Painting

Colour wheel in Grade 1

01/08/2022 by artnuts

Connecting to our PYP Unit ‘Cycles in nature’ we took a pick into the life of colours on our beautiful classroom poster of a colour wheel designed by Johannes Itten. This was Grade 1 and children are small so to take off we simply did some skatches of winter and summer, connecting the colours to the seasons.
When the children understood which colours belongs to which group they were asked to cut 3 warm and 3 cool shapes out of scrap paper and glue them on a bigger white paper. Each table got a plate of gouache colours: red, blue, yellow and white for the light. By mixing them they painted some of their own shapes next to the glued ones. For finals they outlined them with black adding also some patterns here and there.
I found this lovely project at Small hands big art to whom I always turn to when stuck in uncertainty. A presto!

Pop art in grade 3

11/04/2022 by artnuts

In connection to our Unit of inquiry ‘Market places’ we learned about Pop Art. We painted mass produced candies.
And if you are by any chance coming from Yugoslavia you will know more than one.

It’s about me

07/11/2020 by artnuts

We used a kiss print technique for this. Very easy and lots of fun and messy moments. We’ve already made beautiful kiss prints in our sketch books to start ourselves properly.
We spoke about facial proportions and how to draw a face. What shape has an eye? Where does a nose start and end? Why is an upper lip darker than the lower one? Where do the ears come in, and last but not least, how does the hair grow from the top of our heads and not the opposite way?
Of course we will not stick to all of these because we aren’t rigid but we like to talk and think and understand. And if we can use some of it that’s just a great new adventure.
So eyes are beautiful but complicated to colour. Nose is strange but funny. Lips can look crooked, and teeth too. Hair is a science of various paints and a joy to paint (Brushes had to be invented to paint hair. Hand just relaxes and everything is easy – short, spiky, curly, straight… )
Skin comes in many shades, sometimes we are blue, sometimes we are pink, who cares.
And the t-shirts? Well the t-shirts are the best part of course. Glitter, dots, stripes and stars. And all of the paint and morning toothpaste stains.

Catch it when you can

12/09/2020 by artnuts

The Magic of Geodes

12/09/2020 by artnuts

Students were learning about natural geological events. At about same time I came across this amazing project on Small hands big art, website, that must be helpful and inspiring to anyone working in our field.
Observing the geodes we studied their shape, structure, colour, crystals. At first we paid attention to the shape, we drew the crystals and the structures, then came painting and then the decoration of the middle gap using the weaving technique.
I think it went brilliant and kids really loved it.

Layer abstract painting and Patrick Heron

23/06/2019 by artnuts

What a very fine project this was!
We spoke about Patrick Heron and his amazing work.
Children have cut some forms out of pre painted paper (Matisse style) and glued them on their paper. This is just to make the further process easier.
Next step was cold colours. They got only primary colours, black and white and were then told to mix them into cold colours and paint some more shapes close to the ones they glued.
Next step are warm colours and warm colours only. Make some more shapes.
Final and last steps is black: some lines and borders in between the layers and some dots or any other pattern.
The project turned out so very lovely and rich!! I found it on here and fell in love with it.

Self-portraits with expressionist backgrounds

17/05/2019 by artnuts

Another project for our school’s unit. Self-portraits with beautiful backgrounds. Children were instructed to use all sorts of lines.
I find this project so positive and beautiful. It was suggested by the class teachers which also did the photography, the little interviews and writing with the children. I only did the art bit, quite easy really. I’d enjoy professional assistants. Like in real life, ha!

I wish we had time to make some sort of head rings behind the wigs so they would stand on heads by itself but it was more than enough work for a two hour class. Next time!