Papier Mache Bowls

8th graders had a chance to work with papier mache this quarter. Papier mache is basically watered down glue and when an object is dipped in it, it turns hard. The goal  of the project was to create a bowl with some element of contrast- either through shape, texture, color or direction. Students blew up a balloon as the base of their bowl and then covered it by dipping strips of paper into the papier mache. Their results were very successfu

Here are students dipping strips of paper into the glue mixture to make the first layer of their bowls.

Some students did not like the way the papier mache felt, so they chose to wear gloves to class-very clever!

Here you see contrast by color- very colorful on the outside and all black on the inside. 

This bowl was plain black and white text on the inside and all the colors of  the rainbow on the outside. This student also made the inside smooth and the outside have texture.

This bowl has anime comics on the inside and is contrasted by green on the outside.

This bowl has contrast by subject matter--people decorate the outside and animals decorate the inside. The student's idea behind this piece was that in essence, animals and humans are the same---social creatures who need to eat and sleep! Love this concept!

Textured hands

5th graders learned about texture as the way something feels and value as the range of lights and darks in a drawing. They had the challenge to make each finger a different texture and each texture had to have 3 or more values. They did a great job!

Contour Line Project

For this project 8th graders had the challenge of observational drawing, where they had to look and see what they were drawing, rather than coming up with an image from their heads. Students learned about 3 kinds of line drawing- gesture drawing which is a very quick and loose drawing, blind contour drawing where the artist does not look at their paper or lift the pencil as they draw, and a contour line drawing- which is a drawing of the object solely using lines. Students had to draw the same object 3 times with each method of drawing.

A student's contour line drawing of a hallway in their home- beautiful!

Students had to draw blind contour drawings of themselves for homework--I love these results!

Students had to draw blind contour drawings of themselves for homework--I love these results!

Ink Blot Drawings

8th graders had a challenge for their last project. They put a drop of ink on their paper and blew it around with a straw. The result: a blob of ink. Their task was to make a recognizable image with a story  behind it out of a blob of ink. They had to rotate their papers, really stare at the blob to see what they could possibly make out of it. These students were very challenged by this project because they normally don't do this kind of creative thinking throughout the day. They started off with no ideas, and by the end they were making elaborate stories out of their ink blots and helping their friends see creatively, which was great to see in the art room!