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.

Posted with Blogsy

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

FIFTH GRADE . . . Learning how to appreciate art

Fifth graders have been bringing their sketchpads into art class. We took turns presenting our drawings with the class and we learned how to talk about each drawing. We were able to point out something specific about the sketch and we could ask the artist questions as well. How amazing would it be to go to a museum and actually ask Vincent van Gogh why he painted swirls in the sky of his "Starry Night!" To be able to ask an artist a question gives us an opportunity to learn and appreciate so much more about the art.

It is not enough just to say you like a picture; we want to know why you like it. When we discuss a drawing in class, these are some of the elements of art we can recognize or talk about:
1. Is the image realistic or abstract?
2. Can you talk about color...  Is it soft, bright, or bold?
3. How was the object shaded?
4. Is there an interesting design or composition on the page?
5. Is there a sense of movement?
6. How does the picture make you feel... Are you happy, sad, calm, nervous?
7. What can you say about the subject of the drawing or even the background?

Here are some of the sketches my students brought in when they were asked to draw their favorite thing in their bedroom.

Sketch by Emily

Emily's origami bird is not only beautifully drawn and recognizable, but the way she shaded the drawing makes us really see the delicate creases in the paper and we instantly understand that it is origami. I was impressed not only with the drawing, but with her ability to fold the paper so perfectly!

Sketch by Cynthia

Cynthia focused on her dresser top and vanity mirror, including her self-portrait in the mirror. I love how intently she is staring at her image as she made her drawing. Self portraits are rarely smiling... you draw what you see in your reflection and while you are working, you often have a very serious expression.

Sketch by Vincent

Vincent drew a sketch of his electric guitar. All the details that he included makes us realize just how well he knows his instrument and how much he was able to tell us about it through his drawing. It almost seems to be waiting for someone to pick it up and start playing music!







Emily, Cynthia and Vincent showed us three very different examples of how you could have completed your sketch and I hope they inspire everyone in 5th grade to draw!

These artists would love to hear from you! Please add your own thoughts and reflections about any of these three drawings in the comments box below...

Faculty Art Show!

How wonderful it must be to be a Ranney student, to travel up through the grades and the divisions, and discover what each of the art teachers can offer you on your creative journey. Ranney School is hosting a faculty art exhibit, now on display in Panther Hall Gallery. The exhibit highlights our own creative styles and reminds students that we are all working artists as well as your art teachers.



My paintings in this art exhibit reflect my own personal creative journey, how I learned how to observe and record my unique vision of reality. When I am immersed in a project, I always have to remind myself to step back every now and then and look at what I have been creating from a different perspective. It might simply be that I have to walk away from a painting and look at it with fresh eyes the next day. Sometimes I take a photo of the canvas with my phone or iPad and see how it looks on a small screen as opposed to real life. Does something need to be a different color? Do my eyes focus on what I want everyone else to notice?  I have learned something from each one that I not only bring as a skill to my next painting, but it becomes something I can share with my students at school. My art classes have never been taught out of a textbook, but out of my own experience as an artist. I am inspired by my students, and hopefully I inspire them. It is vital to me to be a working artist and so important for them.

Having my work on display at school also allows me see my work through the wide eyes of my students who could not believe I painted the adorable beagle or the larger-than-life tennis ball. This opportunity to observe my work from a different viewpoint is just like stepping away from the canvas and taking a look with fresh eyes on a new day. I am, once again, excited to begin a new canvas at home and see what creative ideas I can discover this time!

Please come to school and enjoy the work up in Panther Hall Gallery, now through the middle of next week. From the Middle School, you can also see the detailed architectural studies and wonderful ceramic pieces created by Mrs. McCarthy. In the Upper School, Mrs Shipley's intricate data drawings invite you to step up close and examine the beautiful designs that her visual path of information creates on her canvases. Mr. Sullivan, our new Upper School art teacher, has shared with us his expansive landscapes that seem to be as flat as the canvas they are painted on, but at the same time so full of dimension and space. Those students lucky to have Mrs. Greenberg can see her paper cast images. She gets you to notice the shape of objects in a new light, and her own analysis of her work is quite personal and inspiring. As artists, we complement each other in our department and we bring an amazing breath of knowledge and experience to our students.

FOURTH GRADE . . . Mirror image writing

Fourth grade students were asked to read this quote by Leonardo da Vinci as they entered the art room. Everyone recognized it as backwards writing and most had no trouble figuring out what it said, after stumbling over a few words here and there! We talked about the reasons that Leonardo might have written in mirror image and discovered that many of his journals contained top secret inventions he worked on for the government. It could be that he was writing in code. At a glance, the mirror image letters might appear to be from another language and someone glancing at the page would not bother to take the time to figure out his code.
    We also discovered that Leonardo wrote with his left hand. That means that all of you "Lefties" are in good company. Leonardo was a very talented and brilliant man! When you write from Left to Right across the page, a person writing with his left hand might smudge the letters just printed. However, if you write with your left hand and are writing in mirror image, then you write from Right to Left and your hand does not cover the wet ink. Perhaps mirror image writing was simply a brilliant invention by a left handed artist to not smudge his work!

This is Leonardo's quote written the correct way. We then talked about what it could mean and I heard the most wonderful interpretations from my students. People who can "see" can imagine a different way to do something. For a Renaissance man like Leonardo da Vinci, living life to the fullest meant always discovering new and better ways to understand the world. He used painting, music, mathematics and science to help him come up with new visions of the world, amazing inventions, and a new standard of mastery in art.

Brandon in Mrs. Robinson's class was very clever when he explained that it is just like looking up at the clouds. Some people might see the shape of something in the clouds, such as a dog. Others will recognize that it looks like a dog after being shown how the clouds take on the shape of a dog's head, the feet, perhaps the tail. The last group of people would insist that it is just a cloud, nothing more. Not everyone has the vision to see things in a different way. Great analogy, Brandon!

Other students suggested that having the ability to "see" might also mean being able to think of a new way to use something, just like re-purposing a box or a toy that you don't need anymore. How many of you could come up with another use for a box instead of throwing it out?

We started practicing mirror image writing in class and it was a challenge for many of us to write that way. Emma had an easier time with her name because the M's and the A are the same written both ways. She just had to figure out how to write the E backwards. As more class time allows, we will try drawing other lines and shapes in mirror image, all in preparation for drawing our portraits this way. Try practicing this skill at home. The more comfortable you are seeing outlines and shapes in mirror image, the easier it will be to draw in mirror image too.


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

SECOND GRADE . . . How can you make a copy?

Portrait by Ava

Portrait by Gavin

We are working on our self-portraits in Second Grade. Everyone created a wonderful outline drawing of themselves in pencil and black marker. These simple portraits will be reproduced 4 times on a copy machine and then handed back to the class next week to complete in many shades of colorful markers.

The inspiration for our project comes from the work of Andy Warhol, a well known Pop Artist from the 20th century. His art was a reaction to the sudden popularity of celebrities and mass produced items of that century, such as Coca Cola bottles and Campbell's Soup. He was also the one who came up with the expression, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Most of Warhol's images are done as multiple prints to reflect just how "popular" the image is to all of us. We did not see Marilyn Monroe once, we saw her over and over again in movies, on TV, and in magazines. Warhol's portrait of Marilyn reflects her fame and her popularity.

Andy Warhol only made one portrait of Marilyn and then printed it out many times. We talked about the many ways someone can make an exact copy of an image. Some of my students thought about using a copy machine just like I will be doing with everyone's marker drawings. And what happens if you take a photograph with a camera and print out more than one copy? Each copy of the photograph will look exactly the same. An image from a computer can also be printed out multiple times. One second grader suggested we can even trace a drawing with tracing paper. That is a wonderful idea too!

Andy Warhol created multiple images for his Pop Art prints using a popular printing technique. He designed only one version of each portrait he made, and then constructed a screen from that image so that he can print it many times. This process is called "silk screening." When you purchase a printed T shirt from a store, chances are the printing was done this way. Each shirt looks exactly the same because they were all printed from the same screen.

Here is a screen that I made with the Ranney School logo. A very fine fabric (similar to silk) was stretched over a wooden frame and then coated with a film to seal off the holes in the fabric. Only the area that shows the Ranney logo is not coated. Fabric paint is then forced through the holes of the screen with a squeegee.

When the screen is lifted up, the shirt displays the printed logo.

Andy Warhol often used many colors with one screen and varied the colors from one print to the next. The images look identical, but the use of color makes them appear as separate works of art. We will use this idea with our marker portraits. We drew only one portrait on paper and these drawings will be copied on a copy machine. Next week we will experiment with color.  By varying the palettes we select for our hair, shirt and background, we will be able to make our own version of a Pop Art portrait.

Here is a question for you . . . If Andy Warhol was still creating his Pop Art images, what very famous person do you think he might want to do a portrait of today?

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