Sunday, November 22, 2015

More Recent Work from PS 307 Artists

Paintings of a Special Place by K-108
K-108 shared stories about places that were special to them and then made paintings of these places. Some children included themselves in the painting. 



1-222's Paintings of Someone in their Community



PreK Wet on Wet and Wet on Dry Watercolor Explorations
PreK students explored how painting with watercolors is different on wet paper than it is on dry paper. They folded their paper in half and brushed water onto one side and left the other side dry. Then they painted with watercolors on both sides. They observed how the paint did different things on the different sides. Some children experimented with refolding their paper after they had painted on it and then unfolding it again to see what happened. In the future, they can choose to employ wet on wet and/or wet on dry watercolor techniques depending on their specific expressive and representational intentions. 



Pre K Oil Pastel and Watercolor Explorations
Look at these gorgeous compositions of vibrant color, line and imagery.







Thursday, November 19, 2015

Recent work by the artists at PS 307

2nd Grade
2nd graders looked at Romare Bearden's collage, "The Block" and the collage illustrations of Ezra Jack Keats which portray city scenes. Students first sketched a city block, thinking of all the different things they might see of a city block. Then they began creating collages of city blocks (these collages are still in progress). Students are learning about art history and how to closely observe art and illustrations, noticing details and thinking about what techniques artists use. Through sketching a city block, they are developing drawing skills while learning the process of sketching as a tool for getting their ideas on paper and planning for a project. Students combined personal imagery from their own experiences with city blocks and imagined imagery. As they begin to use mixed papers to create their city block collage, they are learning to make matches between materials and their ideas, and how a new idea can be inspired by a material. They are developing cutting and gluing skills and thinking about layering and overlap. 
above: detail of The Block by Romare Bearden and a page from The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats




Kindergarten
Kindergarteners created oil pastel and watercolor resists of a place that is special to them. We had a class brainstorm discussion, listing special places, what you would see at those places, and how we could draw them with oil pastels. Then we saw what happens when you paint with watercolors over oil pastel drawings. Students learned that oil and water do not mix and therefore oil pastels and watercolor don't mix so the oil pastels push away or resist the watercolors. Students also noticed that the watercolor paint made the oil pastels look like "glow in the dark", making the colors of the oil pastels look brighter when next to a darker color than they did just on the white paper. 












Thursday, November 12, 2015

More Paint Explorations

Pk, K and 1st grade have been exploring the possibilities of paint, making different kinds of lines and mixing colors. Children this age need to explore art materials fully for the sake of exploring what each material is capable of. This will give them the skills and knowledge they need to make rich, nuanced representational and abstract works of art.

above: 1-118, that's George Washington on the top right.


above: K-108. numbers are fun to paint!


Thursday, November 5, 2015

Superpuppets to the Rescue!

3rd Graders made puppets of superheroes they thought up themselves. The figures are made from pieces of cardboard and have moveable elbows and knees. They thought of who their superhero was, what their super powers were and a scenario they might encounter. "Art girl", "Squirrel Boy", and "Video Game Boy" are just some of the super heroes they created.
above: Superhero puppets by 3-252 and 3-232
all above photos: Class 3-232





4th Grade Book Character Puppets

4th Graders created puppets of their favorite book characters. The figures are constructed out many parts of cardboard and have moveable elbows and knees. 
Class 4-248
Class 4-248
above: Class 2-248 observational drawings of their book character puppets