Mandalas, Part 2

Recently, 1st grade artists learned about the mandala and created collaborative mandalas using a variety of different materials. The following class, students began designing their own mandala drawings using a theme that expressed their interests and personalities. Some examples of themes that students chose were nature, shapes, sports, seasons and outer space. 

Using rulers to help find the center point, students began designing their mandala starting from the middle and going outwards. We thought about how to make our design repeat in a radially symmetrical way, so that each section of our circle repeated all the way around. Many students found it easier to turn or spin their mandala as they worked, to help repeat their design in a radially symmetrical way.  

Once they were done with their pencil design, they outlined the design in Sharpie marker and colored them in, thinking about how to create patterns using color, as well.

Students worked hard to make their colors bright and cover the white paper. Once they were finished, students cut out the circle and glued it onto a background, considering what kinds of colors would complement their mandala design. Here are some examples of our finished mandalas:  

Olivia, 1st Grade (Salvucci)

Samuel, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Tyler, 1st Grade (Massa)

Caden, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Calvin, 1st Grade (Torchio)

Carson, 1st Grade (Torchio)

Jayden, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Kaiwan, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Leila, 1st Grade (Torchio)

Maya, 1st Grade (Massa)

Norah, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Stephanie, 1st Grade (Landay)

Onomatopoeia!

To start off the year, 3rd grade artists looked at and discussed the work of Roy Lichtenstein and learned about his use of onomatopoeia, which is when a word imitates the sound of the object or action it refers to. Some examples are words like: "wham," "drip," and "ka-pow!"  

We noticed that Lichtenstein was inspired by comics since the use of onomatopoeia is more common in comics and cartoons. We also noticed that he used primary colors in these paintings.  

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! (1963)

We began our own artwork by brainstorming a list of onomatopoeia words as a class. Each student selected 4 different words and drew sketches that demonstrated the word's action and meaning as a visual picture, combining letters and pictures:

Next class, we looked at more of Lichtenstein's paintings and noticed that he used dots of color, called benday dots, which were inspired by the way comic books were printed at the time.  

We selected one brainstorm sketch to make into a larger drawing and used markers in primary colors, incorporating the benday dots in at least one area of our artwork. These are some examples of our finished onomatopoeia drawings:

Jaylyn, 3rd grade (Monfette)

Peter, 3rd Grade (Cole)

Cammy, 3rd grade (Cole)

Tristan, 3rd grade (Lutz)

Nola, 3rd grade (Lutz)

Pirada, 3rd grade (Cole)

Onomatopoeia!

3rd grade artists looked at the work of Roy Lichtenstein and learned about the use of onomatopoeia -- which is a really long word! Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound of the object or action it refers to. Some examples are words like: "ouch," "achoo" and "ka-boom!"

We looked at a few of Lichtenstein's paintings and shared our observations. We noticed that he had a comic or cartoon-style to his artwork and he mainly used the 3 primary colors: red, yellow and blue. He also used words like "Whaam!" and "Varoom!" to show action.  

Roy Lichtenstein, Varoom! (1963)

We brainstormed some onomatopoeia words as a class, and then did 4 sketches of ideas where we took the word and expressed it as a visual, combining letters and pictures as part of our design:

During the next class, we looked at more of Lichtenstein's paintings and noticed that he used dots of color, called benday dots, which were inspired by the way comic books were printed at the time. 

Roy Lichtenstein, Sunrise (1965)

We selected one sketch to make into a larger drawing and used markers in primary colors, incorporating the benday dots in at least one area of our artwork. These are some examples of our finished onomatopoeia drawings:

Natalie, 3rd Grade

Tamsin, 3rd Grade

Lily, 3rd Grade

Cyrus, 3rd Grade