Theme: Story

STORY was one of my favorite themes from last school year. We got some really cool artwork out of the theme and it was broad enough that there was lots of room for different interpretations and the students' interests.

After the introduction, I asked students to research a myth or legend that they were unfamiliar with and write a paragraph summary just to get them thinking about new possibilities. A few students used the research for their projects and the rest moved on with other ideas.

I didn't do a printmaking bootcamp but offered demos when students were trying to come up with something new to try. These two prints were both inspired by a myth or legend.

Clay was a popular choice during this unit. Some students fired and glazed and others added in different materials such as moss, stones, sticks, and glass.

This student made a hobbit hole.

This was kind of like a fairy cottage. It was super cool.

This was one of my advanced students last year. She found an old story she had written and created a box from the story. It even has her own language carved into the side.

These students chose stories that are movies but did a good job moving past copying a movie cover.

I love looking around and seeing all the variety in the classroom!

This student joined the class at semester so made basically her first painting for the project using water soluble oil paints- not a fan of the medium, by the way, regular oils are SO much better- and she worked to get lots of information from the story into one composition.

This was inspired by a song I think called Granddaddy's Gun or something like that. The student incorporated small copies of family pictures of them hunting together on the drawn mantle.

Intermediate Choice

I have SO many photos of artwork to sort through from the end of the school year! With student choice there aren't always obvious themes to sort artwork by for blog posts. So here is a little sample of some intermediate grade choice projects.

 4th grade skateboard design and artist statement.

I can't remember what animal the gray guy is supposed to be. I think it looks like a sea sloth. :)

I wish I had copied down the artist statement that went with the painting above. A picture in one of my art books reminded the student of a guy on TV that balanced a lot of chairs and it inspired this painting. This is by a 5th grade student who usually really rushes through his work. He might have an awesome pencil drawing and then color it all within 5 or 10 minutes. I've been working on getting him to slow down since he was in 3rd grade. With this project he took his time a little more. Other than forgetting that he used watercolors on the first day and switching to tempera on the second, he did a really good job!

This student could make paintings and drawings like this all day long. I like some of her compositional ideas and that she worked in a series. This is a student who would get an idea and just do awesome work. She made my job pretty easy most of the time. I was able to help her develop more of a value range in some drawings and work on drawing hands and other body parts beyond faces .

We've had a couple tough years with 6th graders but looking back through artwork from this year reminds me that I'm going to really miss some of these students! We had a pretty good bunch this year with lots of creativity and not too much attitude. Just the way I like 'em!