1st Grade: "Swimmy" Fish Prints

Before we started our multimedia artworks, we read and discussed Leo Lionni's book, "Swimmy". Check out this an animated version of the story:

In this story, the little fish worked together to outsmart the big, hungry fish. It is always a good idea to help those around us.

Lionni's illustrations inspired us to create out own underwater scenes using crayons and watercolor paint for crayon resist.

There are fish throughout the book that repeat, repeat, repeat. We created repetition too, by making styro-prints of fish as a finishing touch.

When used together, different art materials can make beautiful creations!

3rd Grade- Warm vs. Cool Color Silhouettes

Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow make us feel all toasty warm inside, while cool colors like blue, green and purple make us think of cool things. We used warm colors in the background of our artwork and cool colors inside of our silhouettes.

Did you know that if you cut the color wheel in half, one side will have all the warm colors and the other will consist of cool colors?
Elements & Principles of Art Student Videos--Cool Colors

Elements & Principles of Art Student Videos--Warm Colors

3rd Grade- Stone Paintings

We learned about people from many cultures who use natural resources for art. Artworks made from natural resources can serve both functional and decorative purposes. Our stone paintings are simply decorative.

The stone paintings we have made are inspired by prehistoric artworks, such as cave paintings. Without altering their natural shape, we have transformed our stones into beautiful art works.
ART ROCKS! Just ask a third grader!

3rd Grade- Mexican Foil Tooling

We learned about the art of foil tooling from many cultures and time periods. With Cinco de Mayo rapidly aproaching, we've decided to celebrate Mexico through our artworks. After evaluating the use of symbols in Mexican culture, we chose symbols to represent different festivities, foods, and historical events of Mexico.

We planned ahead for our symbols by sketching out what we wanted our designs to look like. It's always a great idea to have a game plan.

We used wooden tools to push and pull pieces of foil to give our symbols form. We used permanent markers to give them color. These images are a low-relief sculpture. Aren't they maravillosa?!

A.C.E. - Plaster Mask Portraits

This project was our magna opus or “big work” in ACE this semester.  We used plaster gauze and plaster of paris to create these 3-D portraits. 

We discussed the beauty of the human face. There is not only one kind of beautiful.  Even though there are many different colors, and sizes of facial features, and hairstyles, they are all wonderfully made.  

Some of these artworks are self-portraits, while others are in honor of people we admire.

A.C.E. - Papier-mâché Lanterns

We used colored tissue paper, wheat paste, colored wire and a balloon for this festive project.

Our lanterns are not unlike those that you might see during a Chinese New Year celebration.

A.C.E. - 3-D Collage Boxes & Scrap Paper Collages

3-D Collage Boxes

Collage is overlapping paper.  For this project, we recycled tissue boxes and cut symmetrical shapes out of construction paper.  We overlapped the paper and voila!

Scrap Paper Collages 

Not a single piece of paper was wasted in these projects.  We used the shapes that we cut out for the 3-D collage boxes to create a second collage.  Can you tell which scraps came from which box?