the students were impressed by the clay portraits they made in only 3 class periods.  Many of the students had never sculpted with clay before.

Two "Rosa Parks" by one 7th and one 8th grader

Pablo Picasso- amazing job by Jerry.