THIRD GRADE... Adding details to our paintings

Artwork by Alexandra

Artwork by Christopher

Artwork by John  W.

Third graders added details to complete their portrait paintings. We blocked in the main colors of the portraits last week, leaving us to work on the hair, the features of our faces and any other small detail designs we wanted to add.

Just like with our skin tones, we tried to match our hair color to best represent us in the portrait. With a wide brush we painted the hair in the same direction our hair grows, treating the paint brush as we would a hair brush. With a smaller detail brush we added eyebrows to match the hair color.

Detail of Eyes
Artwork by Carter

For our eyes, we painted just the center circle of the drawn eye with blue, brown or hazel. Then using the smallest brush possible, we added the black circle of the pupil, a white dot for the highlight in the eye, and a very thin line to create the upper lid, indicating the line of the lashes. This is how famous impressionist artist, Pierre-Auguste Renior, painted eyes in his portraits. Simple and soft, but very realistic looking.

We finished up our portraits with a lip color and added other details to make our portraits special and uniquely ours. Please log onto Artsonia, an online museum that Ranney School participates in and see all of our 3rd grade portraits. If you have not already registered to the site, a note will be coming home soon with all the necessary information granting you access to your child's online portfolio.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FOURTH GRADE . . . modern technology meets traditional art

Our self portraits began as a lesson in technology when we learned how to use Adobe Photoshop in our art class. Then we turned back the clock to the 16th century and learned about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. Inspired by his mirror image writing, we retouched our photos on the computer and then created a mirror image drawing of one half of the photograph.

It was not possible to upload these drawings to Artsonia because they contain photographic images. Therefore, in order to share our drawings with you, I have created an iMovie with everyone's final work. Press the play button on the video below to enjoy our smiling faces and wonderful artwork!

SECOND GRADE . . . A Pop of color!

Artwork by Isabella

Artwork by Alexander

Second Graders finished their colorful Pop Art Portraits this week. We used different colors for each background and varied the colors for our hair, shirt and small designs. Choosing different colors for each of the four portraits imitates the style of Andy Warhol's popular silkscreen art during the 20th century.

Artwork by Gwendolen

Artwork by Gavin

It was fun to see how we would look with red hair, with black hair, or even with gray hair! By adjusting the color palette for each of our portraits, we learned how make unique and creative choices, not once but four times. Color can make such a difference in the appearance of any design. Our bright and colorful portraits prove that beautifully!

Please log onto Artsonia, an online museum that Ranney School participates in and see all of our portraits. If you have not already registered to the site, a note will be coming home soon with all the necessary information granting you access to your child's online portfolio.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Note to families . . .
    This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

GRAPHIC ARTS . . . Photography names

Graphic artists have completed their photo name collages. We took a walk around our campus with our digital cameras and looked for images that reminded us of the letters of our names. A tree, for example, could often be seen as a letter "Y". Part of a railing might look like a letter "D" as David did with his name. Anything round, such as a door knob or the bush in Fiona's name can be used for a letter "O". Students were also allowed to plan their photo shoots by arranging something from nature into the shape of a letter as you see in Ava's name.

The first part of this project was learning how to use the camera, framing the picture and holding it steady as we capture the image. (Scroll down to see my earlier post for tips on using a digital camera.)

Photo by Alexa

Photo by Melanie

Photo by Alden

Photo by Maya

Once we took enough images to spell out our names, these photos were uploaded to the computer. In Adobe Photoshop students opened each image and checked that it was a sharp photograph and included all of the letter that we needed to see. Then we adjusted each photo for our project. Here are some of the tools we used...

• The Cropping tool cuts off any part of the photo we don't need. It works by clicking with the tool on the image and scrolling down to include all that we want to show. By pressing down with the Shift key on the keyboard we were able to constrain the cropping image to a perfect square. 
• Under the Image Menu, we can re-size the image. We selected 4" x 4" for each photograph. This pull down menu also lets us rotate the image. Perhaps we want the image to be upside down or sideways. We did whatever was needed to see the image as a letter.
• Photoshop also allows us to adjust the brightness or the color of the image, and with special tools like the clone stamp tool, we could further adjust the image so that it really does look like the letter we need. 
• There is so much to learn in Photoshop and often professional artists aren't even aware of all the tools available for altering an image. We should never afraid to just click on a new tool and see what it does to our image. Playing around with special effects and different tools is the best way to learn new techniques, and with Photoshop, you can always undo what does not look good.

To complete this project, students learned how to merge all their retouched images together to spell out their names. When you see these wonderful name photos in our art exhibition next month, I hope you enjoy how recognizable the names are, even though the letters are made up of trees and door knobs! I also hope you notice how beautiful and well composed each photograph is that makes up each name.

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FIRST GRADE . . . What is the subject and what is the background?

First graders continued to work on their portraits based on the pose of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." We drew our faces, shoulders and folded hands just like in the famous portrait by da Vinci, and colored them in with a color palette that best represents each of us.

In the "Mona Lisa," the subject of the painting is the portrait. The background is the area behind the subject, represented as a soft landscape that seems to be very far away.

Back of portraits

To make the distinction between the subject and the background in our pictures, we created two separate works of art. The subject of our pictures is a portrait drawn with bright colors and fine detail. The background was created as a landscape painted with watercolors in softer, more muted tones.

Our portraits were cut out of the paper they were drawn on. On the back of these portraits, I glued down Styrofoam strips so that the portraits would look 3D when we attach them to the backgrounds, creating a feeling of depth between the subject and the background.

Background by Mara 

Background by Jonathan

On a new sheet of paper, we painted watercolor backgrounds. Many of these backgrounds look like a landscape such as Mara's amazing sunset painting shown here on the left. Jonathan's background appears more abstract as the colors of paint mixed with each other, creating soft blends and beautifully spontaneous impressions. I was thrilled with how both styles turned out!

To put it all together, we simply glued the other side of the Styrofoam strips to the watercolor landscapes. Here are a few examples of how they turned out... To see all of our Mona Lisa style portraits, visit our home page on Artsonia.com and scroll through the list of exhibits to first grade portraits.   http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Judy

Artwork by Herbani

Artwork by William K.

Artwork by Jonah

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FIFTH GRADE . . . Animals in our sketchpads!

Week three of our sketchpad sharing activity in fifth grade was filled with drawings of adorable animals in their natural habitat. Artists were able to draw their pets at home or choose a wild animal from a photograph or the computer. What I love about this activity is how different the sketches turn out. Unlike a project done in the art room, with students following each other's examples, these sketches are done at home and the interpretation of the assignment is unique in style and completely personal to the artist. Here are two dog sketches and two dolphin sketches to compare. I am in awe of them all!

Sketch by Sophia Z.

Sophia is new to Ranney School and has been impressing us with her talent every week! With this presentation, I like how the sketchy quality of her line gives this small drawing so much movement. Her drawing seems to have captured a moment in time when the dog, standing on grass, is about to leap right out of the page. How wonderful that we understand the grassy background with just a few graceful lines! The dog itself is skillfully drawn and his mesmerizing eyes capture my attention right away.

Sketch by Isabela

Isa also decided to draw a dog in the park. Isa's sketch is in full color and is very well composed on the page. Her background shows a nice feeling of perspective with trees and a graceful fence framing the grassy field. I like the path in the distance carrying our vision beyond the top edge of the paper. We immediately realize that this scene is much bigger than just the drawn image. Isa's dog is also posed looking forward and captures our attention, but the sketch looks so different as color defines it so precisely.

Sketch by Lily

And talk about what color can do for an illustration! Look at the lovely blending of warm shades for Lily's sunset sky. There is such depth to this seascape. The layers of blue pencil strokes in the water make me imagine there is depth to the ocean floor and I am seeing shadows beneath the glistening surface of the water. Lily's dolphin is part of a lovely, completed illustration.

Watercolor sketch by Tucker

Tucker also decided to draw a water creature for his favorite animal and used watercolor paint as a way to bring out the color in his scene. Just like Sophia's pencil sketch, his strokes are fluid and constantly moving across the page. What a perfect technique and a perfect medium to use to illustrate water! I am just as impressed with how well he drew and painted his animal.






Bravo to all my fifth grade artists! As always, you are invited to add a comment in the link below. Our featured artists for this assignment would love to hear your thoughts.

FIFTH GRADE... A fall pattern!

Week Two of the sketchpad assignments made us think about designs in nature. Using leaves, we composed our pages with a pattern in mind. Some fifth graders focused in on the delicate veins of their leaves as a pattern and others created an overall composition on the page, alternating styles or colors of leaves. Here are a few wonderful examples of our fall patterns in nature!

Sketch by Kayla

Kayla's intricate patterns inside of her leaves make me think of a textile design inspired by nature. The shapes of the leaves are realistic as is the graceful branch they are attached to. That realism gives me an initial impression that she drew a very recognizable detail of tree branch from observation. But then we are surprised by the fun patterns you would not expect to see in a leaf! That was very clever of Kayla.

Sketch by Melanie

Melanie's colorful sketch shows a lovely arrangement of leaves on the page. It is a composition that defines symmetry, making it very pleasing to look at. I adore the pencil details of the realistic veins in the leaves. By doing this, Melanie actually created a pattern within a pattern as we focus on both the lines in the leaves as well as the overall pattern on the page. Pattern can also be defined by color and her slightly different hues of green and a splash of purple stand out brilliantly.

Collage by Christopher

Christopher found an unusual solution to the assignment by creating a pattern with actual leaves in this clever collage. I am impressed with how the different shapes of the leaves he found contrast against each other. The delicate star shaped leaves would not look quite so delicate without the heavier almond shape of the other leaves next to them. I can't wait to see how this collage survives the winter in our art room. We will revisit this page again in the spring and see what happens to Christopher's temporary pattern from nature!


Please take a moment to add your own thoughts in the Comment link below. These fifth grade artists would love to hear from you!

THIRD GRADE . . . How to draw a portrait!

Portrait by Syena

Portrait by Carter

Every grade in Lower School begins with a self portrait in art. It is a great way to get to know our new friends through self expression and creative discovery. Some grades do a pencil sketch, some show off their love of color with markers or crayons, and others are experimenting with new technology and retouching their photos on the computer. This year, third graders are creating their self portrait as a full painting on canvas. We are using 11 x 14 canvas boards for this project and we will learn how to select a color palette that best represents us.

To create our portraits, we always begin with an oval for the face. The vertical line down the middle of the oval divides our face in half. We are all basically symmetrical and everything we add to one side of this line we can repeat on the other side.

It is hard to believe that your eyes are half way down your head, but the horizontal line dividing the head in half is where we draw our eyes. The eyes begin as an oval but then we correct the ends of each oval to look more like an almond shape. Students learned how to add the iris inside the eyes as if they are adding a pair of parentheses, from top to bottom. We don't want to see any white above or below the circle of color in our eyes. We added eyelids and eyebrows to complete our eyes. The nose in a third grade painting is a realistic nose that sits halfway between the eyes and the chin. Then the mouth which begins as just an expression line is halfway between the nose and the chin.

Next. we completed the mouth with a lower lip and an upper lip. Notice how the mouth is wider than the nose? Students often make their mouth too small. And boys all giggle when they have to draw lips! We all have two lips on our adorable faces, why not draw them? The lips do not have to be painted in with bright red, but they are definitely part of our face.

The ears, as those of us who wear glasses know very well, line up with our eyes. They start at the line of the eyes and go down as far as the base of the nose. We added a neck wide enough to support our heads but not too long. (I don't remember any giraffes sitting in art class today!) Finally, to indicate a body, we add shoulders that are nicely rounded and extend past the width of the head on both sides.

Short Hair

Long Hair

Hair is a big deal for our self portraits, Based on the color and the style it can do more to make our self portraits look just like us than any other feature. To begin drawing the hair, we start with the hair line, just above our foreheads. We draw a line from one ear up above the eye brows, across the oval, and back down to the other ear. Depending on the part in your hair or whether or not you have bangs, this line can reflect your hairstyle.

To make short hair, we draw a line around the top of the oval, adding volume above our head. To make long hair, we start at the top of the oval and bring the hair down to the shoulders. Adding special details such as a design on the shirt, or headbands and jewelry, also helps to express our personality through our portraits and tell the world who we are. In the portraits shown above, Carter and Syena both added wonderful pencil details to personalize their canvases. I can't wait to see all of these portraits painted in full color!

Note to families . . .
    This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839 

FIRST GRADE . . . Learning about the Mona Lisa

Portrait by Saahil 

Portrait by Madison

First Graders have started their Lower School journey into the rich and colorful world of art history. As we experiment with different materials and art techniques, we will be inspired by famous paintings and sculptures. We will also learn about the artists who created these masterpieces and the cultures they came from.

As we do every year in art, we begin our discovery into self expression with a portrait of ourselves. First graders learned about the history of one of the most famous works of art, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". (By the way, I was so impressed by all of my first grade friends who knew the name of this painting. Some even knew that it hangs in a museum in Paris!) We looked at the painting and talked about why it became so well known. Leonardo dedicated his life to studying the human body, learning all about the bones, the muscles, the correct proportions, and how the body looks in motion. His studies in light and shadow also help us to see the form of Mona Lisa's features and give us a better sense of depth.

Besides being a brilliant work of art, this painting may have become so famous because of a much more exciting reason! In the early 1900's the "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the museum. An Italian handyman hired by the Louvre took the painting off the wall and walked right out of the building with it. He wanted to bring her back to Italy, the birthplace of Leonardo. After a two year investigation, the painting was finally discovered and returned to the museum. The Mona Lisa now hangs behind a protective glass panel and is roped off so that visitors can only admire her from a safe distance.

Our first grade self portraits will be based on the pose of the "Mona Lisa" showing our face, shoulders and folded hands. Once all of our portraits are drawn and colored in, we will begin to paint a soft background with watercolors.

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KINDERGARTEN... We are artists in a museum!

Kindergarten students completed their self portraits today for the cover of their books, "All About Me!" We are now busy working on illustrations of our favorite things for the inside pages of our books.

When art students are finished with their artwork, I photograph the work and upload each image to Artsonia.com, an international art museum for children. Artsonia brings together the artwork of students from many different countries to celebrate creativity in the classroom. All students at Ranney School are automatically a member of this international museum and will be building their own personal portfolios. Families are encouraged to browse the museum and view school exhibitions and student artwork. Students develop a sense of pride as their work becomes published on the site and is viewed by friends and family.

I will be sending home a slip from Artsonia with your child's special registration name and a pass code so that families can register to the site. I look forward to filling these online portfolios with beautiful work all year long!

Here are a few examples of Kindergarten portraits I just uploaded to Artsonia. Check out the Ranney School homepage on Artsonia.com to see everyone's work. http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Portrait by Armaan

Portrait by Tarin

Portrait by Adella

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839