Drawing With Children

I am using this book to teach the Middle and High School beginning drawing.  Just can't seem to make that photo larger.  It is Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes.  This is an area I am totally not gifted in.  I love art, but drawing is just not my area of strength.

We had a great time learning about the 5 elements of shape.  I used the same activity with both classess at different levels.  Each student followed the same set of instructions and came up with unique creations. It was interesting to see the personalities come through.

We are still havign a blast with art.

Spiders and Quilting

Five busy spiders jumped across the floor.......  We have been studying spiders in our K-2 classroom.  Creepy, cool, hairy spiders are appearing all over the room.  Bendaroos are perfect to make spiders with because they are sticky.

I might be seeing spiders in my sleep tonight.

Last year I started a log cabin quilt.  I took a class, but really was just so crazy with life that I never finished it.  In fact when I took it out again this fall I laughed because some of the squares were sewn out of order.  I decided to not fix it out of lazyness and  as a testament to how crazy busy I was a year ago.  I am retaking the class, starting from where I left off.

 I think I will be able to finish it this time. I am determined, and life although still crazy is a bit calmer than last year.

Paint Chip Art

I volunteered myself to be the 3rd-12th grade art teacher this year.  I did this because I just love art not because I am an artist.  So not being an artist means I need to come up with a flow that I can actually demonstrate with my no art training.  I love it and the kids love it.  I suppose I can't go too wrong since we have never had an art teacher.  We are a PreK-12 school with 2.5 certified teachers and an aid.  I love it!

 I found some really great ideas for using paint chips for art projects on Pinterest. I found lots of amazingly fun ideas  http://pinterest.com/craftyscientist/paint-chip-projects/.   Last week I raided the Home Depot and Lowes paint chip dislpays and introduced the concept of color harmonies.  The lesson was to choose a color harmony to create a piece of arts using repeated shapes.

Here is one example from highschool.  I need to take photos of the rest of the projects.  Some of the students really "got" the concept and some created projects that were fun, but did not meet the goals of the assignment. I just let that go because I want art to be fun.  I am going to think about a way to help those along who do not quite "get" the goal at the same time as allowing them their artistic freedom.  I am going to try this with the 2-5th next week using just value in the same color.  Teaching art is just so much fun.