Art at Hosmer

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Brazil: Endangered Animals of the Amazon Rainforest Artwork

As part of our 2nd grade for our Arts Around the World curriculum, students are learning about art and music from four different countries -- Brazil, Ghana, Japan and Scotland -- throughout the year. In art class, we started Brazil with our Romero Britto inspired paintings and continued with another project, this time focused on the endangered animals of the Amazon Rainforest.

We started by learning about the Amazon Rainforest, 60% of which is located in Brazil. Then we looked at the endangered animals of the Amazon Rainforest and discussed what it means to be endangered, which is when there are not many of an animal species left and they are at risk for extinction. We noticed that the word "danger" is part of the word "endangered." We learned specifically about five endangered animals from the Amazon Rainforest, including the hyacinth macaw, jaguar, poison dart frog, golden lion tamarin monkey, and the three-toed sloth.

We also learned about the Amazon Rainforest and its environment and climate, as well as reasons why certain animals are endangered there. For example, the jaguar is endangered because people hunt them for their fur and the hyacinth macaws are being caught and sold as pets.

Students selected one animal to sketch, using reference images, and drew the animal it its rainforest habitat. Using oil pastels, students added color and thought about the texture of their chosen animal.

During the following class, students added details to the background to suggest the Amazon rainforest, such as leaves, branches, and vines. We made sure to leave some of the white paper showing.

Then we painted over their oil pastel drawing with liquid watercolor to create a resist, since the oil pastel and watercolor paint do not mix. We used shades of green, blue, and violet to paint the background of our artwork.

We also heard the story The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, a children's book about the Amazon Rainforest. The story begins with two men who enter the rainforest with the intent to cut down the great kapok tree. One man starts to cut down the tree and eventually falls asleep. While he is sleeping, all of the animals that live in or off of the kapok tree come to the man to whisper in his ear and tell him about the significance of the kapok tree to their lives as well as to the world. The man wakes up, picks up his ax and prepares to cut the tree, but then he remembers what the animals told him and finally decides not to cut it down.

As a conclusion to Brazil, students participated in a gallery walk to see everyone's finished artwork. Students shared their observations afterwards, noticing the bright colors, different choices, and vibrant patterns. Here are some finished examples:

Amelia, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Audrey W., 2nd Grade (Hinds Thiemann)

Dakotah, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Joshua, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Kai, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Katherina, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Lucas P., 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Sannan, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Violet, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Will, 2nd Grade (Hinds Thiemann)

Xavier, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Monday, December 17, 2018

Brazil: Romero Britto Inspired Paintings

This year in 2nd grade for our Arts Around the World curriculum, students will be learning about art and music from four different countries -- Brazil, Ghana, Japan and Scotland -- throughout the year. In art class, we will be learning about artists and art forms from that country and in music class with Ms. Patashnick, students will be learning about musicians, music and dance from that country.

Starting with our exploration of Brazil, we learned a few facts about Brazil such as the capital being the city of Brasilia, the main language spoken being Portuguese and soccer being a very popular sport there! We also learned that many Hosmer students and families are from Brazil, have family there, and speak Portuguese at home!

Romero Britto, Children of the World (2006)

In art, we learned about contemporary Brazilian artist, Romero Britto. Britto was born and raised in Brazil and now lives and works in Miami, Florida. He still makes artwork today and is well known for his colorful art, which is on display in many museums around the world and also in public spaces, such as airports, parks, and shopping areas.

Romero Britto, A Brand New Day (2006)

We looked at some examples of his artwork and students noticed the bold lines, colorful patterns, shapes, and fun, playful nature. We brainstormed our own ideas for artwork, inspired by Britto's style.

Students came up with four different sketches for ideas, focusing on one object -- such as a shape, symbol, food, animal, or alphabet letter -- and adding different lines, shapes and patterns to that design. Many students were inspired by Romero Britto's hearts with wings, as well as soccer balls, dogs, cats, ice cream cones, and fruit!

The following class, students then selected their favorite sketch and drew it larger on paper in order to paint. Using bright colors, including fluorescent colors, students painted the different areas of their chosen object.

After letting that dry, during the following class we added patterns on top of these areas. We learned about complementary colors, which are colors that are across from each other on the color wheel and help each other stand out. Students demonstrated at least one complementary color pairing with their pattern painting.

After finishing the patterns, students used black paint to outline their object and separate the areas of different pattern within their work, like Romero Britto does in his artwork. This took some careful painting, and students were very focused!
As a final step, students cut out their design once it was dry and glued it onto a background.

We chose the background paper color carefully, looking at which colors would help our painting stand out. Using colored and metallic Sharpie markers, we added patterns and designs to the background. Below are examples are our finished Romero Britto inspired artwork:

Arlo, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Audrey L., 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Emily, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Gabi, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Hailey, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Kenji, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Lazaros, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Liliana, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Mie, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Nico, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Nina, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Nirvaan, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Seta, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Friday, November 30, 2018

Pop Art Inspired Printmaking

4th grade artists started off the year by learning about the Pop Art movement, which began in the U.S. in the 1950's. Artists focused on objects and scenes from everyday life and popular culture, borrowing techniques from commercial art and popular illustration, like comics and cartoons. We looked at a few examples of screen prints made by Andy Warhol, who made multiple prints of his artwork. A lot of his art featured commercial products that were mass produced, so he chose to mass produce his artwork, as well.

Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans (1962)

After sharing our observations, we discussed what popular culture means to us today. Each class made a list on the whiteboard, which included things like sports teams, music, video games, social media and fashion. Then students brainstormed four different ideas for a print, featuring pop culture imagery that was important or meaningful to them. Students were also given reference images for inspiration, with sports team logos, emojis and cartoon characters, among other things.

Each student selected one of their four ideas to make into a print that would be repeated multiple times. After placing their chosen drawing on top of a piece of styrofoam, students traced over their drawing with a wooden stylus. Then they removed the paper and went over their drawing again, to make the lines deeper. The final step was to go over their lines one more time with a blunt or dull pencil, to make their lines a little wider. Then we cut around the shape to form our printing plate.

On the first day of printing, we learned about the printmaking process and the steps involved. Students pulled their first prints, using yellow ink on purple paper, to get a feel for how much ink is appropriate and how long to roll it out with the brayer. We set up our tables with a bench hook and brayer to roll out ink. Everyone folded a piece of manila paper so that there was a clean side and a messy side. We rolled out the ink using the brayer, listening for a sticky sound that told us that the ink was evenly spread out and ready. We placed the plate on top of the messy side of our manila paper and rolled the ink on top of our plate carefully. We moved it to the clean side and pressed a piece of colored paper on top. Using our hands to gently rub, we then flipped the paper and over and pulled it apart from the plate to reveal their print.

For their second printmaking class, students were able to choose their own color of ink and paper. Students made multiple copies with their plate, which the printmaking process allows us to do.

On the third printing day, students created prints using two colors of ink to do a rainbow roll. Using two different colors that met in the middle to form a new color, the rainbow roll gave the prints a gradation effect. Many students enjoyed this effect and their prints from this day.

After our printing classes, students selected our three best prints and mounted them on a black background. Since we had done printmaking for three classes, students had many prints to choose from! Students thought about which prints came out the most successfully, looking at the amount of ink, and also tried to display different color combinations. Students arranged them in an order before gluing them down. After gluing down their three prints, students signed and titled their work. Many students asked each other for advice and also helped each other brainstorm creative titles!

We did a gallery walk, so we could see everyone's finished work. Students noticed that there were some very popular subjects that came up often, such as unicorns and ghost emojis, but everyone's prints looked different. Many students appreciated the thoughtful and clever titles that their friends were able to come up with, as well! As you can see, students did an amazing job mounting their own work!