Working with a Monochromatic Color Scheme

The photos in this post may be a bit out of order.  I was having trouble once I got them all loaded into the post and I was unable to move them around. 

Monochromatic Green Cartoon

Table Sign for Blues
The paint spot charm hanging from the bottom has blue-green on this side and blue-violet on the reverse.

     The opening lessons for art this year are coming together nicely.   Last week they were assigned a topic by having a category of art given to them on a tag.  I had these written on tags that were placed on the desks.  When they were ready to start working, they pulled a different tag from a bowl that told them the media to use. 

     I have decided to start with some projects that give the students some amount of freedom to choose the topic, but since we are working with colors on the color wheel they are having some restrictions on the color scheme. This week we are doing the students choice of art topic, but the color is being restricted to a designated color family.  That is assigned simply by the table where the student sits. 

Monochromatic Blue Landscape

     I am re using some signs that hung above the tables in the past, but I added more interest this year by creating shaped extentions that hook on by paperclips.   The middle piece is just a shape cut from construction paper.  The bottom shape looks like a smaller paint blot and it was made by painting on the cut out using the designated color and the 2 colors that are adjacent to it. 

    

Table Sign for Yellows

Charm on bottom has yellow-green on one side and yellow-orange on the other.

Monochromatic Yellow Design

Color Inspiration from Paint Store!

When these paint sample charts are open they reveal some really beautiful color schemes centered on color taken from several nature photos.  For our use in this lesson, we are looing at the cover only. 

In the photo below, you'll see some different signs that I have posted in the room while we are doing color families.  The students helped think of many different names for the 6 basic colors.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Table Sign for Greens
Charm hanging from bottom has yellow-green on one side and blue green on the other side.

Collaboration as a Theme for This Year In the Art Room

Last year the theme in the art room was about getting inspired and finding specific sources for inspiration.

I used a very large image of a paint brush and on the bristles we made it look like it was dipped into all the colors of the spectrum.

Our new theme for the 2010 - 2011 school year will be COLLABORATION

Close up of one of the speech bubbles to help students be familiar with our theme this year.

This year the new theme centers on the word "Collaborate".

It has been defined as working together and cooperating with one another to get the most accomplished in art class.

My students are coming up with some expressions to be written on speech bubbles to go above the lions' heads.

I hope to encourage more student talk about the theme of collaboration in the very near future. 

Perhaps those student that finish assigned work early will  make some collaborative art.  I am going to encourage early finishers to work on artist trading cards and I hope to have one painting on stretched canvas completed for each quarter of the school year.

Crayon Art by a Duluth Artist

On our recent trip to Duluth, Minnesota I was able to meet a wonderful artist, Kristina Nelson in her studio. 

The first day, I was able to look into her shop through the windows.   The next day I went back and she was actually working on her latest piece.  It was a real treat to see her creating at the easel.   


Kristina, the artist and her Grandpa with his portrait

She had some heavyweight tan paper and she was blocking in her subject.  I noticed some polyester quilt batting that was sitting beside her work area.  So I asked her how she used it.  I found out that Kristina ... " uses the quilt batting to brush off the drawing as she colors because little bits of crayons break off as she colors. The quilt batting wipes them away - keeping her drawing surface clean.  She also uses the quilt batting to shine the drawings when they are completely finished.  Finally, she uses the quilt batting to clean her crayon tips."

With my quilting interest, I always have plenty of extra batting on hand in the scrap box!  I think it would be fun to try her methods on my own.  I even think most of my students in 5th or 6th grade might have enough patience to practice her blending techniques with me in a drawing unit. 

I really loved the artist's versatility in her subject matter.  She is able to stylize flowers and animals and in other pieces she may depict them very realistically.  All her pieces have a very full range of palette colors.  The unusual thing about the way she layers the crayon wax is that the colors have a wonderful depth.  It is nearly like one would achieve in oil paint!  The color glows from within.


"Going North" by Kristina Nelson


I'd like to direct you to her website where she has been keeping an archive of her work so that you can experience her variety of subjects.  It's amazing to know that she does her work with waxy kid's crayons, namely Crayola or RoseArt brands!  If you are interested to see more photos of her working in her studio  there are some on file with the Duluth News Tribune.  I like to scroll through those to gain an insight to her unique methods.

A most ordinary art material, made extraordinary by Kristina Nelson!

Quilts on Barns

Goddard Barn quilt Kentucky photo by Chris Breeze  (everystockphoto)

I've been hearing more and more about rural communities getting excited about revamping barns and having 8 foot by 8 foot quilt paintings created to hang on the exteriors to beautify the architecture and create tourism.  I am looking into this subject more because of my own interest and because I think it may be a nice way to connect to an art lesson for this fall.

Last week in our local paper a nearby community was recognized for it's barn quilt fame.  It all started as a personal interest of one person but it grew on the community and so many more people became involved as the project gained fame.  Rosemary of  Rosemary's Blog has written a lovely post about several of the quilts on the barns near me in Caledonia Minnesota.  I also have a friend that is going to loan me the calendar that was published last year as a fundraiser for the Chamber of Commerce.  If time allows, I'll take a little drive there myself to do a little photo shoot to get some good reference photos for the kids to use.  If I happen to see new calendars, I'll pick a few of those up too. 

Here is a link to the article that I noticed in the La Crosse Tribune. 

I'd like to create a power point presentation with photos of barns around the state.  Wisconsin certainly has some interesting ones.  I know that the southeastern side of the state also has many barns with the quilt designs.  It might be fun to connect the students with the blog that Jen writes as she specializes in drafting patterns for the barn quilts she photographs. 

Quilt Patch Barn photo by designatednaphour (everystockphoto)

Although it might be nice to do a full color piece with the barn quilt, I am also thinking it may show emphasis if we rendered the barn in strong values of black, white, and gray and did the quilt design in vivid color.  Wouldn't that be spectacular?

Working at the Easel

Working at the Easel
Originally uploaded by quilterinagarden

After discussing two different reading assignments, we got down to the business of creating at the easel. Livi and I talked about her doll collection and her wonderful pets and she decided to do a painting of her bunny. She and her family rescued it from the humane society. She worked most of the afternoon and was able to finish it the same day she started. She is an awesome little artist!

Clearing the Classroom Clutter

Now that my classroom floor has been waxed, I've been working to put my room back in shape.  I have thrown things that I don't need anymore into the dumpster and have been trying to organize the things that I think are important to have out and available. 

I also had a good day with a bulletin board idea that I put up today too.  I will have to get a picture of it tomorrow.  My inspirational word for the students this year will be:  COLLABORATE.  I found some really awesome lion fabric, were the lions are lying in the grass and they look like they are consulting with one another. 

Our open house seems to be earlier in the week that usual.  That will take place next Tuesday already.   We have 4 days of school in-service times that same week, so the room must really be whipped into shape this week!

Creating with the Kids

The art room has been a busy place this summer. I've been doing some tutoring and various kids have been in and out for lessons in reading and painting.

I have a few photos to share about the paintings.

These 3 girls were here on some of the days together and were able to paint in the mornings until lunchtime. It has been a great incentive to get the reading lessons done first so that we have time for painting too!

Here are some, but not all of the canvases that have been worked on by my students in the last 7 or 8 weeks.    We will finish up the week after next and I'll have to start getting the room ready again for regular classes to start again at the end of August.  It has been a joy having so many kids come in and design their own compositions.  Most often we used canvases that were 16 x 20.  It has been an ideal size to finish in 2 to 3 sessions.  They love painting in the changeable background colors.  Then I encourage them to do drawings on plain white paper to be collaged onto the canvas.  Often they also work back into the collage pieces using oil crayons and it blends right into the painted background.  The acrylic medium we were using was the mod podge in a matte finish.  It worked super well for the gluing and the final varnish. 

The twins with their paintings about the Amazon River

I hope to add another post about our summer painting sessions in a couple of weeks.  I need to have the camera along at the right time!

Anna with her nature painting

We'll have about a week or two to continue playing around and then I will need to give the art room a thorough cleaning in time for school to start in the last week of August.  I believe we have an open house somewhere around August 25th.  I've got a couple of canvases started too, and there is always more to add to my classroom door.  It's an ongoing project and it would be nice to call it finished.