6th Grade Skeleton

The 6th graders worked with charcoal pencils on brown paper to capture cropped sections of the human skeleton. We worked from an actual skeleton that was posed in the art room. We also had a series of photographic references to pull from. Here are just a few of the many amazing drawings that were completed during this project.

4th Grade Clay Masks

The 4th grade clay project is a lesson in spontaneity. The students are shown are series of tools and techniques for creating texture. The actual mask is created by using a rolled slab formed over various paper armatures. This way eyes, noses and mouths can actually stick out. The masks are then painted with metallic tempera paints to create the illusion of a lost or ancient artifact.

6th grade medallions

This project was one that had been on the back burner for a couple of years but we brought it back this year. We changed the focus from a central image or symbol to a radial design with a focus on design elements such as shape, line and texture. The end results were dynamite and re-charged this lesson. The medallions are actually made from a combination of cardboard, card stock, glue, toothpicks, tin foil and ink. The end result is something that resembles pewter or tarnished silver. Here are a few of the many great results from this year.

4th Grade Monster Totems

Alright, who doesn't enjoy drawing monsters? There's really no wrong way. The monster totem is a little different than your average monster project. We break up the monster, drawing the top half on the bottom of the paper and the bottom half at the top of the paper. Seems strange right?!  The idea here is that when finished, we can link our paper up with someone else in the class. Then our bottom fits on their top or vice versa. We can even link up to other 4th graders in other classes, the possibilities are endless. In order for this to happen we have to have set lines that are the same on everyone's paper. Thus the use of the master copy...see below                                   

With everyone working off the same lines, everyones will fit. They can also be moved to create endless combinations. The same pieces were used below and just moved around.

5th Grade name illustrations

This is the first project that the 5th graders do at the beginning of the year after reviewing the elements of art. We talk about using objects to create the illusion of letters. A candy cane for a "J" or a lower case "r" for example. We also took a look at some photographers that do this same thing with cropped images.

 Students had a minimum of 5 letters to work with...a first name, last name, nick-name. We also talked about light and how we can use it to help create a 3-d illusion on a flat surface. Here are some examples: