End of Year Art Show

Wilmington's Fine Arts Fair has come and gone.  The artwork on display at all levels is really spectacular, and it was really awesome to see so many parents and community members in attendance.  I managed to snap a few pictures of our artwork from Holmes and East End, as well as the Model Wilmington we made in East End's Art Club.  Check them out!

5th Grade - Books

I've been managing to get a lot of mileage out of my cup of sticks.  For this project, fifth graders pulled 3 sticks out of the cup with random words on them, and then were challenged to write a short story involving the random objects.  First, the stories were planned in their sketchbooks.  Then, the fifth graders wrote them out and illustrated them on small booklets that I had made for everyone.  This project makes me wish we had a few more weeks of school so we could finish these books up nice and tightly; as it stands now the books are mostly pencil, with only a few finishing in time to add some color to it.

Anyway, the result is a ton of very strange and extremely unique stories about evil pickles, possessed hula hoops, or skateboard superheroes.  Here are a few pages for a little peek.

2nd Grade - Cartooning Cliff

I've sort of made it an unofficial goal to include some more of my own artistic interests into my lessons this year (I wrote and illustrated this book, and we did a different cartooning project with fourth grade earlier).  Our final second grade project of the school year introduced students to a cartoon character I've invented named Cliff.  Cliff likes to do all sorts of different things, but he doesn't really like to do the same thing twice.  So we worked hard to think of something unique for Cliff to do.  For the lesson, I gave the second graders a step-by-step on how to draw his head, then it was up to them to give him an activity and fill in the background.

Before you take a look at all the new and cool ideas for Cliff from the second graders, make sure you follow him on Instagram.

4th Grade - Blind Contour

Similar to the second grade project "Making Mistakes," this fourth grade lesson was mainly about putting yourself in a hole and figuring your way out of it.  First, the kids made a blind contour drawing of the person sitting across from them by drawing with a Sharpie marker on a clipboard under the table.  Not being able see makes drawing a face accurately nearly impossible, so we talked a lot about letting our expectations go; whatever happens you'll just have to deal with.  Once the drawing was done, then the "fixing" could begin.  A lot of fourth graders tried many different strategies to complete their artwork with markers.  Some embraced how bizarre their faces looked, others covered it up or changed their ideas completely.  Below are some outstanding examples of students not giving up on their ideas, but working through problems.  Art is a process after all.

Kindergarten - Picasso Portraits

Kindergartners were introduced to Cubism and Picasso with this project.  We simplified the complex idea of perspective in Cubism and decided that Picasso wondered what a face would look like if you could see it from a bunch of sides at the same side.  Picasso didn't want his artwork to look like anyone else's, so he thought differently.  If you looked at a face upside down, the eyes would be below the nose.  From the side, an ear would be right in the middle.  

To make their projects, the kids cut a large face shape out of construction paper and glued it onto a full piece of a different color.  Then, they drew facial features onto small pieces of colored paper, cut them out, and glued them onto the face.  The kindergartners were encouraged to think about how to make their face look different, which is easier said than done, but we're just getting our feet wet in that department.  Take a look at their unique designs.