1st & 2nd - Color Wheels

COLOR WHEELS!

Partners used paper plates to trace and cut out two circles - one on white paper, one on black paper. 

After discussing color theory (primary colors mixing to make secondary colors), students used primary colored crayons to makes the secondary colors. We folded the white circle in half, and then in thirds to get 6 sections on our color wheel. 

Look at those well blended colors! 

We then took the black circle and folded it the same way as the white circle. 

This time we cut out organic shapes - similarly to cutting out snowflakes. 

Finally, we glued the black circle on top of the color wheel - ta-da! 

The kids really enjoyed identifying recognizable shapes in the black papers. Some saw fish, birds, faces and all sorts of neat images! What wild imaginations these kiddos have! 

6th Grade - Crowd-sourcing Art!

In addition to the environmental doc that the Digital Storytelling classes are working on, 6th grade is getting in on the Cape Fear Environmental Film Forum  fun as well!

Today Andre Silva, film professor at UNCW and CFEFF head honcho, 

visited our class to share a crowdsourcing project with us. 

What is crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is the idea of many people coming together to work collaboratively on a  project. 

In this case, we will be creating a short film.

A fine example of this that Andre shared with us is the Johnny Cash Project

He also played a portion of Star Wars Uncut. (this definitely got the kids' attention and made Andre a superstar in their eyes). 

Andre gave us 100 copies of the CFEFF logo, a leaf. The idea is that everyone will decorate, paint, collage, draw on, or use whatever material of their choice to make a piece of art. The only rule is that the leaf image must remain in tact. 

After we finish the leaves, Andre will collect the images, photograph them, and create a teaser trailer for the Film Forum. 

Thanks Andre for having us be a part of this!

So excited for these awesome projects coming up!!!

Digital Storytelling - Environmental documentary

This quarter the 7th & 8th grade Art Elective is Digital Storytelling. 

We began with creating personal stories, now we are working collaboritively on an environmental based documentary. We have the wonderful opportunity to work with the 

Cape Fear Environmental Film Festival, hosted by UNCW. 

We have chosen the topic of "water". Being a coastal community, this is a topic that is very relevant to our students - great place-based learning! 

We are now in the process of brainstorming people to interview, questions to ask, and footage to shoot. Students are storyboarding the sequence of events for our film. 

Today we enjoyed a presentation by Bonnie Monteleone. She shared her research of plastics found in the ocean and brought with her a 5 panel art installation depicting the items she found.

After her presentation, a group interviewed Bonnie about her research and what we can do to hep. 

Stay tuned for updates on this project! 

5th & 6th - Shine on!

May your days be merry and bright!

5th & 6th grade just finished their one-point perspective drawings, which required so much focus and precise attention to detail. Today we needed a fun little project as a change of pace.

So, out came the Christmas lights!

This was a great lesson in value, without needing to draw traditional value scales. We drew a few lights on our paper in pencil, and then used oil pastels to add color. 

The kids noticed that the center of the light was the brightest, and the color faded toward the outside edges of the bulbs. They also noted that the lights reflected off one another, causing additional areas of bright light.

And of course, our jokester noticed that one of my lights was broken. 

5th & 6th - Gaining Perspective

Perspective drawing is one of those funny art skills that is confusing and complicated until it just clicks -and ohh we love when that happens!

5th and 6th Graders have spent several weeks learning how to draw in one-point perspective, leading up to individual city drawings.

We began in the hallway and took note of the vertical and horizontal lines created by the hallway's walls & ceiling. I had a student slowly walk away from us, as we placed one hand at their feet, and another on top of their head. As the student walked away, our hands got closer - oh its fun to shrink our friends and watch them become giants again! 

.

Next we worked in our sketchbooks to create basic geometric shapes in one point perspective,

having lines head to a vanishing point. 

Once we had a handle on those tricky little cubes, we moved on to buildings! 

First in pencil, then outlining in Sharpie. 

Then came the colored pencils!

Here are several of the finished cities -

Evan

Christian

Libby

Kate

Finn

Tucker