I'm a Little Teapot...

In the sixth grade, students create clay projects that emphasize the "pinch" method of clay handbuilding and this year, they are making themed teapots. The processes used to create each piece differ depending on the specific design, but all teapots are hollow forms (most started with two big pinch pots to create an egg-like hollow shape) and have all the parts needed to be a working teapot- handle, hollow spout and lid:

Self Portraits after M.C. Escher

Seventh graders' self portraits in pencil were inspired by this 1943 portrait of artist M.C. Escher. While Escher is most famous for his tessellation designs, he was talented at drawing. I just love this haunting portrait he did of himself, particularly because of the strong values and contrast between the lit area of his face and those in shadow. For this project, I took a photograph of each student from a 3/4 view, with a spotlight on one side of the face, reminiscent of Escher's pose.

The next step of the project was to use the grid method on the photograph to create a map for drawing the features and outlines of the face. This method helped students to stop drawing symbols of lips, eyes, hair, etc., and actually draw their correctly proportioned and uniquely shaped features. After erasing the grid lines, they meticulously added values (shading) with various graphite pencils to make their portraits appear three dimensional and realistic. As usual, these photos don't really do this work justice... I hope these artists are proud of the work- I sure am!

Warm & Cool Portraits- 2nd Quarter

Round two (of four) of 6th Grade's Warm and Cool Portraits with Tessellations project- enjoy!

Glazing Pottery

I haven't posted a 7th grade project in what feels like FOREVER, and here is why... We started making Greek coiled pots back in November, which took quite a while. While the hefty pieces sat in the kiln room to dry, be fired, etc, we started a a new project, which we've been working on for the last three weeks or so and some kids are still finishing up (self portraits- post coming soon). Now, we are back to working on phase two of the pots- glazing... So, I took some pictures this morning of the kids working, just so you can see that we are indeed doing something in here although my displays in the building seem to be missing my 7th grade!

I will tell you more about exactly what they are glazing in the final post...

Sweet Still Life

American painter Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced Tee-Bo) is best known for his paintings of cakes, pies and other commonplace, everyday objects arranged as they might be seen in a bakery or cafeteria. Thiebaud used thick brushstrokes to suggest the swirling textures of cake frosting and created heavy outlines around objects. He often outlined his objects with lines of contrasting color; a technique which intensifies the color, creating a vibrating “halo” effect. Wayne Thiebaud considered composition and point of view to be very important in creating his paintings. He liked the simple geometric shapes of pies and cakes and he set them in precise arrangements against a blank, open space. Thiebaud painted the pastries from the point of view of a consumer viewing merchandise (similar to the way Pop artists of the time created their artworks).

 In this project, eighth graders were challenged to take familiar pastry items and put them together in a visually pleasing composition. Inspired by the work of Wayne Thiebaud, students emphasized the arrangement of objects, texture of the paint, neutral or contrasting negative space in the background, contrasting areas of light and shadow and the use of cast shadow to create mood and depth in their work. The results are simply sweet!