brain works...

Sixth graders are focusing their inspiration on World Facts and History this year... so for this project, we talked about the Eastern and Western Hemisphere's of the world and the theory that they mirror the Right and Left sides of the brain in the way that they function, their attitudes, and their experiences. We explored the different functions of the two sides of the brain, and compared them to the elements of art. Then, we got to work on our brain art!

Artists were to design the left side of the brain using collage, sharpies, and charcoal pencils to show "left brain" functions... they were able to explore blending and value through the use of the charcoal pencils, and add a little dimension to that side. 

For the right side, the watercolor studio was opened! Artists practiced on ATC's before doing a wash of color on the right brain.

Then they were to use their imagination to find images in the dried watercolor... like seeing objects in the clouds... and add details and outlines to those things. A very "Right Brain" activity! 

trapped illusions

My fourth graders just finished this quarter-long project - whew! It was a lot of work, but had amazing results!

                   

We started by measuring out the "room". Each student had a 12x18 white paper, ruler, and pencil. I gave them the dimensions one at a time, and they used their outstanding ruler skills to draw it out. It was great to see how good they were at this, but even more awesome to see students being so kind to those who needed help. 

Once the room was drawn, we reviewed Keith Haring's 'bubble people', practiced a bit on white boards, and then drew the outline of a person in the middle box. They were supposed to make sure that its hands and feet were touching the side of the box to give the illusion that it was trapped on the back wall. 

Then we continued our study of value... students could pick any two colors to "checker" on each side, but within those, they needed to show value. The colors needed to get darker as they got closer to the black square. This created the illusion of depth! 

Look how cool they turned out:

Art teachers - what projects do you do with your students to show off their ruler skills?!