Animals in Art: Oil Pastel Project

Animals in Art students are finishing up their oil pastel project. Students looked at work by Franz Marc to come up with ideas for similar colors they could use to create blending. The backgrounds should be some type of abstract design (may use unrealistic colors or shapes that wouldn't actually represent the animal's environment). 

Painting: Assigned Object Project

With this project each student got 4 objects that the needed to incorporate into a painting. Instead of just painting the objects students were asked to interpret them or relate them to an interest they have. Some students combined ideas from all of their objects into one concept. Others chose to create more of a collage that included each object in separate ways within the painting. 

Animals in Art: Oil Pastel Drawings

Animals in Art students are creating oil pastel drawings based on the work of Franz Marc. Students are not using realistic colors, but creating abstract versions of animals with various designs in the background. With the oil pastels, they were asked to blend areas together with similar colors somewhere within their project.

Painting: Assigned Object Project

For their 1st project, painting students were given a bag with 4 objects. Each student needed to add an object and create a collage like image that drew connections to their objects. Things such as a crayon could connect with color, line, or childhood. A sun might remind students of summer, the color yellow, or something round. Students were encouraged to relate it to other things that would make their projects more personal. Below are some examples of student sketches, paintings in progress, and some close ups of finished areas of projects. 

Black and White Photography: Composition Activity (Photogram)

 As we continue to work towards our Photogram project, Black and White Photography students are working together to arrange objects in interesting ways. Each table in the classroom got a ziploc that contained the same type and amount of objects (only colors were different). To begin, they could  create any type of composition they wanted. Next they created symmetry by reflecting their design or rotating a design around a central point. The 3rd design focused on line; students could create straight lines, thin lines, thick lines, curved lines, or zig zag lines. Last, the students arranged the objects to depict an object or a scene. Between each challenge, students placed a star next to the example that they thought was the most successful and explained why it was visually pleasing. 

After learning about the enlargers and chemicals used to develop the paper, students will be moving to the darkroom. They will choose objects to place on the light sensitive paper and expose to light to create their photograms. An example of this project is shown below.

Animals in Art: Zentangles

Below are some finished Zentangle Projects created by the 8th grade Animals in Art students. Each has a minimum of 5 patterns and 3 colors incorporated. The animals were colored using watercolor pencils.