Pumpkin Drawings in Charcoal

The last project that sixth graders created this quarter was their first observational drawing in their middle school experience (oh, there will be more!). They spent several days learning and practicing how to draw what they see before them, rather than drawing the pumpkin "symbols" they are used to drawing in childhood (perfect circle, lines from top to bottom, stem right on top... you know what I mean, right?!). Each table had a unique little pumpkin- I tried to choose interesting ones with different stems. Then, once they completed a contour line drawing of their still life arrangement, we turned out the lights and put spotlights on the pumpkins to create highlights and shadows and rendered the drawings with charcoal pencil...

Artists at work:

 Final artworks:

Warm & Cool Portraits with Tessellations

In this project, sixth graders first learned about the history of tessellations and looked at the work of artist MC Escher. Then they created their own tessellations- a special kind of design made from different patterns of repeating shapes called polygons (closed shapes that have three or more sides). In tessellation designs, congruent polygons fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces that repeat again and again- they could go on forever! Students learned about paint mixing (creating new colors, tints and shades) and painted their tessellation designs using either a warm or cool color scheme in acrylic.

 

To create the portrait, students traced the light and dark areas of their faces using a projected digital photograph on a separate sheet of paper. Using the opposite warm or cool color scheme from their background, they painted their portrait, making sure their light and dark areas were highly contrasting. The faces were then cut out and glued to the tessellation background...

Value Drawings of Mannequins

Students do accurate drawings from observation that focus on value in art during their sixth grade year. This project is just the first of many observational drawings in their middle school art careers, and it's a tough thing to learn. This quarter, my students drew pose-able wooden mannequins, but with a little twist that turned out beautifully! Rather than have the kids use graphite and charcoal to render the medium and dark values of their object, they used white charcoal pencils on black paper and focused on drawing the highlights, leaving the shadows the color of the paper. I turn out the lights and shine lamps onto the mannequins to help create the highlights and shadow...

 Here are the final drawings:

 

cha-cha-Chia!

This was one of those projects that I just decided to wing and cross my fingers that it worked, and so far, it has! In 6th grade, students make sculpture using the pinch method of clay hand-building. The students  in the  first three quarters (one with me and two with my long-term sub), made some kind of animal sculpture. I was trying to think about how I could spice it up and Googled something like "Clay animal" and up popped a Chia Pet, which is merely a hollow ceramic animal with grooves in it to hold the seeds. I thought it would be really fun to try to make them and went for it! So, after sculpting their animal bodies by joining two pinch pots together on the rim and adding a head, legs, tails, etc. students used a ribbon tool to carve out thin grooves on the part of the animal that they wanted to sprout "hair". They had to create a hole in the tops for watering too. Once fired, students glazed only the non-grooved portion of the piece. The ones that are complete at this point have been 'planted' for about four days now and their lush coats are just starting to sprout! :)

Chia "Mother Goose"

Chia Pig

Chia Elephant

Chia Macaroni Penguin (front and back views)

Chia Walrus

Chia Squirrel

Chia Hippo

Chia Lion