CYOA India Wrap Up

I have some random photos of student work that didn't fit into other posts hat I really want to show you, so here's the wrap up of students' choice based Indian culture projects.

The peacock print above turned out really cool. We liked the three colors together so decided to mount them on a large piece of black construction paper.

One of the starting points was Indian "miniature" paintings. Miniature paintings, as the name implies, were small scale. They sometimes depicted scenes of royal life or told stories. This reminded some students of fairy tales, which according to some claims originated in India. This 4th grader wanted to make a drawing of a princess that looked like she belonged in a fairy tale.

This drawing was inspired by the patterns of mehndi and Warli tribal art.

One of my 5th grade boys wanted to draw a Bengal Tiger but add patterns. He really explored what he could do with oil pastels and mixed in colored pencils for some the patterns. Though some students were reminded of King Tut's mask and thought it looked more Egyptian than Indian, we were all pleased with the result.

One of my 6th graders who works very methodically spent many class periods on this project. I knew his work habits so suggested that he draw half of the Taj Mahal as I offered to show him how to transfer the drawing to the other half of the paper. I was so glad that he got something completed!

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!

4th-6th Grade Choice Paintings

I'm starting to see some really cool ideas and deep thinking in my intermediate students' paintings. Some are doing simple paintings, but wow, some are really pushing themselves. The first painting in this post really impressed me. I need to find her artist statement and read how she came up with the idea. Obviously the reflection in the tear drop shows why the girl is crying. The student worked really hard on getting her skin and nose painted correctly. I also really love her composition. It's nice to see something zoomed in when it's usually so hard to get students to fill the space. Just ignore the anatomical error of the tear coming out of the iris instead of the tear duct. :)

I'll admit it. When I walked by and caught a glimpse of the painting above, and the student who was painting it, I thought he was just being sloppy. I didn't say anything and instead decided to wait and see what happened. I came back by later and totally changed my perception of the artwork. Look at the energy! I think the colors and the way in which they were applied really match the subject of the painting- someone jumping to shoot a basketball.

An experiment in mixing colors. 

Oil Pastel wax resist is a fun technique. I really like the expressive lines.