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!  

Parrot progress!

Oooo I'm loving how some of these are turning out!  They are practicing blending in color wheel order, using my handy dandy paintbrush color wheel I made at the beginning of the year.  (More on that later. :) 

We are also blending in our leaves, using dark and light green, along with some yellow.  This student is doing a fantastic job on her leaves.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I began this quick and easy lesson on form and shape with a substitute one day a few weeks ago.  Once I returned we went into more depth (no pun intended!) about how the curved lines make our hearts appear to pop out of the page.  We also talked a bit about the color spectrum so some students chose to do theirs in color spectrum order, although that wasn't a requirement.  We used one of my favorite mediums (besides paint of course!) Crayola Color sticks.  We even incorporated some fraction math by dividing the heart.  I should also mention that we drew everything in pencil first, then traced in Sharpie.  Otherwise you'll have black sharpie all over your rulers!  Instructions are posted at the bottom! :)  

Lots o dots!

Lots of dot projects going on this week in preparation for International Dot Day! We have dots everywhere in all shape and sizes to be used for various projects.  

Scrap painted paper storage... I can't bear to waste it so we cut and cut until there's nothing left. :)

Also some trees going on in fourth grade for their dot project... I can't wait to share the final pieces!

Shabby Chic Valentine

2nd grade is working on these beautiful Shabby Chic Valentines.  I love the texture and colors in them.  We are also practicing some shading with paint and learning about high lights, form, texture and how to make things look round and three-dimensional.  I have a final step planned for these... but I like the way they look right now so I'm thinking I may skip that step! :)

What's the VALUE of a winter sky?

4th grade began their winter sky value study this week.  Value is the lightness and darkness of an object.  After seeing a similar painting on Pinterest, I decide to teach value and color mixing to 4th grade using this beautiful night time sky scene.  It's perfect for a winter's night, don't you think?  We first drew a circle for the moon, then starting with white, we gradually began mixing varying shades of blue then purple and lastly, black.  More pictures to come as they are completed!

5th grade's Whimsical trees

I saw a similar design on a Christmas card this year, so I decided to turn it into an art project for my 5th graders.  We discussed line and sketching, and how to make our lines flowing and carefree, but not sloppy.  The trees were to look abstract and whimsical, not too perfect or straight.  I absolutely love the way these turned out!

First we drew the trees in pencil and traced in permanent marker... the more crooked the better!

Then we began painting with watercolor, choosing analogous colors for the trees, and contrasting colors for the designs or decorations.

I think they did an awesome job, worthy of any Christmas card! 

Elf legs!

Remember those witchy legs we started back in October?  Here's the link in case you forgot:

http://www.criscoart.blogspot.com/2012/11/witchy-legs.html

Well... some of my classes ran out of time!  Since we had already started I hated to toss them, so... we changed them into elf legs for a Christmas project!  I let them decorate the skirt or pants however they chose, but everything had to be cut paper collage.  Here are a few examples!