A Bird's Eye View

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In Japan, beautiful streamers in the shape of Koi are flown in celebration of the Boy's Day Festival in May.  These colorful fish symbolize the Japanese parents’ hopes that their sons will demonstrate strength and courage.  Koi are also thought to bring good luck.  After viewing different paintings of koi, eighth grade students were asked to draw a balanced, “bird’s eye view” of two koi with  at least two different types of plants.  They outlined their drawing with black permanent marker and colored in the fish and plants with oil pastels.  Finally, they used blue glitter paint for the water.

Chinese Dragons

Sixth grade students learned that Chinese dragons symbolize good luck.  After viewing pictures of dragons, students created their own using aluminum foil, texture boards and permanent markers.

Observing Animals

Eighth grade students learned that Renaissance means “Rebirth" and that this period in art history started in Florence, Italy between 1400 and 1500.  



Self-Portrait, Albrecht Durer

 They also learned that Albrecht Durer was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance.  He studied nature to make his drawings and paintings as realistic as possible.  



Beetle, Albrecht Durer

 After viewing several examples of his work, students observed a model of an animal and drew it, then traced it onto a scratch art board.  Then they etched their drawing into the board.

Organic Self Portraits

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During the 1500s, there was a style of art called Mannerism.  One of the artists at this time, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, invented a type of portrait that consisted of painted animals, flowers, fruit, and objects composed to form a human likeness. 

After learning about Arcimboldo's portraits, seventh graders looked in a mirror and drew a simple outline of their head, face, neck and shoulders.  After filling in the outline with fruits, vegetables, flowers, and plants, they traced over the pencil lines with permanent black marker. They used watercolor pencils to add color and filled in any white space with black marker.  Finally, they cut out their organic self portraits and glued them to black construction paper.  

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Anatomy and the Renaissance

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci

Seventh grade students learned that Renaissance means "Rebirth" and that this period in art history started in Florence, Italy.  They also learned that •Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa during the Renaissance, and today it is one of the most famous portraits in the world. 



Sketchbook, Leonardo da Vinci

 They also learned that Leonardo was a genius who was fascinated with all kinds of subjects:  •Science, •Math , •Engineering , •Sculpture, •Architecture, •Botany (study of plants), •Music and Anatomy (study of the body).   After viewing several examples of da Vinci's sketches of skeletons, students observed a model of a skeleton and drew it, then traced it onto metal tooling foil.  This type of art is called "repousse" which means "to push back" in French.  After engraving the metal with their drawings, black shoe polish was added for the final effect.