Chemical Reactions: Using Salt to Create Texture.

Students explored what happens when you add salt to wet watercolor paint. This lesson addresses the art element of texture using the science of chemical reaction.

We looked at Van Gogh's art work, especially Starry Night, for inspiration. Students were encouraged to create a book mark, inspired by Van Gogh using oil pastel and watercolour paint. They then sprinkled salt on the wet paint. 

We looked at the interactive version of Starry Night on the white board. They also explored the apps: 

Starry Night Interactive

Van Gogh Interactive

Observations:

The salt can create movement in your art!
-Huthaifa

The salt creates texture
-Quinten

We are using SCIENCE to create ART!
-4BA

New Book Covers!

Each September GWA artists look forward to creating a new cover for their art books. It's exciting to see how students have grown as artists each year. Because students are so proud of their Art books and the art and learning inside them, these covers are a very important way to share learning. Parents, please take a look at the ''About GWA Art' tab for more information on our Art books. Here are some of this year's new designs:

Grade 2: 'Ish' portraits inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' book, Ish. 

Students practised touching their face to identify the shape and looking at themselves in the mirror to draw a self-portrait.

Grade 3 : More 'Ish' portraits inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' book, Ish.  

Grade 3 students are still working on completing theirs. They paid particular attention to the patterns they used.  It was especially inspiring to see the students gain confidence, even though some were initially nervous about creating the portraits! Next day these students will add water colour paint to finish them off!

Grade 4: Mannequin Study 

Students are working with mannequins for their covers. Students were challenged to position the mannequin in a way that showed something about themselves. Their final piece of work was to show movement through their use of pattern and line. 

A Paint Party! Exploring Watercolour Techniques

Grade 2 was challenged to come up with some new water colour painting techniques. They were introduced to the wet on wet and dry brush techniques and asked to invent some other ways to use the paint to get different effects. They will be using their water colour skills to complete their observational drawings of machines next week.

Here are a few of the student's reflections after their 'pair share'. It was important to listen very carefully to their each other so they could explain what their partner had done to the class.

-Dylan splat the paint all over his book. He loaded his brush with paint and quickly splat it on his paper.

-Elena painted on one side of her book. Then she added water on top. She closed the book and when she opened it there was a copy on the other side! She called it Double brush.

Creative minds at work! 

Students noticed progress from their first drawing to their last.
On the second day they used very small markers to add more details. 

Overlapping can be tricky, but students are catching on! 

Grade 1 Colour Investigation

Grade one students started with just red, yellow and blue paint. Look at the many colours they created when they blew the paint through straws!

Can you find orange, green and purple? 

Try this fun site to practise colour mixing.

The Colour Factory

Grade 1 Dream Houses

 

Grade 1 students read The Big Orange Splot this week. Students were enthusiastic as they saw the people on Mr Plumbean's street transform their homes into their dream houses. We also looked at The work of artist and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We have started to paint our dream houses, inspired by his organic shapes, colours and patterns. We're off to a great start!

Grade 1 students read The Big Orange Splot this week. Students were enthusiastic as they saw the people on Mr Plumbean's street transform their homes into their dream houses. We also looked at The work of artist and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We looked at some of the nature inspired dream houses that he designed as well as his paintings of homes.

Creating with Water Colour

Grade 4 students are working on painting self-portraits with water colour paints. They are learning about how to use and care for tools. They are also learning techniques. Grade 4BA learned wet-on-wet and dry-brush today in class.

Later, when it was time to explore the paints, they invented some of their own techniques and invented names too! Here are a few examples:

Swirly: Push down and spin your brush to get this effect.

Blow Painting: add paint to dry paper. Blow it to move it in the direction you wish.

Shift Method: add wet paint and tip your paper. The paint will 'shift'.

Wet & Dry: drip wet paint onto a just painted area.

Splat Qulat: Splattering the paint over a layer of wet paint

Clouding: This is done with a combination of adding paint and dabbing it off repeatedly.

Portraits

We practiced using our new water colour skills to make portraits in ASA. We used both wet on wet and dry brush. We also explored some ways to draw features and the dimensions of a face.

Joan Miro Inspired Watercolours

Grade 3 has been exploring the element of SHAPE. We looked at the art of a Spanish painter, Joan Miro. His art is a great example of how artists use line and shape in their work. We designed characters, inspired by Joan Miro, that used many kinds of lines (curvy, wavy, zig zag..) and also used many shapes (organic and geometric). Overlapping shapes made our work more interesting too!

We chose our favorite character and enlarged it on our sheet.

Next, we used permanent markers to outline the figure.

Currently we're working on painting our art using water colour paints.

Watch for a display in the Grade 3 halls next week when we complete our art!