Earth Art

The Art + Nature = Fun class created Earth Art (otherwise known as Environmental Installation Art) as inspired by Andy Goldsworthy the second to last day of camp.  Thankfully it wasn't too terribly hot, and the kids had a lot of fun making their projects, as well as a class one that was inspired by the Olympics.  If you have a chance, I would really recommend checking out Andy Goldsworthy's works: they are amazing!  Here is a link to a slideshow on YouTube.

Claymation Session 3

Claymation videos created by the Session 3 Become a Cartoonist and Animator Class!

Last Day of Camp!

We finished camp off with a bang learning about Andy Goldsworthy and creating Environmental Installation Art as a class.  Andy Goldsworthy is a really interesting artist.  He creates art solely out of materials found in nature, takes a picture of what he has created, and then lets nature take its course.  Here is a link to a short video clip that we watched in class.  Thankfully we were able to beat the rain and create outside on the school grounds.  I really enjoyed spending time and making art with each student in the class!

Plein Air Painting

Thursday we were able to go outside and paint with watercolors in the courtyard.  We talked about color matching and practiced mixing colors to match what we saw.  We then painted things that we saw in the courtyard, even our fellow classmates!  We also watched a portion of William Kentridge's charcoal video work.  There are so many different, amazing contemporary artists out there!

Watercolors

We finished our nature material animals and started learning about watercolors today!  The animals turned out to look great and each student even wrote a story in their sketchbook to go along with their animals.  When the animals were finished, we moved on to watercolors.  We looked at a lot of images and talked about different watercolor techniques, such as washes, wet on wet, dry brush, and glazing.  We also discussed color-mixing with watercolors.  Each student then practiced watercolor techniques in  their sketchbooks.  It was fun trying to mix a lot of colors and being able to play with paint!

Nature Animal Sculptures

Tuesday we learned about plein air painting and painted outside in the garden courtyard.  We also started on our sculptures made out of things found in nature.  Each student designed their own animal and then we went on a walk as a class to find our materials.  The animals are looking great!

Creating Landscapes

We got to paint our own landscapes today.  Since we discussed the different parts of a landscape on Friday, we tried to include those in our landscapes.  We painted with tempera paint and tried to mix as many colors as we could to make our paintings more realistic.

Landscapes

Friday we started on a landscape acrylic painting.  As a class, we talked about the parts of a normal landscape such as having a foreground, middle ground and background.  We also discussed how to make landscapes look like they are 3D on a flat piece of paper.  Some of the techniques we talked about were: making things look smaller as they go farther back, overlapping things, as well as atmospheric perspective.  It was fun to go on a walk outside and see how even the landscape around us has these things happening in it.

We also finished our stick buddies that we created from our sticks that we gathered and drew with a few days ago.  They turned out very colorful and fun!

Nature Collages

On Thursday we finished up our nature collages.  They turned out really neat!  We decided that we would post them in the hallway as a little class art show so that students from other camps could see the cool collages that we made.

Every day we also watch a video segment about a contemporary artist.  After completing our collages, we learned about Mark Bradford.  He does a lot of collage and decollage using signs and fliers that he finds in Los Angeles.  It was cool to see a famous artist doing similar things to what we are doing in class.

Drawing with Our Eyes

 For our third day of camp, we talked about drawing with our eyes.  Sometimes our brains think that they know what a tree looks like, but we really don't know what a particular tree looks like until we actually study it!  So, we practiced looking what we were drawing more than our paper.  To help us with that practice, we did some blind contour drawings!


We also started doing a nature collage with the paper that we painted on Monday.  We drew compositions that we saw in the courtyard, and then made them into collages in the classroom.  They are looking very colorful.

Drawing with Sticks

On our second day we learned about using tools found in nature to create art.  We talked about conventional tools like paint brushes or pencils, and then unconventional tools like our shoes, or even sticks that we find on the ground!  We then went outside and chose our very own sticks to draw with.  It was fun to loosen up, get a little messy and draw with our sticks in ink.

Art + Nature = Fun!

It has been so fun to get to know all of the students in the class.  On the first day, we created our sketchbooks and portfolios, and then painted as many colors as we could make onto paper!  We felt very modern :)

Session 1 Claymation Projects

For the past couple of days, the students in the "Become a Cartoonist and Animator" class took a stab at Claymation.  Check out their finished videos!