Portrait Artist Study - Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is an American artist.

Image source

Image source

Image source

Image source

Image source

Image source

Image source

For our self-portrait study we looked at his work and then created our own versions, 

using zentangle blackline masters as the backgrounds.  

We chose to do monochromatic pencil sketches for our portraits (but next time would be sure to use cartridge/drawing paper rather than just plain paper, to make sure the zentangle lines under our portrait don't show through because the paper would be thicker.)

Here are some of our efforts!

Completed pastel portraits - looking awesome!

2018 Team Kahu pastel portraits from Edendale Primary School on Vimeo.

Inspired by Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig and with thanks to Cassie Stephens for her online video tutorial; we spent about three sessions to complete these and the kids really love the results 

(as do I!)

Here's the post of the early stages...

Pop art portraits

A bit of a delay with sharing this lesson/unit idea:

Term One had a sketching and portraits focus so we started the term with some pop-art self-portraits (after looking at the different types of portraits that might be produced)...it was a lot of fun and the art is very creative. I got the inspiration from a Facebook post but am not sure whose!

I took black and white photos of the kids then printed them out on A3 - the kids turned them over to trace around their main features and facial shape, neck/shirt etc with pencil.

They then used black crayon to go over the outlines and to split large areas (eg face and hair) with dark lines before using coloured crayons (including white) to draw patterns inside each different space.

Next step was to use bright dyes in each section - don't they look awesome?!

Painting - atmospheric perspective

Term One 2016 - Year 5-6  pupils

Henri Matisse - art appreciation

Henri Matisse 1948 (image source)

For art appreciation discussions this term we are looking at the cutout/collage works of Henri Matisse (1869-1954):

Biography information:
Tate Modern Gallery (For Kids) 
Ducksters.com   
KinderArt
Museum of Modern Art

Classroom lesson ideas: Crafty Classroom   









First, let's find out how this modern artist worked when producing his cutouts:

Videos from the Museum of Modern Art

http://www.biography.com/news/henri-matisse-the-cut-outs-moma (pictures in my IWB picture drive folder)

Next, we will discuss some of Matisse's cutout works - What do they make us think of or feel? What do we like about each one? What do we not like? What questions do we have about each one?

Photos below are from this MoMA website source

Composition Green Background 1947

Large Decoration with Masks 1953

Le Clown 1947

Nuit de Noel (Christmas Night) 1952

Pale Blue Window `1948-49

The Codomas 1943

The Fall of Icarus 1943

The Sheaf 1953

Two Dancers 1937-38

The Horse and Rider 1943-44

Swimming Pool 1952

For our activity, we will each choose one of Matisse's works shown above and use this as our inspiration for a cutout artwork of our own design... (watch this space for a link to the results!)

A new link or two for Just Cool!

Am adding a couple of new links to my Just Cool! page -

-this is a gorgeous little animated film about persistence:

https://vimeo.com/98919897

- and some awesome photos of children from around the world doing what children do best...playing!

http://www.boredpanda.com/happy-children-playing/

Would be great for writing prompts, social studies, discussions, photography/art....

They are all fantastic...this is one of my favourites!

Image link

Working on our Lino prints...

Today we moved onto transferring our 'gyotaku'-inspired fish designs to the lino and began our cutting...pupils rubbed pencil on the back of their design drawing so that they could then reverse trace the picture onto the lino...

Next step was to make sure they could see the lines clearly on the lino block...

...before beginning to cut out the design...lino block is softened by ten seconds in the microwave and pupils were given very strict instructions to have their steadying hand BEHIND THE BLADE! (Out of nineteen pupils there was only one boy who immediately cut his finger about ten seconds after starting and having his hand sitting to the side of the blade...sigh...)

...most of the pupils have not done this before and were really intrigued with the technique...their fish are going to print beautifully! (To see finished prints, go to this link: http://thekahukids.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/third-instalment-of-our-fish-lino-prints.html

I promise you won't be disappointed!)

ART - printmaking

Ben Reid

My Pinterest board for printmaking ideas (mainly lino prints)


With my level (Year Six pupils) I am planning to do lino printing...

NZ print-makers (range of print-making techniques):
Ben Reid            Michel Tuffery            Philippa Bentley   

Peter Lendvai                Minu            Vanessa Edwards

Susan Haywood Smith - beautiful NZ birds and motifs, 2-3 colours

                                                   Steev Peyroux - Dunedin peninsula

This British artist shares his experiences of using lino to create prints...


And this slideshow shows how another art teacher creates lino prints...

Marian Johansen-Ellis

I really like this idea on the left (found on Pinterest) as fishing is a big recreational activity in Southland - this artwork links well to the TED video below that explains about the history and method of Japanese Gyotaku (fish printing)...

and I think I might try doing it on paper - pupils can use their own fish design as the basis of their picture and then borrow pieces of other pupils' designs to fill in the gaps...

and maybe also try putting the design onto hessian or calico to make a wall hanging as seen in this Blick art lesson...



This video is a slideshow of a real fish being prepared and printed...


And I think we might also try some 'haunted houses' - printing them on four different coloured papers to create an Andy Warhol style of picture (as seen on this wonderful art blog) and/or print on old book pages...these would be great poem or story-motivators I'm sure!

Houses on book paper

Haunted house