In the Art Room: Cherry Blossom Trees by Second Grade

A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you a work-in-progress painted tree project by my second grade students (ya'll can visit here for the full post as it will cover everything I'm about to skip) and I'm excited to say these masterpieces are now complete!

After learning about Japan's cherry blossom trees and their lovely blooms which are cause for celebration, the kids painted blossoms on both their practice paper and their watercolor painting. Because their practice papers were just as lovely as the finished product, I had the children matte and frame both works of art today.

But before I get to that, let's chat about how we went about painting those blossoms. The children were to paint on their practice paintings first until they were comfortable painting on their watercolor painting. For the blossoms, the kids had a light pink, a dark pink and yellow. I showed the kids how to completely dunk their brush into the dark pink, put just the tip of the brush in the light pink and lay the brush flat on their paper and wiggle it to create each flower petal. Loading the brush with that much paint meant that they could paint one whole flower without reloading their brush. Once that paint had dried a pinch, the kids used q-tips to add the yellow paint to the center.

After they were comfortable painting on their practice paper, the kids added blossoms to their watercolor paintings.

The kids loved those practice paintings so much they were constantly asking if they could take them home (because they know I hoard all their work until the end of the year for the art show, they don't even bother to ask if they can take their watercolors home. Poor kids!). I kept thinking maybe I'd come up with something to do with those practice paintings so I asked them to leave them in the art room. And I'm glad I did. They look just as lovely framed as the watercolor paintings, I think! The above is an example of a practice painting...

And this is the artist's final piece. It's interesting how some children really followed their practice paintings to the point that they match their final product and how other kids completely changed their plans along the way. I made sure to tell them that it was just "practice" and that they could create something totally different on their final piece.

But I'm blabbering. Let's chat about how we framed these, ermkay? The kids used a 12" X 18" sheet of white construction paper as their background frame. I cut a ton of large origami paper (purchased through Sax by the brand Roylco) and cut it down to 2" X 12" strips. The kids glued their chosen origami papers to the top and bottom of the white paper.

And then, because I had visions of them haphazardly mounting their watercolor piece all crooked in the middle, I had them use a ruler to measure one inch in for their watercolor paper. And then I gave myself a big ole pat on the back for including math into the lesson...even if it was just for an inch. Once both practice papers and final paintings were framed and on the drying rack our 30 minutes of art were up. I didn't even get to see these lovelies in all their colorful glory until this afternoon when I was taking them off the drying rack.

Oh! Can I please ask your thoughts on something? So, this painting you see here? The one with the super detailed sky? It took this artist about 3 classes to complete (that's right, an hour and a half). Now. I totally relate to my slower working artists as I'm a very slower artist myself. Which is why I struggle so much in workshops. I need time to: 1. Process the directions; 2. Think of an idea that I love; 3. Put my idea together in some sort of way that I'm happy with. In workshops I rarely make it past #1 when I notice that my peers are already well into #2. And I hate that! I get all uptight and anxious and who can create like that?! For that reason, I always let my slower students work at their own pace...almost to a fault. But I want them to feel comfortable creating and never feel that stress that I often do. So, art teachers: what do you do in these situations? Do you hold your students to a set time frame and move on? If I do that then I have these beautiful half finished pieces. Or do you allow those students to continue working...and if you do, what do your early finishers do? Mine have been content with our current options of origami, free draw on dry erase boards or reading a book with me. Just curious what you do in these situations.

I was told that the little black specks were the pollen coming off the flowers.

And viola! Cherry Blossom Tree Paintings by Second Grade complete!

What the Art Teacher Wore #90

Primary Colors Monday: Because I saw three of my four kindergarten classes back to back on this particular day and we were (re)learning about the primary colors, I decided to dress for the occasion. top and tights: Target; dress: I forget; shoes: Anthro; belt: thrifted; palette hair clip: made by me

Ya'll. Trust me when I saw I had much bigger plans for this here blog post. Howevers. I currently feel as though I'm carrying half my body weight in my head and nasal passages. Without getting too graphic (which is a ridiculous way to start a sentence as you know I'm about to get all sorts of graphic), I'm more snotty than a cheerleading squad. (Aw, former cheerleaders, don't hate. I speak from a sad 8th-grader-who-wanted-to-be-a-cheerleader-but-my-dad-made-me-play-basketball-instead place.) For that super snotty reason, I've only got the energy to share wit ya what I wore and what I drew this week. I'm hoping to be back again with you soon with a post on a vocabulary update and maybe a DIY...if I can manage to pull myself off the couch. Until then, enjoy your weekend!

There have been so many amazing drawings pouring into the Artsy Book Clubs facebook page that it continues to surprise and thrill me everyday! It's such a motivation and inspiration to see what these artists have created. If you'd like to join the fun, it's okay to begin drawing and sharing your work any time. You can go here for all the details.

Poodle-tastic Valentine Dress Tuesday: My plan had been to wear something Valentines-y all week...but I actually have so many heart-themed ensembles that I shoulda started the week before. Sad but true. Oh well, next year. poodle dress: made by me, DIY here; sweater: made by me; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; tights: Target; hair clips: DIY here; shoes: Sofft

I'll be honest with you, I don't always love the assignments in the One Drawing a Day book that we are using in our Artsy Book Club. And because I'm drawing for myself and the desire to get back to more fine arts work, I've decided to only take the drawing assignments as suggestions and then draw what I want. If I want. I don't want these drawings tasks to become just that, a task. So I'm enjoying the process if it speaks to me. On this day we were to draw a picture of someone in a variety of pens. I drew my grandpa from his senior high school photo.

Our First (and probably only) Snow Day Wednesday!: Well, what a happy surprise that turned out to be! Granted, it woulda been a whole lot more exciting if it had actually snowed but I try not to ask for too much. A day of sewing, drawing and blogging turned out to be exactly what I needed to make it through the rest of the week. dress: Betsy Johnson, used; sweater: Target; scarf: Urban Outfitters; leg warmers: I forget; boots: Frye, Journeys

This drawing I definitely wasn't feeling. The assignment was to just basically doodle a bunch of stuff, trace your hand, write words and numbers...I dunno. I wasn't into it. I found myself drawing things that I thought I should draw like a cupcake and other stuff. I think I'd actually have to create a couple of these drawings to really get to the root of what would inspire me. I was also not in love with drawing in crayon...but that has since changed after the last two assignments.

Dots and Leopard Print Thursday: We had a two hour delay on this day which basically means my day is gonna be jacked up. Sure I get to sleep in a pinch but then I spend the rest of my day runnin' like a crazy person trying to figure out just what in the world my jumbled schedule is gonna look like. But it was fine, we made it though and even created some masterpieces to boot. Looking forward to sharing them with you soonish. sweater: Old Navy; belt: thrifted; dress: I added the leopard to this too-short number that I bought at the thrift store; scarf: gift from a student

Self-portrait in crayon. I sketched it out first in yellow marker and then built it up with crayon. I enjoyed working on this a lot...even if the perspective is off and I have a super large side-forehead.

Happy Valentine's Day Friday: Our school has a tradition where the kids are allowed to spend about 10 minutes in the morning delivering Valentine's to their teachers. I love getting sweets, cards and gifties from the kids. My favorites are always the handmade cards with the personalized notes. Those I keep forever. dress and sweater: DIY here; shoes: Modcloth

Still life in crayon. Seriously, ya'll. I don't even use crayons in the art room because I'm kind of a snob about them. But I might be inclined to change my mind after working so much in crayon these last couple of days. 

And that's all I got, ya'll! I'm off to go take a Vick's Vapo-Rub bath and soak my head in a bucket of hot water!

DIY: A Purrr-fect Valentine's Day Dress (and Sweater!)

If you happen to be a teacher, and/or the proud owner of school-aged children, then you know come winter: EVERYONE loves a Snow Day.

Especially the teachers. 

And if they tell you otherwise then they are Big Fat Hairy Liars who only speak such untruths to convince you that they simply adore having your child in their room day after day after OMG-is-it-STILL-ONLY-WEDNESDAY day. Don't get me wrong, Ima teacher and I love what I do...but I also love a little surprise break once or four times a winter season. 

Now those of you that happen to live everywhere but Tennessee have gotten more snow dumped on you than Antarctica. Here we've had na-freakin-da. It's been goin' just north and south of us like we're covered in some sort of invisible force field. And for that reason, things have gotten real desperate in elementary-school-land...

But more on that in a sec.*

For now, let's keep this DIY train on track, shall we? 

I found this totes amazing kitten-n-hearts fabric last spring at JoAnn's. I scooped up the only three yards just knowing that it'd be the The Purrr-fect (sorry, I had to) Valentine's Day Dress, second only to last year's Poodletastic Valentine's Day Number. I decided to go with this vintage McCall's 6221 because it's pretty simple and super cute. Says me. If you've been reading this nonsensical blog for a while and you have a good memory, you might recall the barbequed version of this here dress (blog post complete with Barbequed Banana Bread. Check it.)

I did forget that this dress needed to be lined and I thought a coupla seconds of just forgetting about that step. But, in an effort to be a Big Girl Sewer, I sighed, stomped my foot and made the lining. Which took me all of 45 minutes with one bathroom break and three separate EMERGENCY chocolate breaks.

Now, I don't know exactly what went wrong with my measuring and cutting but this dress is very well fitted in the waist. Like, no-more-emergency-chocolate-breaks well fitted. I don't recall the other dress I created from this pattern being so tight...so I'm guessing that the pattern shrunk. I've heard that can happen. When you eat a lot of chocolate. Ahem.

Now since it has been a chilly, albeit snowless, winter, I can't go around wearing no sleeveless dress. I scooped up this sparkly sweater at the thrift store recently with intent to felt it. But then the kittens spoke to me and said, "screw felting, stitch me on that tacky sweater!" (they are very mouthy cats, fyi) and I was like, "um, okay."

Dude, this applique bit took less than 45 minutes with a possible chocolate break or five thrown in the mix. I simply cut out the rectangles and adhered 'em in place with some Stitch Witchery.

Set my sewing machine to zigzag and adjusted the width and length between stitches. Now I do have a computerized machine but I could do this very same applique stitch on my ole manual Kenmore.

Penny for your thoughts, kitty? 

"Ima gonna eat your face when you are sleeping."

Wow. Just. Wow.

Outfit details: sweater and belt: thrifted; tights: Target; shoes: Modcloth, old; crinoline: Amazon (it's one of those cheapo costume ones); heart hair clip: made by me

*So just how did I manage to get all this dress -n- sweater making done? Well, I tell ya, it was lookin like it wasn't gonna happen until yesterday when I had a serious talk with a 4th grader as he was getting on the bus:

4th Grader: Mrs. Stephens! For a snow day, I know what to do!

Me: Yeah, yeah, I know. White crayon on the window sill, pj's inside out, flush ice cubes down the toilet (shaking my head with a sigh)...I hate to tell ya, dude. None of that stuff works. 

{For you non-teachers out there, this is the stuff of Playground Urban Legends.}

4th Grader: (stepping onto bus) No, no, that stuff doesn't work. You gotta sleep with underwear on your head! I promise we'll get a snow day if you do!

Me: Really?! Like, REALLY? (bus begins to pull away) But wait, WAIT! DOES THE UNDERWEAR HAVE TO BE CLEAN?

Um. So. I never got my answer. Let's just say, hypothetically, I slept wearing both kinds, just to be safe. 

And...I got my Snow Day/Sew Day. Which I say was worth it.

In the Art Room: Creating a Narrative with Fourth Grade

Have you ever done one of those projects where you just knew it was gonna be quick -n- easy, everyone was gonna be successful -n- happy, finish at exactly the same time -n- be ready to move on to that Next Big Thing?

Yeah, me neither.

Take this "quick -n- easy" figure drawing experience. 

My fourth grade created gesture drawings of their classmates roller skating in P.E. The intent was for them to use those drawings as inspiration for a figure drawing of an ice skater. That ice skater will eventually be added to a school-wide mural (I'll keep ya posted).

Sounds easy enough, right? 

Wrong, dudes. Wrong.

Have you ever taught figure drawing to the under-10 set? It's, like, seriously tough, ya'll.

This artist told me her figure is diving for a starfish.

AND it took them For-Eve-Errr. Like three separate thirty minute classes. If you're good at math you know that's an hour and a half, people! Granted, their results were pretty rad and they were pleased as punch with themselves. However, I wasn't about to let their drawings just get glued to some mural. So I made enlarged photocopies of each drawing, passed 'em back to the kids along with their chalk stars and asked them to create a narrative using the two.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to that gesture drawing bit.

Gesture Drawing: If you've not tried this with your kids, you really outta give it a go. My students loved it. We spent about 5ish minutes in the art room chatting about gesture drawings just being quick and simple sketches that are meant to capture movement. I demonstrated a quick drawing of a student running in place. We all agreed my drawing looked terrible by normal standards...but had I captured movement? Yep. We also had a quick chat about how we were visitors to the P.E. room and we were to work quietly and stay outta the way of the skaters. Then we gathered up clipboards, newsprint, charcoal sticks (which they loved) and cloth erasers and spent about 15 minutes drawing as many skaters as we could.

I love their finished results. They are all so different in their style. I really love how so many of them look like Keith Haring people...which gave me all sorts of ideas for future projects.

Gesture drawing was all fun and games until we returned to art class the following day. I told the kids that we were going to be creating ice skaters for a school-wide mural. With their gesture drawings in hand, the kids were to pick their favorite, use a wooden mannequin to model the same pose and draw from there. Which worked for some. Others were still stumped. For those kids, we regrouped and I broke it down a little more: turn your stick man into a thick man by adding lines on either side of the stick drawing.

The drawing on the right shows someone who made their "stick man into a thick man" while the artist on the right used a mannequin. We struggled with proportions and just how the body works...but in the end, I was pleased if their peeps simply showed some sort of movement. And had a head.

From there the kids were to add clothing to their figures and trace with a thin sharpie. It was at this point that I decided to make enlarged photocopies of their drawings...I just knew we'd come up with another project for them.

So, after coloring and cutting out both of their people (small original and enlarged photocopy), I challenged the kids to create a narrative collage.

And they were like: A-Whah-Huh?

So I busted out some Marc Chagall and we talked about how artists often tell stories with their art. We chatted about Chagall's work and some stories that might be behind them. Then I told 'em that they were to create a narrative tale with two subjects: their figure drawing and their chalk star.

At our supply gathering area, I laid out tons of painted, marbled and sparkly papers along with boxes of scraps. I told the kids that they were to come up with a story that they had to present to me before they glued it down. I did this because I really wanted them to cut out shapes, move their papers around and really think about their story instead of just cutting and pasting.

After presenting their idea to me, we'd talk about whether or not their collage really told their story or not. For some, that meant adding a background to set the scene. Often, they were sent back to their seats to continue working on the visual details of their story. There was some grumbling and some "but it's finished!" to which I usually replied "Nah. Make it even more awesome."

Once finished, I asked the students to write up an artist statement to accompany their piece. We talked about how an artist statement could either reveal the entire story behind the work...but how most artists like the viewer to create their own tale.

Which you'll see most of these artists liked the idea of...

(Inside scoop: I was told that this dude is "emo", hence the hair stylin's.)

When I was snapping photos for this post, I came across this funny artist statement by the artist of this collage...

Um, looney toones?! Ha!

Have ya'll taught figure drawing before? Do you have a sure-fire method? I know if I teach this again there will be some mucho tweaking. So I'd love your input. 

Thanks, ya'll!