Modigliani-Inspired Portraits 

Do Now: If you could have anything grow on trees, what would you choose?

"Air heads, popcorn, 3DS games, pizza, pancakes and more."

"People and hair."

"Mine is basketballs and marshmallows." 

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"The tree of food found in my belly."

"I have a tree with cake. The magical world of chocolate red velvet cake and it has a red velvet rainbow cake."

The 3rd and 4th graders are continuing to study portraits as part of their "Genres of Art" unit. Today, we learned about the artist Amedeo Modigliani . 

Modigliani is an Italian painter from the early 20th century, most famous for the distinctive way he made portraits. 

Before beginning our project, we took a look at some of his paintings. 

We discussed how Modigliani painted dark, solid backgrounds, how his subjects had thin features, and how he painted people with long, slender necks. 

We then made our own Modigliani-inspired portraits! We used paper, pencil, marker, and cray-pas (oil pastels). 

The results were beautiful! I was even lucky enough to receive a beautiful Modigliani-Inpsired portrait of myself!

Layered Self-Portraits, part 2

Do Now: Draw an underwater scene that you might see while you were scuba diving. It can be realistic or fantasy. 

Today, the 3rd and 4th graders finished their layered self-portraits. First, students made colorful pictures full of symbols that represented themselves. Next, each child received a piece of tracing paper, on which they drew a detailed portrait of themselves using only pencil and black marker. 

The results were beautiful, colorful self-portraits that really look like our 3rd and 4th graders!

Genres of Art, Day 2

Do Now: What do you think would happen if you were holding 100 balloons?

Students finished their portrait/still life/landscape pictures from last class, then had two choices: they begin a portrait, or being a still life.

If students chose to make a still life, they studied an arrangement in the middle of their desk. If they chose to make a portrait, they could draw someone in the room, or choose a photograph from a magazine. 

Though it is very tricky to draw things from observation rather than imagination, the 3rd and 4th graders showed a great deal of determination. 

Family Photo 

Do Now: What is one thing you did over the weekend? Draw a picture and write one sentence. 

"I went to swimming lessons"

"On the weekend I went to New Jersey and on Saturday me and my friend went to Chuck E. Cheese and my friend is named Alana."

"I went on a Stevie Wonder concert. We helped the recycling people." (read more about the concert here)

"On Saturday I went to Saturday Club." (Read more about Saturday Club here )

Now that the 1st and 2nd grade has finished our Intro to Art unit, we are beginning our next unit: Families. The 1st grade is studying families in social studies, beginning with the concept of the Nuclear Family (members of your family who live in your home with you) and the Extended Family (members of your family who do not live in your home with you).

We began by reading the book "Family Photo" by Dana Meachen Rau. This quick read shows a large family getting ready for what seems like a family photo - on the last page, we realize that the little boy arranging his family is actually organizing them to take a photograph of him!

For our project today, we made "Family Photo"-inspired pictures. Instead of a regular family portrait, the 1st and 2nd graders drew pictures of themselves taking photographs of their families! 

Look closely at each drawing to find the artist holding a camera...