September 27th-October 1st

Andy Warhol

The seventh graders are finishing up their still life drawings of geometric shapes this week. They are using oil pastels for blending and shading to show light and shadows on the forms. They are using complementary colors in their final product. Our next project is inspired by the Pop Art created by Andy Warhol. Each student will need a wrapper or label from a product by Wednesday, September 29th, to use as the focus of their Pop Art project.

September 20th-September 24th

Gray Scale in Art

Guernica

Pablo Picaso

1937

Last week, the seventh graders learned about the use of "value" in a work of art. Value is an element of design that refers to light and dark. Value contrasts help us to see and understand a two-dimensional work of art. The students created gray scales, then painted tints and shades of a specific color. Tints are created when we add white to a color, shades are created when we add black. This background knowledge will help them in our next project when we create a still life of varying geometric shapes. Each seventh grader will be expected to use what they know about value by using shading to create "roundness" and "edges" to their still life rendering. We will use oil pastels to give our work a pop of color.

September 12th-September 16th

Contour Line Drawing

The seventh grade art classes will begin a new project that focuses on contour line drawing. Each student will draw three different views of various shoes with pencil. Later, they will outine their drawings in marker. We will discuss the various styles and types of lines that can be used to create interest and detail. The students will be encouraged to vary the thickness and thinness of their lines as well as explore patterns to create their works of art. We will wrap up these contour line drawings the following week.

Please be sure to stop by the art room during Curriculum Night on Monday, September 12th, beginning at 6:45 p.m. I am looking forward to meeting with you.

September 6th-September 10th

Henri Matisse

Snow Flowers

The seventh grade classes completed their "Namely Me" Matisse collage projects on Friday, September 3rd. This project pushed all of the students to use shape and color in a unique way. The results were far better than I ever expected. It has been such a pleasure to be surrounded by talented artists throughout the day. Please be sure to view these masterpieces while they are on display at Open House on Monday, September 13th.

During the week of September 6th, the students will begin a contour drawing project. The lessons will focus on the use of different kinds of lines and patterns to create a contour drawing of a real object. Stay tuned for student artwork samples to be posted on future blogs!