Sketch books!

This project took a little while to complete because we created our books from the outside in!  Students got to pick their sketchbook covers and they learned how to assemble a book.  We used rafia for the binding, and a great thing about these books is that we can take them apart and add more pages as we need them.

The books have a "hinge" so they fold back and lay flat, which was great for practicing portraits, value scales, and eyes in our books.  There are tons of instructions for books online, so if you're interested in making your own, it's easy to find a quick online tutorial for them.

One day when we had a crazy picture day schedule, we folded envelopes to glue inside their books.  I plan to use these for sub days too, so they can work on them throughout the year.

 They look so good in our display case! 

 Many of their sketchbook drawings were unfinished and they will have a chance to work on those later in the semester.  We did several days of faces, taking notes on the proportions and doing detailed drawings of eyes.

Candy corn, black cats, and pumpkins oh my!

I'm a little behind on my blog posting, so I wanted to go ahead and include everything we've been working on recently into one post.  6th grade created these amazing larger-than-life candy corn paintings, 7th grade painted pumpkins from a little different perspective, and 8th grade created these creepy up close and personal cat faces!  I mixed them in with the abstract trees and our hallways are officially "dressed" for fall!  

Abstract trees

Our first project for art was a quick and easy lesson so I could assess my students and determine where they are in art.  Some of these students I've had for years, but they have grown up a little and their talents have really bloomed!  We began by discussing abstract art and nonobjective art, and we drew the trees together.  We then discussed the color wheel and blending analogous colors so I could see how well they understand blending. I also like to start with a project that students can really feel successful at, and I think this one was a pretty good fit. Not to mention, all these fall trees look beautiful in the hallways!