8th Grade Face Tiles

Eighth graders completed these "face tiles" last week.  Sometimes the thought of starting clay units with classes is really overwhelming, but I can't seem to leave it out any semester, because the kids just love it so much. 

For this project, the students review the properties and stages of clay, as well as refresh their memories on clay vocabulary.  We then create clay slabs together.  These slabs are draped over newspaper wads to create a "bump".  From this bump students can carve into and slip and score features on to their tiles.  After a tortuously long two weeks, the students get their bisqued clay back and start on glazing.  The end results are really fun!

Yearbook cover

The eighth grade art students were given the opportunity to create the design for our yearbook cover.  Students worke independently at home on their ideas.  I presented six amazing entries to our staff, who voted on which ones to use on the front and inside cover.  Below are our winning designs.

Randy's design below will be featured in the inside cover:

Autumn's design will be the front cover of the yearbook!

Color Wheel Aliens

Color theory is one of the most important design lessons I teach in middle school.  Colors can influence our moods and as many fashion and advertising experts know, our purchasing habits too.  When I was in college, my first painting professor challenged us to make as many shades of black using only the three primary colors.  This exercise taught me to really recognize the different tints, shades, and tonal subtleties in colors. 6th graders learned some of the basics about color theory.  We discussed what primary and secondary colors are, and even went further into tertiary and analagous (friends on the color wheel) colors. 

Students were given the task to use the three primary colors (red, blue, yellow) to make an entire color wheel.  They mixed the secondary and tertiary colors using only the primaries.  To make it a little more interesting, we decided to add some fun and make our colorwheels space-themed.  We splatter painted the backgrounds to look like stars and galaxies.  I'm very proud of how well the 6th graders have retained and displayed their new color knowledge.

Adaptive Art Hot Air Balloons

My adaptive art class worked hard building layers of paper mache around balloons.  They really enjoyed feeling their sculptures get harder, and using "elephant snot" or mache paste.  I think they're favorite part of this project was hearing the hiss of their balloons as they popped them. 

State Far Youth Art Competition 2012

We have very exciting news today in the Panther Art Room.  Two of our very own students have placed at this year's art competition!  We are so excited and proud of these talented young artists.  A BIG congratulations goes to (drum roll please...)
 6th grader Jackie S. and 7th grader Amanda M. 
Amanda took 2nd place for her beautiful watercolor painting and Jackie took 1st place for her incredible pastel sunflower!  Amazing!  Their works along with these other fantastic artists' works-- 
Cecilia G. (6th)
Cecret M. (6th)
Sarahyd G. (6th)
Trinity G (6th)
Curtis G. (7th)
Can be seen at this year's Wisconsin State Fair, in the Expo Building.  For more information about State Fair, please visit this site.

Peter Max inspired paintings

Welcome back from Spring Break!

Prior to break our talented 8th graders learned about the popular artist, Peter Max.  Peter Max was made famous by his work with the legendary Beatles.  His artwork is characterized by bright, vivid colors and lots of repeated symbols.  Middle school students seem to "get" his artwork and like the use of hearts, stars, and peace signs.  I challenged the students to create a Peter Max-like artwork using their hands (either traced or to challenge themselves by drawing from life) and to use symbols to create a personal theme in their work.  We experimented with different water-color techniques (wet into wet, dry brush, gradations, salt etc..), but some students found watercolor a very challenging medium to control.  Overall, I think the results turned out stunning.