Grade 4 - Center of Interest, Repetition and Balance

 Grade 4 

Studying "Center of Interest"
with simple 1 point perspective

~ In other words, Focal Point ~ 

Where shall we direct the viewer to look first? 

Materials - Colored pencil, Crayon, Ruler, Black Sharpie, Texture Plates.

 Here are some of our wonderful finished compositions:

 

Pattern exploration in 2nd Grade 
Inspired by Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi with Pumpkin, 2010, Japan

 

     We studied the artist Yayoi Kusama. She is sometimes referred to as the Polka-dot Artist. She doesn't always use polk-dots, but all her work is highly patterned, which is why I chose her as my inspiration for this lesson.
     Our students all started by drawing one pumpkin - step-by-step using a pencil. Once they got the hang of it, many more were added. We used organic shapes for our pumpkins, and used geometric pattern in our background.
     I was delighted to see all the wonderfully creative responses of our students!

3rd Grade - Using Texture in our artworks

Grade 3 - Senufo, Mud Cloths

Using line to imply texture in artwork. 

Using fabric and fringe for added textural interest. 

      We drew our plant and animal designs on paper first. We knew that "folk art" is not realistic, so most of us invented animals using our wonderful imaginations! Our line pattern created representations of texture in our design.

     Our designs were traced on fabric with permanent marker and then painted with watercolor. We used opposite colors to create a much richer mud color than we could have if we used brown straight from our pallets! It took time and patience to pull threads from our fabric edges for fringe!

Second Grade Pattern Exploration,
Inspired by the highly patterned work of Yayoi Kusama

     We began our work with line drawings of pumpkins. We learned that pumpkins have "organic form"! We used "geometric shape" in our backgrounds for contrast. 

     Then we used polka-dot pattern to add emphasis to our compositions!

     Finally, we painted with liquid watercolor!

See a new blog post made 10/25 for more of our finished patterned pumpkins! 

First Grade Line Exploration

Line Exploration in First Grade

This is an example of First Grade line exploration, using crayon and then painting with a wash of watercolor. When our paintings were dry we cut our warp threads and then wove in colored paper strips from left to right. 

 Stay tuned for photos of our last step of this exploration of line...
Our final touch was weaving in beautiful colored yarn to give our finished work a dimensional effect!