Warm/Cool Sea Paintings

Six grade students review the warm and cool colors and learn about the different qualities of line in these weaved pictures (left).  Student expand on their knowledge by mixing tints of the warm and cool colors in these under water sea paintings (right).
 

Pollock Drip Paintings

 I took a class at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA on Abstract Painting and learned great techniques and methods for constructing abstract paintings a la the masters.  For this Pollock inspired paintings, students mixed paint with a dab of water in zip lock bags and snipped the corner of the bag so that they could "drip" the paint onto the paper.  Students were able to control the line quality by squeezing the bag to produce thicker lines and moving the bag faster to create thinner lines.  Note on drip paintings: the goal is to use contrasting values and lots of layered lines to create a sense of depth.  As always, color and shape of lines evoke certain moods.  Try to get students to capitalize of these techniques to create an authentic painting.

Celebrity Portraits

This project is amongst the favorites of my eighth graders, even those who don't think Pollock drip paintings are "cool."  I print a black and white photo of a celebrity (students choice) and the students transfer the line drawing onto canvas board by rubbing the back with a charcoal pencil.  Students use tints and shades of gray to match the value of the photo.  The objective of this project is not drawing a portrait, which every student learns to do in the seventh grade), but about mixing and blending values.  I display all the portraits in the cafeteria for the school to ogle. 

                                             (Be prepared for a lot of Justin Bieber paintings)