The Art Studio at PS 250

Monday, April 23, 2012

3rd Grade Flower Still Life Paintings

Students in 3rd Grade have been working on Still Life Paintings of flowers. We began the unit (as shown in an earlier post) by painting flowers in India Ink. After that lesson, students learned about warm and cool colors. We looked at two different abstract paintings and discussed how color can create mood.

Emil Nolde, "Tropical Sun" (from lessing-photo.com)

Helen Frankenthaler, "Blue Territory" (from all-art.org)

We looked at each of the above paintings and discuss which season each painting reminds us of. Then we discussed how colors can be classified into "cool" (blues, greens, etc.) and "warm" (reds, oranges, etc.) colors. We spent the next two weeks exploring ways of making warm and cool colors in paint via mixing with various sizes of brushes.

After this, we revisited observational still life painting. I asked the students, "If you were to paint the flower (we painted the first week) again, what might you do differently?". Some examples of things students said were that they would "look at the flowers more so that their drawings were more realistic" and they would "paint each petal instead of the flower shape so that the flowers have more details". Students then painted the flowers from observation using brown wash (paint mixed with water) to create an underpainting.

3-228

3=228

3-228

The following week, students re-visited warm and cool colors and looked at two different examples of still life flower paintings. They learned that when artists choose warm or cool colors for the foreground, then do the opposite in the background, it creates a lot of contrast, which makes the flowers "pop" forward.

Vincent Van Gogh, "Irises" (from Ibiblio.org);
Example of warm colors in the background
and cool colors in the foreground

Marsden Hartley, "Summer Clouds and Flowers" (from brooklynmuseum.org)
Example of warm colors in the foreground and
cool colors in the background

We discussed that this is just one technique for painting flowers (and there are many other ways to paint flowers), but that for this project, we would focus on warm and cool colors being separate in our paintings. The following week, students worked on painting their flowers in either warm or cool colors. After that, students did the opposite types of colors in their background.

3-303 painting

3-228 painting

3-204 painting

The final week, students worked on adding details to their flower paintings using small brushes.
Please enjoy our Flower Still-Life Paintings!

Alysha, 3-303

Jennesy, 3-303

Jordan, 3-303

Joselyn, 3-303

Larry, 3-303

Lucy, 3-303

Daniela, 3-204

Eliza, 3-204

Karen, 3-204

Stephany, 3-204

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Kindergarten "Delicious Desserts" Paintings

Kindergarten has been working on a painting unit. They began by exploring brushstrokes and mixing as many colors as they possibly could within the confines of an 18" X 20" piece of paper.

Jayric from K-B06 using brushstrokes to mix colors on his paper

After students spent a couple of weeks exploring the medium of painting, we looked at the book, "Delicious: The Life & Art of Wayne Thiebaud" by Susan Goldman Rubin (A review of this book from NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/books/review/Boxer-t.html
We looked at his many paintings of yummy dessert foods, then made a list of our favorite desserts.

"Delicious: The Life and Art of Wayne Thiebaud" by Susan Goldman Rubin Book Cover, (from NYTimes.com)

"Pies, Pies, Pies" by Wayne Thiebaud (image from NYTimes.com)

After this, students used thin paintbrushes and black paint to create black line paintings of their favorite desserts. The following week, we discussed parts of a painting, in particular the background. Students then mixed colors on their paper to create a background for their food.

A student from K-B02 creating her background

After this, students added color to their "desserts", and worked hard to mix a variety of colors in the process. Students finished their paintings by adding details with small brushes (like sprinkles, cherries, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, etc.).

Some of the finished projects are below...they are pretty sweet (pun intended)!!

Benjamin, K-B06

Jasmine, K-B07

Konnor, K-B06

Roslyn, K-B03

Vanessa, K-B06

Yamilka, K-B03

Liani, K-B02

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

1st Grade Painted Portraits of Us + Our Family

First graders have been working on a painting unit (see previous exploration post) and just finished creating portraits of themselves with their family! We began this project by reading the book "The Family Book" by Todd Parr. We then discussed the members of our family and the ways in which each family is different and special.

We then discussed portraiture and looked at self-portraits by three different artists.

"Self-Portrait", Vincent Van Gogh, 1889
image found at www.vangoghgallery.com

"Self-Portrait with Bonito", Frida Kahlo, 1941
image found at wikipaintings.org

"Self-Portrait", Jacob Lawrence, 1977
Image found at worldclasskids.tripod.com

We learned that a portrait generally depicts a person's head, facial expression and neck (and sometimes upper-half of the body) in detail. Students spent a class painting line portraits of themselves (from observation using a mirror) and their family members (from imagination) in wash (paint mixed with water).

The following week, students read the book "The Colors of Us" by Tana Hoban and we discussed how each of our skin colors is different. Students spent the class mixing the primary colors with black and white (on palettes) to make the skin colors for themselves and their families. Students then added these colors to their paintings from the previous week.

Over the next few weeks, students worked hard to mix many different colors and use a variety of brushstrokes when applying paint to their portraits.

1-108 working

Students completed paintings by adding a background (either their home, a place that is important to them and their family, or a solid color) and details (glasses, eyelashes, jewelry, etc.) to their portraits.