cooperative 7th / 8th slatter canvas

 as a cooperative piece for the art show - 7th and 8th graders had fun doing our first layer of a canvas - the splatter paint phase - splatterpaint needs to be a standard - because it is the funnest technique!
what we did:
1.) rules! no splattering anything but the canvas
2.) get low and think about composition and space
3.) splatter with creativity

yup - we did the positive/negative space lesson! as a standard  for my upper elementary artists- and focused on robert indiana and his iconic love art and stamp. i started with keynote show - always a hit - that i found here.

here's what we did:
1. we watched the awesome powerpoint - i have keynote - and discussed typography and fonts - they loved this discussion and these art talks are just so valuable - to see a thing is different than to speak of a thing or create a thing - all are important!

2. we looked at many examples of positive/negative space and identified them - and many examples of robert indiana art and bio info.

3. then i did 2 or 3 examples of the cut paper method = two colors - contrasting or complimentary - on top of each other - and then cut! directions were to cut either an abstract, tesselation, or object.

4. then they had to pick a different color to mount,  results rocked!

follow up was a robert indiana word lesson....upcoming!

what's your superpower?

what's your superpower?
my theme for the year is 'you are unique, valuable and the best art ever!'
to kick this off i did this lesson at the beginning of the year with the whole school! it took waaaay to long - 3 classes for some but the results were spectacular!
what we did:
1) we started a conversation about superpowers. i started with me and it went something like this...
i know my superpowers because they are something i love to do - like art - something someone else like a friend, teacher, mom or sister has told me about me - funny, kind, good at math.

2) we had to do it BIG and 'fill the space' - challenging because often kiddos want to make everything tiiiinyyy....so we practiced filling a 5X7 with a head and torso shapes.

3) artists were only allowed primaries black and white - i use tempera cakes and the kids dug it! we practiced blending all kinds of colors and of course skin colors were the most challenging!

 4) while we waited between drying times it was important to have one of our 'art talks' which is to discuss and storm our brains for superpowers - REAL ones - not what we want but what we already are. That conversation was absolutely worth the extra time...such kind and funny exchanges.

 5) then we got out the sharpies - always a favorite - and wrote the out on white thick paper copying from our storm list.

 6) and when they were finished...oh my! so much color - so much joy - and superpowers!

do you have superpowers? tell me!