Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Drawings

What a colorful holiday! Day of the Dead is celebrated in the art studio because of all colorful creative design that comes from all the decorations.  Dominated with skeletons and colors of vibrant red and marigold, Day of the Dead celebrates the memory of loved ones that have passed in Mexico and Latin American countries.  I came across this lesson on Deep Space Sparkle by Patty Palmer, and students were excited to try it. It is a great lesson on symmetry and I love the creative, personal designs they came up with. I can't wait to see the end product.

Frank Stella inspired Collaborative Art Project builds Artistic Behaviors with Recycled Cardboard: Part 1

"Oh my goodness, look at this color I made!" "Wow, this is what I got!" Color mixing is quite the hit with our Wildcat artists. Their exploration with paint, different brush types and working with a "canvas" has been fun to observe and guide students through.  Students in grades 2 through 5 are working on building Painting Skill Sets as we work on a collaborative art project inspired by Frank Stella's shaped canvases.

Students looked at how the art of Frank Stella evolved from Minimalist to his mixed media and shaped canvases. We studied organic shapes, geometric shapes, shading, tinting and pattern and texture with lines.

The students created plans and sketched possible ideas for their shaped canvases, along with adding patterns and texture.

Once they chose one of their sketches they were ready for their cardboard. First they drew their shape on the cardboard, then I carefully cut them out.  We were lucky to have sheets of cardboard from the Promethean boards that were installed in our classrooms.  Next, students were given a tour of our Painting Studio. We went over procedures, getting paint, working and cleaning up our space.

We will soon be ready to put the canvases together to create our Frank Stella inspired installations. They will be throughout our school building.

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