LINES! Crazy Lines!

Harold and the Purple Crayon

This week at LEA we were loopy over lines!  At East Mesa and Maricopa my K-2nd Grades read Harold and the Purple crayon and talked about contour lines (continuous).  Harold went on an entire adventure with just one crayon and a line.  Students followed suit and set off on their own adventures!  They were shocked at just how fun a piece of brown paper and a purple crayon became with just a little imagination!  

My older students at East Mesa got in on the "line action" too!  What a perfect week for Dr. Seuss to have his 109th birthday!  I could not wait to teach the students about my favorite illustrator!  If it weren't for Dr. Seuss I would have never learned to draw as well as I did as a child!  I spent my weekends immersed in a Dr. Seuss book with a pad of paper and a pencil for years!  The students tied their Dr. Seuss and Line Lesson together with awesome birthday cakes perfect for the amazing illustrator!  I didn't get the greatest picture, but the 2nd grade was so excited to have their cakes on display in our room I had to get a shot!  So neat to see students giving up their art for a week just to have it hung up! 

Later in the week the younger students got to try their hand at a little 3-D line work!  They too learned about Dr. Seuss and celebrated by making their own "Who-ville"!  This by far was a favorite project!  The students worked so hard but caught on very quickly as they figured out how to make shapes from their "lines" and how to make them 3 dimensional on the page.  This project was so much fun I shared it with the students in K-2nd at Maricopa as well!  Here are some of the "Who-villes" we created!

 At LEA Maricopa we also explored lines!  The students learned all about different lines and how they differ from shape and form.  They also learned that a line repeated creates visual rhythm   We practiced making visual music with our Crazy Hair projects!  They students were really challenged to find 10 different line types and create a rhythm with them.  Check out what they came up with!

AND SOME K-2nd...

My Advanced Art class at LEA Maricopa also explored line.  They created "Imagine" Portraits.  This project was really neat for me as a teacher.  The project started out going in one direction and with each class really evolved with the students opinion in mind.  I am really enjoying getting to know this group better each class.  There is so much talent and such a broad range of interests I am hoping that as we finish out the year they will all not only learn some valuable drawing techniques that they will use through out the years, but get to create some really neat things that they love!  We were really lucky to get sketch books for each student in the class and I am hoping they have gotten a few minutes over spring break to do a little art!  Here is a peek at the portrait/line work that these students did!

Next week the students are going to learn texture by taking a look at Van Gogh!  They will get to experience the difference between implied texture and actual texture all while getting ready for spring!  6th Grade in Maricopa is going to try their hand at Op Art and my Advanced students will work on some mascott revamping!  I can't wait!

Artist links for this week:
Keith Haring
http://www.haring.com/!/about-haring#.UT_aCNZOOtM

Paul Klee
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/klee/hd_klee.htm

Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm

Oh wait!  How could I forget!!!  The students also learned about Ralph Stedman (a little of a carry over from last week)! http://www.ralphsteadman.com/
 They used ink blots that they had little control over to create a pen and ink piece that conveyed a feeling, direction, or style.  The kids were a bit hesitant at first and I will admit many looked at me like I was a "crazy artist", but they gave it a shot and I caught them asking if we could do the same project again the next day!  One we will revisit for sure!  Check it out!