The Geometric Blues

Year 6 painted these "Geometric Blues" after watching a documentary with footage of scientists SCUBA diving underneath the ice in Antarctica. The colours were amazing. These were obviously inspired in more of an abstract than representational way.

Using lead pencils, the students began by dividing their paper into three equal segments. Next, they chose to fill each section with the same repeating shape (either squares, rectangles and most popularly, triangles). Finally, we used blue with black and white to mix and paint the various tints and shades within each shape.

They looked great together on the class wall and the blues were especially relevant with their Antarctic theme at the time, but I'm hoping to repeat the lesson some time soon and have each student choose their own colour to make tints and shades with — I'll keep you posted!

Value Scapes

I'm often surprised that some lessons are very popular with visitors to my site while other ideas that I thought might resonate with a wide audience have a lot less people viewing them. Perhaps "good" art lessons and ideas are just like "good art" in general - very subjective. That's fine though, art wouldn't be what it is without this innate characteristic. Anyway enough rambling... I was a bit surprised to see 10min Value Landscapes very quickly become my all time most popular post. I hindsight it may have something to do with teachers wanting to avoid messy painting clean-ups!

Here are a small selection of "value-scapes" a year 6 class created in computer class earlier in the year. They viewed the aforementioned post and I asked if they could see a way to extend the initial idea or put a new twist on it. In a break from tradition I've just posted a few that stood out for me.

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.

10 min Value Landscapes

Like the Value Landscapes posted earlier this month, this lesson was inspired by Miriam at Arteascuola. However, these were "painted" with pixels on the computer rather than regular paintbrushes. Each year 4 student completed their own landscape in less than 10 minutes but still had valuable experience with using tone to create depth within a two dimensional artwork. 

After we observed and discussed the scenes created by Miriam's students the children took turns at making their own value landscape on the two available classroom computers while the rest of the class continued on with their set work. It was quick and easy but also meaningful for the children. 

Value Landscapes

These value landscapes were directly inspired by Miriam on her Arteascuola blog. I visit it frequently and always find great inspiration — make sure you stop by! These were created by a year 5/6 class. They marked out their sections lightly in pencil and painted from the top down. Each student started with a small cup of white paint and little by little added their chosen colour so each layer would become darker. Most students also added some black to the final layer or two where the scenery is darkest and most pronounced.