Audubon and a little cross-hatching

Third grade PES artists have been studying the painter John James Audubon. They explored Audubon's bird paintings and used our classroom books, encyclopedias, and the internet to find images of birds that were interesting to them. The artists lightly drew their birds with pencil, then began using Sharpie markers/pens to add value and details using a cross-hatching method.

Cross-hatching is a drawing technique in which an artist uses small lines- or hatches- to create value in a drawing. The closer the lines are together, the darker the value. Here is a great example of cross hatching, but the video is a little long. Fast forward to the good part!

Our plan is to add color using watercolor paints, but I am so excited about these drawings that I wanted to share them a little early! Aren't they beautiful?

Now, Audubon was a lot more than an artist. He was a scientist, a naturalist, and an explorer. He travelled North America extensively looking for birds to draw and document for his book, Birds of America. This book features life-sized paintings of birds from throughout our continent and the first part was published in 1827. The National Audubon Society was named in John James Audubon's honor. They are a group dedicated to the conservation of birds and they continue to do great work for animals and wildlife protection.

The National Gallery of Art has a great collection of paintings and prints by Audubon on their website!

Update!

In the hallway...

 Third grade artists studied Ernest Lee, "The Chicken Man!" Ernest Lee lives and paints in South Carolina and is best known for his fun paintings of chickens! Welcome to the Chicken Coop!

5th grade art students created collagraph plates using cardboard, yarn, paper, cotton, and much more. A collagraph is a type of printmaking in which an artist creates a printing plate by gluing various textural objects to a base, then covers the entire plate with a glue or acrylic glaze. When the coating is dry, the artist can apply ink to the plate and press it onto paper to create a print. It can be a tricky process, but the results are worth the effort! These artists embellished their prints with colored pencils after printing.

Quilt Update

Third graders finished up their South Carolina state symbols quilts this week! They had fun writing letters to their teachers about the process and their part in the quilt. I think the teachers were surprised and happy with their quilts, as well!

Here's Mrs. Harbrecht's class with their quilt..

Symbolic Quilts

Third grade artists at PES have been working on class paper quilts. We examined the artist Faith Ringgold and discussed the importance/meaning of quilts in our society.

These paper quilts were designed to align with 3rd grade social studies and feature the South Carolina state symbols! Each student chose two SC state symbols to draw and paint on an paper quilt square.

None of the classes are quite finished with the assembly of the quilts, but they're hard at work on it. They are punching holes in the sides of the paintings to tie them together to form a classroom quilt! Don't tell any of the 3rd grade teachers- it's a surprise for them!
I promise to post the finished products in the next few days.  :)



Get information on SC state symbols at SCIWAY.

Also, if you'd like to see some more complex quilting lessons, check out Art Smarts at WKE! Ms. Merett at WKE won a grant this year and is doing some awesome quilt-making lessons right now.

Utilitarian Art

Third grade artists have been learning about art with a function, or Utilitarian Art. They built ceramic teacups by forming a pinch pot, then using the score and slip method to attach a handle.

After the teacups were fired, glazed, and fired again, they were ready to test! Today, during the first tea party, all of our cups were able to hold liquid! We breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed tea and cookies!

Philip Simmons Gates

Third grade artists explored the artwork of South Carolinian Philip Simmons and created symmetrical gate paintings inspired by his ironwork gates!

The artists will be visiting Charleston on a field trip in the spring and they cannot wait to see wrought iron gates in person!

Really good videos on Philip Simmons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-y4vJKLvUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwOFoasI5bU

Leaf Drawings

Third Grade Artists are practicing their observational drawing skills using leaves from a tree just outside the Art Room! Their focus is on drawing the contours of the leaves in a realistic way. Later on, the leaves will be outlined with oil pastel and painted!

Hispanic Heritage Month

The Zapotec people in Mexico are great rug weavers! Third graders at Pelion Elementary got to see and feel a real Zapotec rug from Mexico!

Below are pictures of studentsf working in teams to paint their own version of a Zapotec rug. Check out those patterns!

The rugs will be used for a school-wide exhibit for Hispanic Heritage month! I'll post pictures of the entire exhibit soon!