Watercolor Notan Portraits

Watercolor Notan Portraits

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Summertime Catch-up

Man, blogging has become so cumbersome and time-consuming compared to using Instagram to flash-blog (did i just make up a new phrase?!) about an art project or summer camp or the amazing things we find in Bullseye’s Playground at Target (because, let’s be real, it’s not the dollar spot anymore).

I feel I have gotten so behind this year on blogging but really, with moving to part time, I didn’t feel like I had as much to blog about. But then as I reflect on the last school year, I accomplished a ton of stuff with my kids.

Many of our projects were much more involved and in-depth than projects I was used to doing on a See-150-kids-a-day schedule. I really enjoyed this focused energy and the freedom to not rush. It’s always been more self-imposed in the art room, I think, but you definitely feel the pressure to crank out some masterpieces. The kids feel it too and often want to rush through and move to the next thing. I know I’m not alone in this.

But next school year, I do solemnly swear to blog more consistently instead of only sharing and flash-bogging (ha!) on IG. ✌🏻

Oh, and to catch you up on last year…

Summer Art Camp!

5th grade’s Thiebaud-inspired 2D pieces turned into 3D sculptures!

6th grader’s Blind-contour portraits ❤️

I got to go to DC with my 8th graders and see beautiful art!

My 5th graders rocked it with their Alma Woodsey Thomas paintings and we put them all together for an art show installation.

We sailed away for spring break…

We made Frida Kahlo memory boxes in our Dia de los Muertos after school class.

And so much more. …Next year!

Monster on the Loose!

My 6th graders have been working so hard on perfecting these two point perspective cities. When they were finished, they had to write a 6 word story to accompany their artwork. It was great to see some kids really flourish with the technical side of it.

Picasso Relief Portraits

When I went to my state’s art education conference this fall, I saw a really cool project idea at the United Art booth. It was bright, colorful, and a relief sculpture! You can find it here. They gave me the lesson plan for it and I have been working on the sample for my students. I’ve taken pictures of most of my steps so that I can share with my students when they are ready to make it. Feel free to use it. 🙂 I started with painting the background piece of cardboard (8×10″).

Then I drew out my main head shape, painted it white, and cut it out.

Glue some smaller pieces of cardboard to the back and then glue it down to your background.

Create a profile view of just the head – not the nose, eyes, etc.

I painted another piece of cardboard white and then drew out the rest of my main pieces – eyes, lips, nose, forehead. I also added cheeks, eyebrows, and lids. The more pieces you add, the more interesting it can be.

I used my scraps from cutting all my other pieces to create the hair and neck. Now it’s ready to paint!

I painted with tempera and let it dry before using some black lines to add some depth and really make it pop!

I love this project and can’t wait to try it with my 6th graders!

UPDATE! We completed this assignment and the results are awesome! Check ’em out:

So proud of these!!

Spring 2017

We’ve been so busy in the art room. I haven’t been able to keep up with blogging about all the projects! Check out some of what we’ve been working on…

4th grade Egyptian portraits:

5th grade mandalas:

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Kindergarten Matisse Fishbowls:

5th grade What Lifts You Wings:

3rd Grade Rousseau Lions:

4th grade lighthouses and messages in a bottle:

First grade science beakers:

3rd Grade tangram polar bears and the northern lights: 

Year of the Fire Rooster

Chinese New Year is happening in a couple days and my 1st and 2nd graders celebrated with some beautiful artwork! Check it out…

“I am…” Poems

My fourth graders have started on some metaphorical self-portraits and they are looking so great! We expanded our vocabularies by looking up adjectives about ourselves on thesaurus.com and using those to write an “I am…” poem. We drew it all out in pencil, traced in Sharpie, and painted each line with tempera paint. They are really looking fabulous.

PS – little known fact about Mrs. Osborne: I am an amazing opera singer. 😜

I’ll post pics of the kids’ artwork when complete! 

Woohoo!!! 200 followers!

Hey guys! I’m so excited! I woke up this morning to this little message:

200 followers! I love sharing what my students are doing in my class and I am so thankful for the art education blogging community. I seriously don’t know what I did before I discovered you. Y’all are the best. Thanks again! 

Michelle 

Indian Corn

I’m loving all of these Indian Corn projects I’ve seen on the art blogs and Pinterest.  I decided to try my own and we will be starting them next week. I made a step by step to show my kids! 😊

Happy Painting! 🎨🖌

A-corny Jokes!

Sharing some corny jokes to go along with our fall acorn paintings!