Week 1 of Choice-Based Art

This week I introduced to the students just a few drawing media choices for their artwork.  I didn't want them to get overwhelmed with the amount of choices that they had access to and have their artwork suffer as a result.  Instead they took their time getting to know the idea station and work on ideas they have been saving for just the right time to draw.  Next week we will add a new media to our list most likely painting, because the students are very familiar with this process.  It has been a great week and everyone seems excited about the freedom of choice and all the possibilities ahead for creativity.  Here are some of the fabulous pictures that we worked on this week.

2nd Grade

This is just the beginning to a 2nd graders picture.  He loves to create stories about his artwork as he goes along.  This one is about a truck that has been struck by a meteorite that passed through the sun. 

This young man is working on a dinosaur museum.  He knows a lot about dinosaurs and it shows in his work.

Though we may be a large school we are in the heart of farming country.  I have several boys that just love their John Deere tractors.

As a new addition to the Art Room I have added chunky crayons (pictured below) that I made by melting old crayons in my oven.  ( What a mess! I am waiting to do more until the summer sun will do the melting  for me.) This student's picture was a experiment to see how those crayons worked.  Love the pattern and the direction of the lines.

 This young man worked the whole time on this fabulous gorilla.  He and several other students really enjoyed working with the drawing books to help develop their skills.

Another drawing book inspired picture.  I know this student is planning a great background that he will be adding next week.

A jungle coming to life.

Even though I have showed students how to create new colors by mixing I never see too many apply the idea to their art.  This young man used several colored pencils to get the texture and color of the bricks just right.

A student came to me and said she was having trouble with the roof of her house.  She was realizing that when she drew the shape of the roof it didn't look quite right on top of the building.  She was realizing the need for perspective on her own, so we sat down and discussed perspective.  This was the result.  I know that she had doubts and struggled, but I was so pleased with her effort and perseverance.

 1st Grade

Going through postcards of artwork and architecture this student came across a photo of a Japanese building.  Even though the photo was in black and white the student selected his own colors to bring it to life.

The beginning of a camping adventure.

Two girls were using the same dolls as models for their artwork.  As I approached I was nervous that this would lead them to copy one another.  When I started to ask them about their art they explained to me that one of them was having the figures be fashion models on stage while the other girl was showing the figures as girls collecting seashells on the beach.  I was so proud.  They also made sure to share the story of their pictures with the classes explaining how they used the same tools, but made their own unique pictures.

Kindergarten

This may be the start of a scary picture.  Beware we have a werewolf and a zombie on the loose!

This young lady found a picture of a bird in my files that she really liked.  She worked very hard to illustrate the details, by mixing and layering crayons to get just the right effect.

Another experiment with mixing crayons.

Keep in mind that most of these pictures are unfinished and as they continue to work on them I'll keep you updated on their progress.