At the beginning of Twentieth Century the art movements of Expressionists in Germany and Fauves in France bring an important news in the field of Modern art: the vision of reality is filtered by the artists' inner reality. Before them Van Gogh and Munch have taught the same lesson because in their paintings the world is transformed and distorted by the artist's feeling and mood. 8th Grade students … [Read more...]
Marbles in Mixed Media
May 4, 2017 by 8 Comments
With students of 7th grade we worked on the realistic representation of space in art. In this mixed media work, we colored the marbles with oil pastels and the background with tempera or acrylic painting. First we painted the background with three shades of gray: the rectangular area was painted with pure black, for the lateral side we used a middle gray and a light gray for the base. In that … [Read more...]
Trees in chromatic shade and zentangle
April 2, 2017 by 10 Comments
To create these magic trees we paint a chromatic shade with tempera colors on a drawing sheet. First we start the shade with yellow: we add a little amount of red into the yellow paint and proceed painting the orange tint until we reach the pure red. After that we add a little amount of blue into the red paint and proceed painting the purple tint. In order to obtain this chromatic shade we need to … [Read more...]
Still life on tonal gradations
March 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Here we have a mixed media work that involves many skills and subjects. First off all we learn how to paint a tonal gradation with acrylic or tempera painting, in order to create a background for this still life. You draw 12 stripes on a drawing sheet (2 centimeter each). Every line should be painted with a darker tone of the gradation, starting from the lighter one. On the palette you prepare … [Read more...]
Flowers printed with Craft foam
January 17, 2017 by 14 Comments
We have already worked with this interesting material that can be etched, cut, shaped, glued, colored and printed. We used the craft foam sheets especially for printing, because it's cheap, it's suitable to be engraved, inked and printed in easy, simple steps. This time with Grade 6th students, we created some printing plates in flower shapes, inspired by works of the great illustrator and artist … [Read more...]
4 ways to draw with DOTS
October 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We created these mixed media paintings with 6th grade students. We experienced that you can create very expressive images just using dots. The dot is the smallest element of the visual language, but we can use it in many ways. You can create LINES, aligning the dots. You can create SHAPES, pulling the dots together, in a regular way. You can create a DEPHT effect, drawing dots of … [Read more...]
Artist Trading Cards 2016
October 19, 2016 by 4 Comments
Also this year students grade 8th took part to Artist Trading Cards Global Swap, together with students from all over the world. In 2015 we joined this global swap as the only one Italian School, but this year no less than ten Italian Schools are involved! My previous experience went through the creation of 100 Cards and the creation of a Video Tutorial about how to create them. The receiving of … [Read more...]
Hearts in complementary colors
September 22, 2016 by 2 Comments
Complementary colors are fascinating because of their contrast: the powerful fight between two contrasting colors is made of light, brightness and energy. We proved it painting a shape and its background in complementary colors. I found this activity here in Artsonia Art Museum and I thought it was a good idea to review the theory about complementary colors with this activity. We need: … [Read more...]
Buildings in one point perspective
May 5, 2016 by 16 Comments
I think that teaching how to draw perspective is one of the most difficult topic. Learning the rules of perspective is a difficult task for students, and every year I need to find more effective strategies to teach this topic that involves both art and science. I found this interesting tutorial and with 7th grade students and we have been inspired by this unusual point of view. It is as you were … [Read more...]
Mixed media landscape inspired by Van Gogh
March 22, 2016 by 4 Comments
Vincent Van Gogh is alwais intriguing for students, because of his fame, his unfortunate life and his revolution in painting. With students of 8th grade we studied the Van Gogh's life and art works, and analyzed his unique painting technique. After the observation of lots of Van Gogh's landscapes, we paint our own landscape, imitating his particular technique. This artist used oil colors with … [Read more...]
