Beginning Week of Classes

Before we recount the first week's classes, I'd like to give a virtual "high five" to KYLER S. Congratulations, Kyler! You correctly identified the mystery photo. You'll receive a real "high five" from me in class!  :)

We may not have gotten much done this week, but it was certainly busy! As a refresher for existing students, and a learning experience for new ones, we went over behavior guidelines and introduced ourselves. Old friends happily greeted each other and shared stories about summer activities, and new friendships were made and solidified on the first day of class. It's so nice to be back!

In some classes, we discussed the color wheel. We learned about primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. We also talked about value, intensity, hue, shade, tint, warm v. cool colors, etc. In today's post, I've included a variety of color wheels. They come in many different styles, and you may want to try designing your own at some point. The one I handed out in class was designed by me, and if you'd like additional copies, I'll make them available for printing from your own computer in the near future.

SO, by now, many students would successfully survive the following ART EMERGENCY: 

You're stranded on an island, and have found a cave to live in. The walls are surprisingly smooth, white, and perfect for your very own cave art. You want to do a mural using the full spectrum of colors. However, you ONLY have 5 large bottles of paint. The paint colors are red, yellow, blue, white, and black. You are an artist, and (thankfully!) you remember the color wheel, so you'll be just fine. The creativity (and color mixing!) begins . . .

In other art classes, we discussed one of the elements of art: the mighty LINE______________________________________ 
We learned what linear means, and talked about the linear style of working. We talked about how lines can be straight or curvilinear. They can be different shapes, sizes, and thicknesses, and we can use lines to convey emotion or mood. Lines can be excited, sleepy, happy, angry, funny, thoughtful, curious, heavy, light, precise, messy, ____________, ____________, and even _______________! Think of some descriptive words, and imagine them sitting atop those LINES!

Paul Klee (pronounced like clay!) said, 

"A line is a dot that went for a walk." 

Can you visualize that? If you go to the library, or search the internet, to find images of his work, you'll understand why he was so fascinated by line. He had a wonderful linear style!

And speaking of Klee . . . oops! I meant to say CLAY! In ceramics class we assigned work boards and found each class' storage cabinet. We also talked about the importance of bringing the necessary personal materials to the second week of class (old shirt or smock, hand lotion, etc--check the notice that went home with you). Remember: clay will stain your clothes.


If you're in Ceramics I, you'll learn all about clay in the weeks to come! If you're in Ceramics II, remember to start work on you Inspiration Notebook. I'm already familiar with your artistic abilities, so I know that you'll come up with some really cool ideas! In fact, SARAH  Z. has already created (yes, CREATED!) her own Inspiration Notebook, and just looking at her notebook inspires me to create great art! High five to Sarah!

ALL STUDENTS!

 (Hey! "All Students" is done in complimentary colors!)

If you'd like to win a PRIZE in the week of Sept 7th, then here's your assignment:
Search the web* to find an artist who shares your name. It can be either your first name or your last name. Print out a page that shows an example of their art, along with their name. They don't have to be a famous artist, just an artist of any caliber whose art is found online.


*ANY TIME you're doing an online search for my classes, be sure to have your parent, or another responsible (and older) person present. No exceptions.