7th grade 2-D: Printmaking!!!

Can you believe we only have 8 days of school left? Where did this year go? Looking back on all of the projects that we completed, I am very pleased with the quality and quantity of work that my students produced. I truly believe that I have the most talented, wonderfully amazing students in the world! 
While looking back over all of the projects, I was shocked and a little upset with myself that we didn't do printmaking this year. While in college, I LOVED printmaking. I even did an independent study in it and my entire senior art exhibition was printmaking. We did printmaking in 7th grade last year but I wanted to kick it up a notch this year and make it a bit more challenging. I decided to try reduction printmaking! 
For this project, I took a picture of the students and used paint.net to posterize the photos into 3 colors (black, grey and white). Students shaded on the back and transferred all of their white areas onto the linoleum. We use easy carve linoleum at school and it's so easy for the kids. We haven't had any slips (or bad cuts) this year! Students used the gauge to carve away all of the areas of their print that would be left white. Since we were printing on white paper, we didn't need to print this part. All that would be left would be the grey and black areas. 
They chose a color and mixed it with some white to make a tint. Then students pulled a proof. A proof is a practice print so they can see what it would look like. If they were happy with their proof, they could pull 10 or more quality prints. The students discussed what made a quality print and here is their list...

• enough ink, no white spots
• linoleum carved away where it was meant to be carved away (no stray marks)
• Ink has an orange peel texture
• No finger prints
• No smudges (where the paper slipped on the plate) 

8th grade sculpture- Eric Carle Relief Tiles

The 8th grade sculpture class looked at the artwork of one of my favorite children's author/illustrator, Eric Carle. I love his playful use of color and texture. One of my favorite lessons when I taught elementary was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. For this clay project, students learned about relief. They had to create a tile using high relief, low relief and sunken relief. The subject matter was an Eric Carle animal (although some chose to use a different animal). Students also had to create a foreground, middle ground and background and incorporate texture. The finished tiles were glazed using lots of bright colors. Here are the results...

Sorry for my absence!

Hi friends! Long time, no see! I apologize for my absence! It's been a crazy six weeks here at Berkshire. Between testing, added duties, art shows, and new classes, it's been nuts around here. I am also in the process of opening my own art studio to teach kid's classes so between all of that, I haven't had a lot of free time. We had our district art show yesterday. It was a great show. We went to Orange High School and got to show off our work next to Orange Middle School. We got so many compliments and it was awesome to see some old friends, old students, and all of the amazing art everyone is creating. The Berkshire Art show is next Thursday, April 25 from 6-8 pm. It's going to be quite the event with artwork, musical performances, drama performances, food, face painting, throwing demonstrations, whew! That's exhausting just talking about it.
Here are some pictures from the district show.
I will have some pictures and new projects to share in the next few days as we finish up this 6 weeks and head into our last one of the year. Seriously, where did this year go?

Finished Romero Britto Sculptures

I think next time I teach this, I am going to make the kids choose a color scheme. Some of the students got a bit carried away with the paint. Overall, I am happy with the results!

Finished Pop Art Portraits

Here are some of the finished Pop Art Portraits. Next 6 weeks, we are going to work a little smaller and paint pets in the style of Slade Roberts. I am hoping that working a bit smaller will allow us more time to spend working with watercolors.

The cupcakes are finished!!

Overall, I am happy with how they turned out. When I do this project again, I am going to have the kids score and slip their base on to their cupcake top because they aren't sitting very well. I am also going to make everyone glaze because for the most part, the glazed cupcakes look a lot nicer. Here are some of the finished cupcakes!

7th grade 3D- Romero Britto Animal Sculpture

7th grade 3-D students finished up their clay cupcakes and were eager to begin their next project. We looked at the artwork of pop artist, Romero Britto. Britto is a painter and sculptor from Brazil who creates light-hearted, happy artwork using simple shapes, bright colors and lots of patterns. He took inspiration from Matisse and Picasso.

Packing tape sculptures...the finished product!

OMG I am so excited about how these turned out! Check it out for yourself!

8th Grade Painting- Pop Art Portraits

Art Club- Packing Tape Sculptures

 I'm sure many of you have seen the packing tape sculpture craze all over Pinterest. As soon as I saw it at the beginning of the school year, I knew it was something I had to try with my art club kids. We looked at the artwork of Mark Jenkins. Jenkins is an American artist who creates packing tape installations. The kids loved his work. It was so fun and unexpected.

7th Grade 3D- Cupcake Wars

My 7th grade 3-D class is trying out a new project this 6 weeks. Taken from the reality TV show, Cupcake Wars, students learned about pop artists, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Andy Warhol is a famous artist who is known for creating artwork of "popular" objects such as advertisements and famous people. Oldenburg is most famous for his large food sculptures.