Elementary II (Grades 4th, 5th and 6th)

We had a fantastic beginning to our school year. The students are energetic, excited about the creative process and are adjusting well to the new rhythm of an hour long class. This is a new system for me as well and I am appreciating the longer work cycle and not losing time due to transitions. We began the year with a line drawing of objects. We talked about overlapping objects to create a sense of depth, placement of objects to create a balanced composition and choosing one object to be colored and shaded to add a clear focal point. This project uses the skills of observation, basic color theory and shading techniques. The work is complete and hanging in the front lobby, try to stop in to see the pieces.  We started a new project last week that ties in well with the skills reinforced in our first project. Students choose an object to create a detailed, large line drawing. Once several details are added to their observational drawing and they are satisfied with the scale of the drawing, a 1"x 1" grid is drawn over the entire drawing. The object will be colored in with either warm or cool colors and the background design will be the opposite color temperature. This process takes patience and an attention to detail to be successful. The pacing of this project varies from student to student but is a visually interesting piece when completed.