Art and Chemistry

Our colored eggs to celebrating Spring. We made natural food coloring by mashing up blueberries, brewing strong coffee, boiling tumeric, grating carrots, spinach, and beets.

Observational Drawing

I want the students' to learn to draw from observation. I've been setting up various still lifes. This drawing was done by a six year old. It is a potted plant. The artist included the lamp that was being used as a light source.

Winter Watercolor

This animation was also created during indoor recess. Music is by the composer Allen Shawn. Click on watercolor image to view.



Zen at Recess

Last week it was too cold to go outside after lunch. So I gave out sheets with dots to make drawings. It's never been so quiet and peaceful during recess time.

Hot Baked Type

MMmmm today we made type out of dough and ate it hot out of the oven.

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Winter Weather

It has been a very cold and snowy year. The children don't seem to mind at all except when it is too cold to go outside. I illustrated the base of the eyes and body for these snow people. The student painted the details.

Handmade Cards

School is finally back to regular classes. We started the week with some sad news that one of the instructors had been seriously injured in a car accident. The children designed large get well cards together.

The Medium

So there is this silver marker that appeared in the instructor's drawer. I'm not really sure where it came from or who is the owner. The children are not supposed to use it. They like to go and get it anyway. They start out trying to put ink on paper. They usually end up scribbling all over the table with their "tags". I have named it "The Graffiti Marker." The marker makes them very expressive. I can't bear to throw it out. Good thing for magic erasers!

Glitter Continued

Even after making all the Rock Star Gingerbread we still had some glitter left. The children discovered writing with glitter and glue.

The Start of the Holidays

It's officially the holidays! So we got out the glitter. My students started sprinkling it on their illustrations. Then one student poured it all over the gingerbread icon she was painting. She declared she had made a"Gingerbread Rock Star" The rest of the students joined in on the trend. We had glitter everywhere!

Zen Illustrations

I've tried my own tactics at maintaining a sane classroom. My friend gave me this sheet called Zen Dots. It was one of her undergraduate exercises at the School of Visual Arts. The children love it as well.

The Rules

My students get a little bit crazy sometimes. So the Director asked that I go over the rules. I didn't really think it would be effective to lecture the children. So I told them they needed to write their own rules. Only problem is some of them are in first grade. So I told those student they could draw their rules.

Handmade Type

Today the children made type with their hands.

Out of the Box

While I was teaching the first animations. I had several students say "I don't know what to draw." So when the next group came into the classroom I sat them down and I asked them to name things that moved. They made a list, fire, the sun, a horse, a bouncy ball....While they were making the list their classmate was hopping around the room. I pointed out that he would be a great subject for their first animation. The following animation is the result. The student went out of the set frame box to bring out the character of his classmate who never sits still. The music was also created by the children.

Check out Off frame

Very First Animations

These are the animations that I made with my elementary students. They drew their animations on numbered frames. I produced them on the computer. The students also made the music for the animation titled Fingerprint.
Check out Rectangle Man

Click here for M

And here to view Fingerprint

REdesign

I had my six to nine year old students redesign a outlined graphic of a poppy. Then we xeroxed the originals to create their own coloring sheets.

Sugar Skulls

My students made Sugar Skulls for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Sugar skulls are sold by vendors in Mexico during the week of Day of the Dead. The traditionally they are made by hand and decorated with sequins and colorful icing.

Collaborative Illustrations

I am going to start posting again because I've missed blogging. I did this collaborative illustration project with my students. They are 6-8 years old. Each student had to draw a part. Either the head the body or the feet. The paper was folded so they couldn't see what the other had drawn until the end.

You win some

All was not lost this year. I'm proud to say I convinced one student that doubted the program to stay. He really applied himself to creating a body of work. All the images he used were his own and he experimented with combining them in Photoshop.