Lessons for visual art education – where it's about the process, not the product
Tag: K-8
Description of the Unit –
Students will practice a variety of painting techniques (including color mixing and brush effects) for acrylic painting, practicing these for various effects. Students will then choose a nature postcard to use as a reference for their own painting. Students will eventually create at least two different paintings in acrylic of two different nature scenes, trying to use the techniques learned to recreate specific textures and effects.
Description of the Unit –
Students will explore the whimsical, yet ordered and divinely balanced kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder, using his work as inspiration for their own kinetic sculpture.
Description of the Unit –
Students will practice simple loom weaving and create one small tapestry.
Activity statement –
In the California Visual Arts Standards, fourth grade students should experience using “fibers…to create a simple weaving,” (2.4, Creative Expression). Further, as students will be working on sewing samplers in fifth grade, they will benefit from this opportunity to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Finally, while practicing this simple weaving technique on a cardboard loom, students will reinforce their understanding of color and pattern via the design they choose to weave.
Description of the Unit –
Students will explore the concept of symbolism in art, and how they can use symbols—images—to represent aspects of themselves. Using magazines, books and other random two-dimensional found objects (such as playing cards or ticket stubs), students will carefully arrange symbolic imagery into a collage within a silhouette of their own profile.
Description of the Unit –
This unit merges a study of pointillism with the practice of symmetry, culminating in insect designs that use pointillism to create symmetrical sides to each insect.
Description of the Unit –
Students will explore the work and approaches to painting innovated by Helen Frankenthaler, and use very simple soak-stain techniques to apply watercolor onto paper to create equally vibrant washes.
Description of the Unit –
Students will develop their fine motor skills while exploring ways to get creative with the ancient art of paper quilling.
Activity statement –
Quilling is the art of manipulating and arranging small strips of paper into detailed designs. Depending on the desired shape and appearance, it can be rolled, looped, twisted, and curled. Glue is used to secure the paper strips into place. Like many forms of craft, paper quilling can trace its origins back hundreds of years to at least the 15th century (maybe earlier). It is believed to have been created by French and Italian nuns to decorate religious objects.
Description of the Unit –
Observing the distorted gestural figure sculptures of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), as well as the elongated, rhythmic figure paintings by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) that both emphasize and exaggerate long limbs, students will create similarly distorted, gestural sculptures primarily out of wire.
Description of the Unit –
Students will learn about the Huichol tradition of weaving an “Ojo de Dios” and practice weaving one of their own, attempting more complicated patterns and techniques as they progress.
Activity statement –
Upon the birth of a baby, Huichol (an indigenous Mexican group) parents weave a beautifully colored and elaborate “Ojo de Dios”, signifying health and protection throughout the child’s life. The child adds to this very Ojo de Dios with each new birthday starting at about age 5. Beginning with a simplified Huichol weaving style, students will create an Ojo de Dios, which will develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. With each new Ojo de Dios a student attempts, he/she will practice more complicated weaving techniques, create more elaborate color and shape designs, and improve their overall finished product.
I have a short video on making an Ojo de Dios here:
Cubist-inspired Figure & Portrait Studies
Description of the Unit –
Students practiced aspects of traditional figure study, learning to draw facial features, hands and feet. Students then built on their experience to explore the Cubist approach to the figure, and used what they learned about Cubism to create a cubist-inspired portrait or figure collage their earlier drawings.
In the K-8 Art Studio with Anita Sagastegui 