FIFTH GRADE . . . A drawing of the season

Each week, 5th graders come into art class with drawings that they complete at home. Some of the assignments might ask for them to use their observational skills and draw objects from life, as realistic as possible. Other drawings can highlight design skills and call for working in color and patterns. Drawing from imagination is another option, as is drawing an animated sketch and trying our hands at cartoon style illustrations.

This week, 5th grade artists celebrated the colors of the season by creating a pattern with leaves. As students came up to present their drawings to the class, they also presented an artist statement, giving us more information about their art and getting us engaged in the presentation. Classmates then had the opportunity to offer a critique to the artist. We are all learning how to talk about art, use art vocabulary, and we are learning how to appreciate the artwork of others.

Here are a few very different interpretations of this week's assignment. Please contribute to our conversation by adding your own comments at the bottom of this post. Our featured artists for this blog post would love to hear from you!

Dylan created a pattern of small green leaves within a large colorful leaf. Classmates loved how the small leaves look like hearts.

Araiya created a pattern by arranging her leaves in a circular composition. Her face in the center makes the drawing so creative!

Balkan drew a dramatic and crisp arrangement of leaves. Everyone remarked on how well he added color to the page with just his pencil shading.

 Dakota really made us think of autumn with his bright red leaf. His bold choice of color really stands out in his well drawn outline. We can easily recognize this type of leaf.

James did a rubbing of real leaves for this assignment. There is beauty in nature and what better way to show us a pattern but by highlighting the lines of an actual leaf. 

FOURTH GRADE . . . The Magic of Photoshop

Fourth graders are discovering the magic of modern technology in their general art class. With our self portrait project, we are going to explore how art can be expressed using software on the computer.

Adobe Photoshop is a wonderful retouching tool for anyone who owns a digital camera or cell phone. Most of us know how to upload photos to a computer and use them in different applications. Therefore, we should also know how to correct a photo, change its size or alter the color. With Photoshop, fourth graders will learn how to do all of that, as well as discover how to change a digital image into a creative and original work of art.

With new advances in technology there is always a moment we have to step back and review what impact this new technology will make in our lives. When I was younger, cameras used film to record images. Unless you were very skilled at darkroom techniques, the image was printed just as it was captured by the camera lens. The best we could do at the time was use a pair of scissors to crop the photo. Now with software such as Adobe Photoshop, photos can be altered and you would never realize a change was made. Photographs can no longer be assumed to reflect real life.

Here is a video by Dove Beauty that I shared with my classes this week. The video really highlights the significance of Photoshop and the impact it has on our perception of beauty and reality.