Practicum  

I did my art practicum at Adams Elementary School in a first grade class. 

I did my Butternut Squash Project where I brought in Squash, cut and whole, and had the students investigate the squash and then paint what they learned from their investigation. 

Georgia O'Keeffe Flowers 

Georgia O'Keeffe focused on flowers and viewing them with a different perspective. 

This project was based off of her watercolor flowers. 

I really enjoyed this project. Personally, I love flowers, always have and always will. I have always thought that painting them was fun and this project just gave me an excuse to improve on painting a flower with watercolor. 

I use to really struggle with watercolor. I have always really enjoyed it, but for some reason I was just never that happy with my ending art piece. I guess because of my past, I have been kind of scared of water color. This project kind of forced me to longer be afraid. I had to jump in and do the project, and I was determined to have an ending piece I was happy with. 

Here is a short step by step tutorial on how to do this project. 

First, Collect your materials. You will need 

> A large piece of water color paper.

> A sketchbook

> A pencil

> A ruler

> Scissors

> Blue Painters tape

> Paint Brushes

> Watercolor

> Flower

> Water 

Tear out a Piece of paper from your sketchbook and cut a one-inch by one-inch square in the center of your paper. 

Look through your hole to view different perspectives of your flower. Sketch a few different perspectives in your sketch book then choose your favorite perspective.  

Measure out your square on your paper and tape off your square. 

< Lightly sketch out your flower. 

> Then jump in and start painting. 

Remember to not just use the given colors but to mix your own colors! 

Keep painting away until you are happy with the final look. Remember to use different techniques like wet-on-wet to create different looks. 

When all done, let dry and then gently pull off the tape to reveal a perfect border. 

Batik 

Batiking is a form of dying fabric to create a design where wax or some sort of resistance creates the design where the fabric is not dyed. 

This was one of my favorite projects even though it is the project that took me the most time to do. 

After creating a design, I took my piece of fabric, placed it over an outlined sketch of my design. I then took my resistance and traced my design. When the resistance was dry, I painted of the whole fabric with non washable tempera paint. After the paint was dry I picked off the resistance and washed my fabric. 

I really wanted to create something fun and interesting to look at with this project. My design was very small in some areas which was pretty difficult to make, and painful to scratch off the very thin resistance off the fabric. 

All in all, after everything was done, I was very pleased with how this project turned out. I was happy that all the little details show and I love that my project was unlike anyone else's. 

Tutorials for this project can be found here and here. 

Milk Jug Mask

In African cultures, African masks are traditionally used for special ceremonies and rituals. 

This was an awesome project and perfect for the classroom! 

Everyone brought their own milk jug to class. We observed and learned a little about African masks, and then we were off to make our own. 

First, I decided what part of the milk jug I wanted to use and cut out the shape of my mask.

Second, I covered it masking tape, paying very careful attention to the design of my tape. 

Third, I rubbed brown shoe polish all over the mask. I did multiple layers of shoe polish to make my mask a nice bark-like dark brown.

Fourth, I added my paint (after the shoe polish dried).

Fifth, I punched some holes in the top of the mask and added my grassy hair. 

Like I have said before, I really like simplicity. To me, most of the time less is more. I did not want to clutter up my whole mask by painting the whole thing. I liked my texture and design I had already created with my tape, and I just wanted to add to that. I think that just a little paint was the perfect touch to finish off my mask. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here. 

Pinch Pots 

Maria Martinez was a Native American known around the world for her pottery. 

We learned a little about Maria in class and learned about a technique that she used to make her pinch pots. 

Out of air dry clay, I rolled out a ball. I stuck my finger in the middle of the ball and started making a bowl-like object. I kept shaping it until I had my vase. I then too the left overs and created a little bowl for my vase to sit on. 

After the pots completely dried, I painted it with acrylic paint so I would have a little shine to the paint. 

I decided to make a little vase because I thought it would be fun to have a homemade vase sitting on my desk with some of my dried flowers in it. 

Air dry clay would be great for the classroom because it allows students to get their hands dirty and learn a little bit about clay, yet it does not have as great of risk of breaking because it will not be put through the kiln.

A Tutorial for this project can be found here.  

Chinese Brush Painting

We learned about and were shown examples of some amazing Chinese brush paintings. We were then shown how to do the three different strokes that make up a bamboo plant and how to make the ink. We were given little Chinese brush kits with ink to grind, a grinding stone, and some paint brushes. 

On rice paper I created a little bamboo jungle. I loved being able to grind my own paint and make the color I wanted. 

My first layer of bamboo was a very very light color to show depth. I then just kept darkening the ink to create darker shades of colors to have bamboos that appeared closer and closer. 

I really enjoyed this project because it was different than anything you normally see in a classroom. It was fun to get to make my own ink and to learn the traditional paint brush strokes. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here. 

 

Wire Sculpture 

Our theme for this project was 'The Carnival'. Everyone in the class was suppose to pick something that they would find at the carnival. 

At first I was really excited for this project until I started struggling while working with the wire. I went through three different ideas and poorly made sculptures until I ended up making my cute little unicycle. 

I wanted something that I knew no one else in my class was doing. 

While I was making my tire, I decided to use multiple pieces of wire to create the illusion of the tire moving. 

I think that this is a super fun project and a great thing to do as a class. My class's end display turned out so cute and nice when everything from the carnival was together. 

For younger kids I think that pipe cleaner or a softer wire would be much more appropriate. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here.

8-Expanding 

8-Expanding was a group project. We were all given a piece of clear paper and we could choose whatever sharpie colors we wanted. We then were given a deck of 'cards' that had a y value and an x value and each person added one number onto the number the person next to them had. This created a graph. 

We then all decorated our own papers and then put them together to see the picture. We then added some more design and connected everything together to create unity.  

Some of the other groups collaborated more and they created a picture that all went together to create something like a skyline.

 It was a great way of integrating art into lower level math, along with how to use patterns, work in groups, and problem solve. 

Color Assignments

As a class we went into this assignment blind. We had no idea what we were doing, we just knew we were painting with certain colors on huge pieces of paper.

  Then the music started and we were told to paint what we felt on our colored paper with our black or white paint. We then were told when to switch to the other color.

I personally really disliked the song that was played. It made me have an awful feeling inside which i showed with my big black splotches of black. The white was then put into add to the piece. 

For the second painting, we were told to pick a shape and and two complimentary colors. I have always really liked the colors blue and orange together, so I decided to choose them. We then were told to chose one of our colors and create every of it my mixing it with white. Then we were suppose to do the same with the second color. Then, we were suppose to mix the complimentary colors to create ever shade. 

This project is a great way to teach students about complimentary colors, the color wheel and about different shades of colors. 

Rhythm Sculpture 

Rhythm: movement or procedure with 

uniform or patterned recurrence 

of a beat, accent, or the like.

We talked about how to create rhythm with objects by creating recurring  patterns with shape and color. 

We had to have at least three layers and some color for this project. 

I chose yellow, blue, and red because I love the colors yellow and blue together, and I thought that red would be a nice color to go along with yellow and blue. I created a pattern with my mini Popsicle sticks, then I added some color, then I added my yellow and red squares, along with the toothpicks and the yellow and blue squares. I wanted to have different flows and rhythms throughout my piece so I made everything go in different directions. 

You can find a tutorial for this project here. 

Weaving 

We learned about weaving and how many people weave or use to weave their clothes. 

We were then given a huge box full of ribbons, fabrics, grasses, yarn, and many other materials. We were to create a weave...one that kind of looks like a little barbie rug.

We used little styrofoam trays with slits cut on the sides, strung with some white string for our loom. 

I chose one of almost all of the fabrics, the yarns, and the grasses. I wanted to incorporate lots of different textures and colors to create one piece of art. I did the normal weave, I tied knots, I weaved sideways, and a few other strange thing to create my weave. 

Internal Texture - Watercolor Techniques 

This project was great for getting the feel of different techniques used with watercolor. 

Internal Texture was created for this project by food. Everyone in my class was required to bring some kind of food to class to share. We then ate the food and painted, with watercolor, what the food reminded us of, or how it made us feel. 

I painted (from left to right) Cheetos and carrots [rubbing alcohol to create texture], dried apples [wax to create texture], salsa [wet on wet], sweetish fish [salt], gummy worms [wet on wet], and oatmeal, pumpkin, chocolate chip bread [the end of my paintbrush]. 

I really enjoyed this project because who doesn't like eating in class? and, it gave me a better feel for watercolor and what I can do and created with it. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here. 

Alien Name

This projects is a great project for children of any age. It can expand their imaginations and open their minds to new ideas. 

The assignment was to write my name on a folded piece of paper, outline my name in a way that connects all the letters together, and the cut out my name. Open up the folded piece of paper and there I had my little alien. 

The next step is to decorate your alien, then create my alien's world and decided what makes my alien and it's world beautiful. 

The beauty in my alien's world is simplicity, color, and creation. Everything is very basic and simple because sometimes simple things are more interesting and more fun than something complicated and packed full of detail. 

My alien's world has a sun that shines down color throughout the world, the tree is something fun and new, and my alien is beautiful because she has color and she is simple. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here. 

Gesture and Contour Line Drawings

 ^ Gesture ^

^  Contour ˅

Gesture and Contour Line Drawings are just simple sketches. 

Gesture drawing is sketch that involves large movements and a loose arm. It is a rough sketch that can almost show movement in search for the objects real shape. Multiple lines, or one continuous line is used without any erasing. 

Contour line drawing is not as loose of a drawing as gesture drawing. More time is taken to create a contour line drawing, there are not as many lines involved, and erasing is allowed if needed. When doing a contour line drawing, you are trying to create an outline to the object you are trying to portray. 

I liked doing both of these simple projects because it was a nice little reminder on how to create a nice sketch. Sometimes, when I am trying to do a simple sketch, I get too caught up in the detail, when in fact, the fine details do not matter at this stage. It is refreshing to draw a simple, and possibly even somewhat messy sketch to get a feel for the object's shape. 

The Non-Objective Square 

The requirements for this project was to create a line from one corner of the square to another corner. I could pick the color of my square and I could use any medium I liked. 

I chose the color yellow because yellow is not only my favorite color, but it also makes me happy and brightens my day. 

I decided I wanted my square to be different from everyone else's squares. I wanted mine to be unique and attractive, yet I wanted it to be simple. Sometimes, less is more, so simplicity is a great way to go. 

For my line, I chose to create an implied line. I took an x-acto knife to the first layer of my canvas and exposed the white underneath. I then used a sharpie to create the gray lines going in other directions. 

For the class critique, everyone gathered together and we placed our squares together to create one big shape and design. It was interesting to see how different everyone's projects were, even though we were all given the exact same instruction and restrictions. 

I really enjoyed this project because it was so open-ended. I was given very few and very simple instructions, and the rest of the project was up to me. I could create almost anything I wanted. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here.

Aboriginal Art

Australian Aboriginal Art is a visual form of recording and retaining significant information made by indigenous people of Australia. Aboriginal art is made up of symbols and has a wide range of medians. This art form is is based on important ancient  stories and stands as a written language. It is used for teaching, but one cannot paint a story that does not belong to them. 

For this project, we had to think up our own symbols to tell a story

 or journey from our own lives. 

The journey I chose was my daily journey of life because when I am in school, almost every day is a new journey that is very similar to the day before. I wake up each morning, get ready for the day, hike the hill up to campus, eat snacks and food throughout the day, sit under a nice tree in the shade and do my homework, go to class, in the evening I watch the stars and I go to bed. 

I used a brown paper bag like paper, tempera paint, paint brushes, and the eraser of a pencil for the stippling.

This project was a little hard for me at first just because I did not know what kind of journey I wanted to document. I had to think of something ordinary and turn it into something interesting. Telling a story should be something exciting and interesting, so I had to make my art into something fun. 

A Tutorial for the project can be found here. 

Mandala 

A Mandala is a ritual and spiritual symbol in Buddhism and Hinduism

that represents the Universe. 

For class, instead of having our mandalas represent the Universe, we had them represent ourselves. This was the first project we did in class, so we used them to introduce our self to the class.  

To make our project a mandala, we needed to follow a few requirements. We needed to have a focal point or a center and radial balance and symmetry. 

Starting in the middle, I have a pink flower. I love flowers and the color pink. Also, flowers remind me of fruit, and fruit is my favorite food. The black and the red thick lines represent the lines on maps because traveling is my passion. Sunsets are one of my favorite things to see and they also remind me of all the many different sunsets I have seen on my travels. The blue is to represent water, because I love to swim, and to represent the night sky along with the moons and the stars. I absolutely love star gazing because it gives me a better outlook on life. The sail boats are to represent the little doodles I do when I'm thinking or bored. The yellow swirls are to show my favorite color yellow, the lolly pops are to represent my love for children, and the rain drops are to represent my love for rain and the seasons. Overall, my mandala looks like a sun because the sun lights up the world and makes my world a happy place. 

I used many different mediums because different mediums give different textures, and illusions, along with a different flow throughout the piece. 

A tutorial for this project can be found here.