Kandinsky on Computer

Inspired by Kandinsky. Created by year 3 students. This collection is the final in a short series, the original post including more context can be found here.

Australian Icons

When I ran this lesson with year 3 and 4 students, they were in the middle of an Australian theme —including a focus on Aboriginal Australia (I was lucky enough to be with the class on an excursion featuring a guided and very inspirational tour through the bush, where we were taught about the many types of bush tucker and medicine surrounding us). Another focus was Australia’s natural and man-made landmarks, so this art lesson was a way of bringing these two aspects together. 

First, we talked about things that were widely recognised as being Australian cultural icons. Together we made a list (some will be obvious to readers far from Australia, and others may not), which I trimmed down to those that could be easily drawn and identified in a simple silhouette. 

We also spent some time appreciating the work of Indigenous artist Bronwyn Bancroft. Looking at her children’s book Why I Love Australia, we especially noted the bright and often non-traditional colours she uses. 

Then, the children chose their icon and drew it with lead pencil. Next, they painted it and the background in a different single colour. The children then used cotton buds to finish their icons with repeated dot patterns as used by many Aboriginal artists, but also using bright colours inspired by Bronywn’s art. It was quite a process from start to finish, but the children did a great job and the results are stunning.

The most popular icon turned out to be Ned Kelly, as inspired by Sidney Nolan’s famous paintings of him. For those further afield, Ned is our most infamous bushranger. Probably his most lasting legacy is the home-made helmet and armour that he sported, although as it transpired, without much success. He’s a controversial figure in our history — loved and loathed in equal measure. He was convicted of three murders, and hung in 1880 at the ripe old age of 25. Our other, less controversial icons featured here include an emu, a kangaroo, the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Uluru and the Three Sisters. 

As well as enjoying the fine efforts of these students, I hope I may have captured the imagination of any of you viewing from abroad, and you're planning a trip here soon!

Fantastic Fauvist Foxes

"Fantastic Fauvist Foxes" says it all really... This 3/4 composite class were mid way through Roald Dahl's classic Fantastic Mr Fox. We began by following a guided drawing lesson from Kathy at Art Projects For Kids. After starting in pencil we then traced in permanent marker. Taking inspiration from the bold and non realistic colours of Fauvism, students completed their foxes with water-colour paints.

Serape Fiesta

Preparation for this lesson is nice and easy with the only requirements being coloured pencils and regular A4 paper. These colourful designs inspired by Mexican serapes were created by a composite year 2 and 3 class. Each pattern begins from a line of symmetry in the centre. To read more about serapes pop over to my previous year 5 and 6 post.

Rosalie Gascoigne Inspired Collage

A talented and patient year 3 class are responsible for these great collages. They are inspired by Rosalie Gascoigne's Tiger Tiger. I first tried this lesson with a combined year 5 and 6 class last year. Both times the students and myself have been really happy with the results. There's quite a bit of work involved and there are some very thoughtful responses from these young artists. You can read more about the process involved and see the work of the 5/6 class on this previous post.

I like the variety of themes the students have chosen, from single and varied colours, to typography, people, transport, hairstyles and more. I commented to one young student that I really liked his collection of colours to which he replied "it's not a colour collection, they're all different dress fabrics..." I was even more impressed! Some might find it a little creepy, but I was also really impressed with the student who amassed a collage of different skin tones. As I mentioned the students were very patient, mostly I think students of all ages like fairly fast paced art lessons but this process is fiddly and laborious. Year 3 is definitely the youngest I'll repeat this lesson with : )

10 min Value Landscapes II

A second instalment of 10 minute value landscapes. Not only do they look great, but they are super quick and easily made with even the most basic computer painting program. Of course they can be painted or drawn in real life too! Just allow quite a bit more time... This time around I asked year 3 students to make their sky colour different to the tints and shades of their mountains/hills colour—I like the effect this has had. You can make up your own mind by viewing the original lesson here.

Paula Scher-inspired NZ

These collaboratively made maps of New Zealand were inspired by American graphic designer and artist, Paula Scher. Year 3 viewed a collection of her beautiful map art here. The land mass of NZ is made up of hand written words all to do with ‘Aotearoa’ (Maori for Land of the Long White Cloud). The children took turns copying from a word bank of around a dozen words with permanent markers. Originally there was a light pencil outline to guide the writing which was later erased. The writing wasn’t particularly legible but the overall effect is great! 

I really like art that looks great on the wall at a distance but also seems to have laser beams that drag you in for a close-up look. It’s interesting to see all the different writing and words and the ways they zig and zag and tumble over each other.

The black and white one is my personal favourite and is inspired by New Zealand’s national sporting colours. The teacher of this particular class was on leave to compete in a hockey tournament in New Zealand so it seemed like a good opportunity to combine a quick geography lesson with some art. Apologies to any Kiwis reading this who have zoomed in close and feel that our word bank is stereotypical or too limited! In the future I would really like to try this lesson with an older class and let each student choose a country to research and make a Scher-like map of art for.

Either Or

I find that incorporating choice is a great way to help students be enthusiastic about an art lesson—often the more prescriptive a lesson is, the harder it is to engage students. Another great benefit of lessons with choice is that the resulting art is obviously more varied and interesting to look at—it's a bit unexciting to see a classroom wall adorned with up to 30 very similar artworks.

Recently I was with this year 3 class for a session in the computer lab. This simple "doodlish pattern" task included two basic choices. The first step (and choice) was to cover their page/screen/image in either straight or curvy lines. The second step (and choice) was to paint in the resulting segments using either all cool colours, all warm colours or all tints and shades of a single colour. As you can see a few students felt even that was too restrictive!

Mother's Day Hearts

Happy Mother's Day Mums! These paper-woven hearts were made by year 3 this week. Each card has a lovely message from the children to their mother on the reverse side. Hopefully they have survived the journey home intact and are being delivered along with breakfast in bed this morning : ) 

They were inspired by my one and only art project book 1000 Things To Make and Do by Fiona Watt. I'm sure there are hundreds more great titles out there, feel free to let me know of any must-haves!

Paper Cutting + The Winner Is... + Your Opinion Please

This is a great lesson for those in-between times. Paper cutting is quick, easy and effective. Plus the students love it – one recent class literally broke into applause as I unfolded my example before their enraptured eyes! No kidding : ) Click here for some previous examples and the instructions on my first such post. These particular ones were created by an enthusiastic year 3 class.

I've found the children learn more and are frustrated less when they begin with some practice attempts on scrap paper before using this research and development to make their deliberate final cuts on their coloured square. 

I'd love your opinion on the display of this artwork. Please let me know which is your favourite method? The top grid of 4 is the way I most commonly display art here on the blog, but it's a looong scroll for some viewers to take them all in. I like to include every student's art as an indication of the success of the lesson across the varied levels of ability and enthusiasm within any given class. 

The second way is the patchwork you see above with every student's art pasted together in one image (including one artwork repeated twice to make a rectangular number). The individual artworks are seen on a smaller scale but look really neat altogether.

The third and newest way is the potentially seizure-inducing 'gif' below! It briefly flashes through every child's artwork and runs on a continual loop. The image quality and colour is not as high as the previous jpgs, but every student's art is potentially right there near the top of the post. Gifs are not widely loved, but I thought I'd at least give it a try... It's also possible to adjust the amount of time that each image is shown for.

Realistically I'll try and keep using a variety of ways to present the artwork. But I really would appreciate any comments, feedback, preferences etc. I've got big shoulders and thick skin : )

And finally, the Win a Joe Hall & The Treehouse Band CD competition has now closed. My wife Katherine was the band's drummer and I gave her the unenviable task of choosing a favourite as the winner. We were both really impressed with all the contributions and really enjoyed reading them. If you haven't read them, it's well worth clicking here! Those childhood experiences and the memories of them, really are so special.

Insert drumroll here... With all her wifely wisdom, Katherine has declared that everyone's a winner! From North America to New Zealand, congratulations Don, Phyl, Mrs Hahn, Mary, Jen and Gretchen. I'll catch up over email and get some postal addresses to send the cds to. Thanks a bunch for sharing : ) The competition's over but if you feel inspired to add your own childhood memory please do.