Because the county starts our standardized testing in the first week of the year, I decided "ya know what ... we are going to start making ART in the first week, too!"
These students are being overloaded with lists and syllabuses and schedules and rules and routines, and what's more calming and stress relieving than creating colorful masterpieces, right?
This first little intro-project isn't for a grade; it is just a way for me to gauge what level of technical skills and craftsmanship the children already possess. All of these students are new to me, and most of the classes are comprised of sixth graders, so ALL of this middle school stuff is new to them too.
We did a review of different types of lines and discussed how they can be used to create almost everything we see in various artworks. The young JWJ artists talked about how different types of lines used together create a relationship and dynamic that can be interesting (or uninteresting) to the eye.
The only rules for this mini project were as follows:
Minimum of four lines
Must use at least two different types of lines
At least two of those lines need to touch two different edges of your paper
Simple! We outlined our first draft with pencil, then traced the lines with black marker. Once they were pleased with the drawing, we introduced watercolors. The only rule for the painting portion was that the same color should not touch itself on either side of any line.
For the first week of school, I'm pretty impressed with what these amazing artists are turning out ...
but you see and decide for yourself! Enjoy!